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Multiple Coordinated Terrorist Attacks Hit Paris; ISIS Claims Responsibility for Terrorist Attacks in Paris; Witnesses Describe Terror Attacks in Paris. Aired 2-3P ET

Aired November 14, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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


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[14:00:24] ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Erin Burnett live in Paris. And I want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is CNN's special live coverage of the horrific terrorist attacks across this city where I am standing tonight. It is 8:00 in the evening here. Night has long since fallen. It got dark early. One of the most vibrant cities on earth feels anything but. It is palpable. You have a sense of tears a use walk around. Everyone is incredibly somber.

At least 129 lives have been lost in the worst violence to strike this city since World War II. At least one of those lives was American, more than 350 people are hurt, 99 of them at this hour critically fighting for their lives. All of this in a coordinated series of bomb blasts and shootings which began almost 24 hours ago.

Now, ISIS is claiming responsibility and warning that these attacks are, quote, "the first of the storm." The president of France says that this is war. ISIS says there were eight attackers armed with automatic rifles and wrapped in explosives. The French say they were seven attackers and they are giving us much more information we have learned in the past few minutes. They say there were three teams. They say that all of the attackers from last night were killed. One was a French national already known to police. And police are now trying to track down accomplices, anybody that may have helped them. There are still so many questions about that outstanding at this time. Some of those accomplices may not even be here in France. Raids underway in Belgium tonight are connected with the terrorist attacks. And we are learning more by -- on that, minute by minute as these raids are happening through the night.

I want to start with Jim Sciutto who is here with me in Paris. And we just got a lot of new information from the Paris prosecutor. What are you learning now?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, for years, since the Mumbai attacks, U.S. and European counterterror officials have been talking about this very scenario, concern about a Mumbai-style attack in a major western city. And that's what we've seen. And what's remarkable is the amount of carnage able to be carried out by just, according to the French as we just learned, seven attackers. Of course, ISIS claiming eight of them in those three groups attacking three separate targets in the city able to kill 129 people, injure some 352, 99 of them seriously. That level of carnage just remarkable.

But then we get to the sophistication and how international this was. So the French have said and identified by fingerprints, we reported this earlier, that at least one of the attackers was French, so someone from France. There was also an Egyptian and a Syrian passport discovered near the bodies of some of the other attackers, including the Syrian passports. The Greeks say was possibly a migrant who came through in the last several weeks.

BURNETT: This passport, and I want to emphasize the word "passport," linked to someone who had gone through a specific entry point.

SCIUTTO: That's right.

BURNETT: They don't know whether the person carrying the passport actually --

SCIUTTO: That's still the question. It's certainly an indicator, but they don't know for sure.

But you have here an international nexus in effect. So you have a Syrian, an Egyptian, and a French person. You have raids being conducted now in Belgium. And we're hearing of arrests there, as well. They believe there's a Belgian connection to this. And you'll remember we were here during "Charlie Hebdo" in January. There were raids in Belgium very soon after that attack. Belgium is a hotbed of jihadis here in Europe, also weapons trafficking.

President Hollande said something very interesting when he described this attack, not only that it was ISIS, but that it had both local and international elements and international coordination. /they believe there was some --

BURNETT: They think it was directed? Are we now seeing evidence of an ISIS central or core as we did with Al Qaeda?

SCIUTTO: President Hollande said in effect that you have local assistance to a plot with foreign support. And, of course, they'll be investigating now to what degree it was directed. The order came down, for instance, these are your three targets and this is how you're going to attack them. Or was it something more organic, saying carry out an attack and they pick their target? We've seen mixes of that over time. But regardless, it is international. It is coordinated. It is certainly deadly. It seems to have both local and international elements. All fitting together with exactly the kind of threat that U.S. and European officials have been worried about for some time, and now it's happened.

BURNETT: All right, Jim Sciutto of course is going to be with me as he continues to break more on this. You know, it's hard to overstate as you walk through the streets here you get a sense of being a normal person and that last night everything was normal and something happened that is incomprehensible. And it happened in a place with "Charlie Hebdo" attacks were that the world thought couldn't happen. But they didn't have intelligence about it is what is so unbelievably terrifying. We are learning new information as they're trying to track down exactly how that could've happened after the raids in Brussels which Jim mentioned. A source is telling CNN that one of those is related to the attacks in Paris. And I want to go to our diplomatic editor Nic Robertson who is at the stadium where one of the attacks took place. Nic, what exactly are you learning about those raids?

[14:05:19] NIC ROBERTSON, CNN DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, one of the things the French prosecutor talked about was that all the attackers use the same type of Kalashnikov, and they all wore what were essentially suicide vests, and he said that the explosive in the suicide vest was TATP. That's a homemade explosive. It's an explosive that Al Qaeda has used in the past. It's an explosive that can be made with fairly readily available commercial products that can be purchased over the counter. This is the explosive that was used by the London Underground bombers back in 2005. They killed 52 people and themselves, as well, in that attack.

So what the French will be looking for now will be the factory where these explosives were made because they can be cooked up quite literally in a kitchen. It requires a lot of careful heating of some of the components. And then they will be mixed to make the explosive form itself that is relatively unstable. So this is a big lead for the French. They're clearly following up on the cars that were spotted in the vicinity. They'll be able to get information from the weapons and trace those back where they came from. The other connections, they're looking for, the financiers, as well. They say those are the people that helped organize and motivate this. Erin?

BURNETT: All right, Nic Robertson, thank you very much.

And as we're trying to track all those threads down tonight, we are also starting to learn, just starting to learn about the incredible carnage, the victims in this attack. Sources are now telling CNN an American woman is among the dead. We are learning more about her. Let's get to our justice correspondent Pamela Brown. Pamela, you have been learning. What can you tell us about this young woman?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: I can tell you, she was very young studying abroad in Paris. Her name was 23-year-old Nohemi Gonzalez. That's according to Cal State Long Beach University which issued a statement moments ago saying that she was a junior at the university, was studying abroad, one of nearly 80 foreign exchange students, and she was studying design at the college of design. And in this statement, the school says, "I'm deeply saddened by the news of the passing of Long Beach State University student Nohemi Gonzalez. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends during this sad time. Our university stands with our nearly 80 foreign exchange students from France as they struggle with this tragedy."

And we have learned, Erin, that the university will be holding a vigil tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. in her honor so that those who knew her and those that want to pay their respects can come and mourn.

I will tell you that U.S. officials are still trying to identify who the victims are at this hour. And I have been cautioned that the death toll and the injury toll could rise. And that process is still ongoing. Also, Erin, in light of the fact that this victim was a student, a foreign exchange student, I can tell you a lot of different universities have been posting online saying their students that were studying abroad in Paris are safe. But there's been a lot of concern among parents about their children who are studying abroad there in Paris. And now we are learning one of them, 23-year-old Gonzales was killed in one of the attacks. Officials saying it's believed that she was killed at one of the restaurants. Erin?

BURNETT: Pamela Brown, thank you very much. In just a few moments, I'm going to be joined by someone at a restaurant next door who actually saw this. You're going to see some of the photos that -- we'll wait to do that in a moment. As I talk about the pictures we're going to see. It is -- it is --

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's brutal.

BURNETT: It is brutal.

AMANPOUR: And it hits to the heart of any urban society, any normal civil society. People go out on Friday nights. It's the end of the week. People crowd into the street. People want to have a drink with their friends, than want to listen to music. And this is ISIS taking the fight to a whole new level. This is ISIS saying, OK, you thought we were there in our caliphate. We're going to be here. We're going to blow your planes out of the air. We're going to bomb you to hell in Beirut. And we're going to come here to the heart of western Europe. And 10 months after what we did to "Charlie Hebdo," 10 months after that, 10 months after that, at the time of the most heightened security because all the world leaders are coming here in two weeks for the climate summit, we are going to do this. And 129 people dead, 352 wounded.

BURNETT: Does this change, Christiane, the entire scene, because it seems to me it does. If you were in a city like Paris that was prepared, and they say that now this is a state of emergency. They were on high alert. One of these individuals was already known to them. And yet still this could happen. Not just one attack, seven coordinated attacks.

[14:10:00] AMANPOUR: I spoke to a senator here earlier this evening who talked about, you know, the war in Syria, but also the borders, the competing, you know, imperatives of keeping the European values of the free movement, but also trying to make sure that you can check who comes in and out.

I've talked to the Turkish prime minister just a few days ago before this but around the time of the Russian downing that this is about the war in Syria, that unless the war in Syria has ended this is not going to end. And this is a global fight.

And we've heard today the rhetoric totally changed from the French. It mean, President Hollande was very strong. He said quite clearly that a war has been declared on France. War has been declared on France. We have to respond, that this is a war by terrorists, by jihadists. As we've been discussing, a war that he said was planned outside but carried out inside. We're still waiting to hear the details of those people who were actually involved.

And then his opponent, former president Nicholas Sarkozy who could also try to run for the next election, saying France is at war. We cannot surrender. We must not retreat. We must use every means of our diplomatic and domestic policy as if we're at war.

BURNETT: What does that mean, though? Because when the United States says that, that would mean ground troops. That would mean this war's completely changed. And it would seem this is a 9/11 moment. That is what it could mean for France.

AMANPOUR: Well, you know, Erin, I don't think anyone's heard this kind of rhetoric or seen this kind of attack since then. It is the worst attack in Europe. There were other numbers. They were numbers bigger in Madrid, bigger in Mumbai. Nonetheless, these kind of terrorist attacks. This is from the new group who is redefining and has a higher ability to conduct attacks. Look, Russian plane, Beirut, Paris, in the space of about 10 days. This is very, very severe.

BURNETT: That's more than 400 people.

AMANPOUR: It's huge. In three different locations, and they have the ability to come here using the passports they carry, that they went out to join ISIS with, that they store, according to Michael Weiss who has done exhaustive interviews and books on ISIS. They don't burn their passports when they go there. All these thousands of Europeans and Americans and others, north Africans, whoever they might be, they keep their passports precisely so they can come back.

BURNETT: Of course. It's the most valuable thing that they have.

AMANPOUR: So, it is a much higher fear factor in terms of the terrorists. And, intelligence is saying because of the incredible speed of the violent radicalization of the people in these countries because of the online ability, the intelligence are finding it too difficult to stop them in time.

So is it a turning point? It should be, Erin. War has been declared. And not one country has yet tried to stop the war in Syria by means of defeating Assad and ISIS. Nobody's tried it. Now they're trying diplomacy. We'll see if that works. What they haven't talked about, you know, is ISIS bound by a ceasefire? Is ISIS going to talk about a transition in Syria? Is ISIS going to go to elections? Every world leader that I talk to tells me that this is not going to end until the war in Syria is over. It will not end.

If the refugee crisis galvanized the world, now this is going to double galvanize them. And this was already going to be the focus of conversation at the G-20, refugees in Syria. Now you've got war declared on the streets of Europe by ISIS. This was the blowback that everybody was terrified of. It is here.

BURNETT: It is here. And of course, as we have been saying, one of those passports are coming from someone who is a Syrian refugee on one of the attackers. We do not know if that was the person linked to that passport. But certainly that is something that could end up being the case.

Christiane, thank you very much. And everyone, U2 was going to be performing live seen around the world, obviously, postponing that concert, but they were at one of the memorials here in Paris tonight. You saw the band just moments ago paying their respects at that memorial.

Coming up, we're going to hear from an American who survived last night's terror, his account about what happened when gunmen opened fire and what he actually saw. You will see it.

But first, I want you to listen to one man doing his part by bringing a grand piano to the Bataclan concert hall.

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[14:18:47] BURNETT: I'm Erin Burnett live in Paris just outside the Bataclan concert hall. It is directly behind me where 89 people, now we understand, died last night. This video you're about to see was taken by a reporter for the French newspaper "Le Monde." Concert goers pouring into a side street, hanging out of the windows as gunfire is clearly heard from inside.

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BURNETT: I wanted you to be able to see that. No words can describe that sort of terror and horror. Of the more than 350 people wounded last night in the shootings and suicide bombings, almost 100 are in critical condition as I speak at this moment.

[14:20:03] Our Ben Wedeman joins me with that part of the story. And Ben, what do we know about the condition of the injured, the nationalities of these victims, whether they think these people will be able to survive?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we understand that as many as 80 people remain in critical condition out of about 300 who were wounded in that attack. And as far as their individual conditions, it's hard to say.

Now, we did go to one of the hospitals where many of the victims are being treated. And the staff there are under strict orders not to let media in to speak to the wounded. Now, we're now where hundreds of people have come to express their shock, their solidarity, and also their defiance in the aftermath of these attacks.

In fact, just on top of that monument behind me, there are old posters from January from the attack of "Charlie Hebdo," and those posters are still there. But now beneath people are mourning this latest attack.

And what's interesting, there's a police car with a loud speaker here that every once in a while has been telling people to go home to clear this square because of this security situation. But people are defiant. We spoke to one elderly Paris resident who told us that people must come out. They must show that they're not afraid. And they must resist, she said, resist the desire of Al Qaeda, of ISIS, other groups to essentially terrify them into changing their lives. And they're here to insist that their lives will go on. Many people I spoke with said, yes, we realize now after last night's attack that France is at war. Now is a time I was told for solidarity, for people to come together to stick by the values that France holds of solidarity, of equality, of fraternity, and not give in to this wave of terror. Erin?

BURNETT: Ben Wedeman, thank you.

And Clark Winter is an American in Paris. He was next door to one of the restaurants that came under automatic rifle fire last night. Clark, thank you for coming and talking to me. Everyone watching around the world has such empathy for Paris, fear, and their prayers. And I want them to understand exactly what happened. Bataclan is behind us where 89 people were slaughtered in cold blood last night. You were eating dinner less than a mile from here, about 10 blocks away.

CLARK WINTER, WITNESSED RESTAURANT ATTACK: Right.

BURNETT: What happened?

WINTER: Well, we were walking to dinner, we walked right past where the shooting took place moments later. We walked by, then went and sat down. Minutes later we heard this incredible gunfire. We went out to see what happened, to see if I could be helpful to the people next door. The police didn't come for another 20 minutes, and when I got there, there were six people lying on the ground in front of the restaurants and many more inside. Everybody was trying to help. There was a rumor there was a sniper upstairs in the restaurant. So we all took cover again and tried to take care of these people. There was nothing to do.

BURNETT: And you have shared with us a photo. And I want to warn everyone, this is an incredibly hard photo to look at. When I saw it today, I must admit, I -- it brought me to tears. People on the ground, blood, outside a cafe. This is what -- this happened.

WINTER: Yes. Here's -- it's awful. But that's not why I went. I went to be helpful. I said, somebody's got to take a picture of this. It's incredible. All over the place, everybody trying to help, screaming in every directions. I think now there'd been a shooting before and so the police came late. And the next hour and a half, there was e-mail, there was Internet, there was news, as we figured out the scale and magnitude and tried to be helpful to those in front of us.

BURNETT: And in that photo there are two men with their arms out. And you believe they were trying to get help as you were trying to get help.

WINTER: Right.

BURNETT: As you say, these attacks were simultaneous. So it took help a while to come.

WINTER: I'm guessing these guys were trying to get attention over there from somebody in a uniform. Meanwhile, those of us right there were trying to get to the ones who were falling down.

BURNETT: And those people who were on the ground. Do you know what happened to them? Were they still alive?

WINTER: We just went by that restaurant a few minutes earlier. It's an open air cafe. It was a beautiful night last night in Paris. Everybody was out on the street. There were lots of things going on. So people were all out celebrating. And they must have driven by. I don't know what happened. But they were out attacking. And these people were shot innocently having coffee on the ground.

[14:25:00] BURNETT: And so you walked by and saw the very people who then moments later lost their lives?

WINTER: Yes. I was three or four minutes ahead of them going to the restaurant next door. There but for the grace of God.

BURNETT: It is -- it is impossible for people to understand, as you say, on such a beautiful night. You, then, were in the restaurant and not able to leave for many hours.

WINTER: The police then came and blockaded the street, and we were locked down in the restaurant until 4:00 a.m. And then the word went out. By that time we had this incredible information around the world. And back at the States everybody else knew. And then at 4:00 a.m., they put the gate up and said find your way home. Of course there's no metro here after midnight. We got lucky and found a taxi at 4:00. I dropped everybody else off on the way home.

BURNETT: And then, when you walked outside, what was the scene then? Were they -- had they been able to, paramedics had come?

WINTER: Yes. The restaurant had been covered in a tent, so we went the other way. But there were balances coming in every single direction, police in every single direction. And they were -- everybody was very nice telling us which way to go, which way not to go. By then, we'd all knew because we'd been watching video for hours the extent of what happened. We were about six blocks away from the theater, and it was amazing because to watch the theater, they're about to go in. They're going in. And we were getting it.

BURNETT: You were -- you were 9/11? You were in New York?

WINTER: Yes, I was there that day, yes.

BURNETT: You were there that day.

WINTER: We used to talk about business a lot those days.

BURNETT: You and I have known each other for a long time. And you now were here. Is this the same feeling?

WINTER: Yes, except the scale and magnitude and all of it all over at the same time. This was largely done as was that for effect. Places that have a lot of people watching. The world is watching, and I don't know how to say, yes. We have to figure out why this is going on and what we can do to stop it.

BURNETT: I think people are trying to understand, you know, just the fate and the fear that you walked by. You walked by and saw people having coffee or a glass of wine, whatever it might have been on a beautiful night. Two or three minutes, it was just that -- was it like that? That you could --

WINTER: One person who organized the photographer said we're going to meet at this one. It was very nice. But we could've gone to that one. They picked one outside open on the street. They probably could drive by, attack and move on. But literally we were there, as I said, just a few minutes earlier. It could have been any of us. It was really remarkable. And then watching and listening and the momentum build and we knew from around the world what was happening.

BURNETT: And there was something that happened in the restaurant where you were that I think speaks volumes to people coming together.

WINTER: Yes.

BURNETT: And that was as you found out what was happening, the fear that there could have been a sniper, you all were taking cover. You weren't allowed to leave?

WINTER: Yes.

BURNETT: The restaurant fed you.

WINTER: They fed us dinner, yes. They said this is what you were supposed to do. And they did and prepared a very nice meal. And we sort of ate it with half-heart --

BURNETT: They did that?

WINTER: They did that.

BURNETT: I snuck out because being the oldest of the group, I wanted to know what was going on and see if there was further danger. That's when I took those pictures just with an iPhone. But we knew nothing was going to happen more in that particular neighborhood. At least we thought that.

BURNETT: Well, Clark, thank you very much for sharing something so horrific. That photo was just so poignant and powerful. Thank you.

WINTER: Happy to do it. Nice to see you.

BURNETT: And we're continuing to stay on top of this breaking situation here in Paris as the story develops minute by minute. Still to come, ISIS threatening more attacks, promising that this attack here in Paris is just the first of, in their words, the storm. And how will France respond to what President Francois Hollande has called an act of war?

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[14:32:41] I'm Erin Burnett live in Paris. In the United States right now President Obama just boarding Air Force One bound for Turkey. We had thought he may make a comment. But he boarded in silence. He, of course, has condemned these horrific attacks here in Paris.

There is a rally being held in New York to honor the victims of the Paris attacks. And as blood was spilling into the streets here under the name of ISIS, at least as we understand now, the war against ISIS was stepping up. U.S. airstrikes moving beyond the borders of Syria and Iraq now into Libya. We are now learning tonight that U.S. war planes have taken out top ISIS leader there. For more on that, I want to bring in our senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh in Erbil, Iraq. And Nick, yesterday, as these were horrific attacks were happening, it was the same day that the United States said ISIS was contained. They said that Jihadi John, one of the senior leaders of ISIS in Iraq and Syria was killed. Now they're saying a Libyan leader of ISIS was killed.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Abu Nabil was sent from Iraq to Libya, and according to the White House special adviser on ISIL just tweeting now, was said to be establishing a base for ISIS. We have quite a presence there, but establishing a base inside of Libya. Four of them killed yesterday, probably the same time, frankly the Peshmerga were moving into the ISIS stronghold of Sinjar in northern Iraq. He was killed in Libya by an air strike.

Now, he's said potentially to be involved in mass executions, maybe to the one back in February of Coptic Christians in Libya. Not the first time the U.S. has struck what they consider terrorists in Libya, but the first time they've gone after ISIS. Libya is long known to be a place where ISIS has a strong foothold. They have in fact themselves threatened last year, some of their propagandists to put killers on boats of refugees that used to leave en masse from Libya or on their route through Turkey and Greece.

But a sign of the extent of their reach, and it comes, too, I think, because France is coming to terms with the scale of the problem faced for over a year now, at least.

[14:35:02] In fact, almost a year ago precisely to the day there was an ISIS propaganda video released which showed French citizens themselves burning their passports, and then appealing to French at home who couldn't perhaps join them on what they called their jihad inside of Syria and Iraq to do it at home. It's called what are you waiting for was the title, the notion being if you're upset at French prohibitions or the coalition airstrikes, quote, "There are cars and weapons available to you. You can take the fight to them inside your own country."

This has been a long-term issue for France here, no doubt. Multiple videos like the one you're seeing now available for those who wanted to be inspired by them. And the real question is now you can't really stop ISIS inside Syria and Iraq without a massive military intervention even if that would work. The struggle, potentially, to seal the borders and prevent the passage of those who use the flow to get in. Or whatever chance they have to get inside those countries. They don't know how they got to France in this particular case. So is it a surveillance the French have to contemplate what can be done to remove this? That's what France is surely contemplating now. Erin?

BURNETT: Nick, thank you very much live in Erbil, Iraq tonight.

I want to go to Jim Sciutto. Jim, on this point that Nick was just talking about, you know, what is France going to do? It's not just what is France going to do. You've had 400 plus people murdered by ISIS in less than two weeks. A Russian airliner brought down, Beirut attack, an attack here in Paris, an attack in Baghdad. And France says it's war. What does -- what does that mean? It seems to me that cannot just mean a few more air strikes.

SCIUTTO: Well, clearly there has to be a rethinking of the U.S. and the coalition and the European strategy against ISIS because it's not working. And the thing is you can talk about stopping them from coming in, right? But when we look at this attack, we already know that there was both a local and a foreign element. You see a Syrian and Egyptian passport, and we know that one of them was French from north of Paris who was already known to authorities. So you have this home grown upsurge as well as the influx. So you can't just close the doors and the problem's gone.

So it's about the ideology. It's about the radicalization, you know, two fronts in effect in that war. But then, when you think bigger picture about the strategy, you had in the last 24 hours, 48 hours two successes. You had jihadi John killed in a strike in Syria and Raqqa yesterday. Today you have Abu Nabil in Libya, another senior Al Qaeda formally, but now ISIS leader. Those are successes, but this is, one, a group that courts death, right? All of the guys in this attack wanted to die. And two, you killed the leaders, but it's an atomized organization so you can have seven, it appears, kids, right? I mean, the early reports that some of these were teenagers, come here with a local and foreign element and carry out an attack and kill so many people. You can't -- and there are many fronts to this war.

BURNETT: I think what makes this so certifying is, let's talk about this city. This city that just had an attack, a country known for having some of the best intelligence in the world that was prepared and expectant of something like this. It's not just one attack. Coordinated attacks with an international element requiring a lot of communication. And they have no idea that it was coming on a day that the United States, which had said it would degrade and destroy ISIS said that ISIS was contained, which was admitting failure, but they tried to present that as success. All of that, I think people say how could it happen?

SCIUTTO: Yes. Ten months ago, I was standing down the street here. The "Charlie Hebdo" offices are a five-minute walk from where we're standing right now. Ten months ago, horrible attack, 20 people killed. Now we have seven times that number, perhaps eight times that number killed here in the span of just one year.

So it is a big deal, as we know, and is popping up in a number of countries. We get to the U.S. strategy. You have what can at a minimum be an unfortunate timing of the president of the United States saying on a Friday morning that ISIS is contained. I spoke to the White House, again, today. He did say, to be fair, he was talking about in Iraq and Syria it is contained, that they stop their advances there. And it is true. You have those Kurdish forces moving to Sinjar just recently. But the fact is it's only contained except in the areas it's not contained, right? Because it's not contained in Lebanon and so on. And the White House said to me, listen, we'll have good days and bad days. But when you compare those two, yes, two successful decapitation operations. But in the last week you have had three very deadly ISIS attacks beyond their borders.

BURNETT: But at the least to say good days and bad to refer to what just happened here.

SCIUTTO: Well, I did say tell me what your good days were, because I don't see very many good days in this recent span in just these last couple of weeks.

[14:40:00] BURNETT: All right, Jim Sciutto, thank you very much. Jim, of course, as he's not on camera, is on the phone. He's going to be back in a few moments. We'll also going to talk live with a French terror expert about the sophistication of these attacks. We are learning more, for example, about the explosive devices they had strapped to their bodies. This is something the Pope has called the third world war. The president of France has called a war. We'll be right back live from Paris.

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BURNETT: Back in Paris. I'm joined now from our Paris bureau by Jean-Charles Brisard, a terrorism expert, and contributor and author of "Zarqawi, The New Face of Al Qaeda." Jean-Charles, thank you for being with me tonight here in Paris as the world is trying to understand what happened here. How could something like this have happened? You know, I think people are trying to grasp a city that was faced such brutal slaughter where intelligence officials were aware of at least one of these attackers. They were expecting something like this. And yet, still, this was impossible to prevent.

JEAN-CHARLES BRISARD, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, we had the Paris attacks in January.

[14:45:00] And since then and even before that date we foiled a lot of plots, terrorist plots involving a lot of individuals, sympathizers from France or individuals that were coming back from the front from Syria or Iraq. And we know from interrogations of these individuals that something big could happen, something simultaneous attacks, something coordinated, exactly the kind of attack that we experienced yesterday. Because the pressure on France was growing, because France was itself involved in the fight in the war against the Islamic State on the ground, because a lot of individuals, French nationals, have traveled to Syria and Iraq, more than 2,000 French citizens have been involved in these networks, whether in France or in Syria. So one of these individuals able to carry out by themselves, being inspired by ISIS to carry out such attacks, or others on the field able to be directed by ISIS to carry out such attacks.

BURNETT: And Jean-Charles, some of the latest reporting that we have here in terms of the coordination. They were obviously armed with automatic weapons. They had explosives. And every attackers explosive systems, as we understand, suicide sort of belt or vest they may have had on, were identical. That speaks to some sort of a level of coordination of supply, of depth of the network that is not a few people, doesn't it?

BRISARD: Exactly. I can tell you it takes several months to mount such an operation to acquire the expertise, to build up the explosive belts, to recognize the targets, to build up the team, also, to carry out the attacks and coordinate. And the time of preparation of planning involves probably several months.

BURNETT: Several months. All right, Jean-Charles, please stay with me. We're going to take a very quick break. We'll be back with Jean- Charles live here from Paris in a moment.

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[14:50:32] BURNETT: I'm Erin Burnett. We're back live from Paris. To our viewers in the United States and around the world covering the horrific scene, attack and carnage here in Paris just 24 hours ago.

Jean-Charles Brisard, CNN counterterror expert, is with me just across the town here in Paris. Jean-Charles, as they are trying to trace down the web how many other people have been involved that they have not yet found or they don't yet know, do you have confidence they'll be able to do that when obviously with all of the resources they had dedicated to trying to stop some sort of a coordinated attack they didn't see this coming. They weren't able to see the communication up between these individuals.

BRISARD: Yes, but now the investigation has started. They'll have some kind of scientific, the technical data on the attackers. Many belongings have been recovered including telephone devices, et cetera. So this will speak probably in a few days. And this should lead, has already led, as you know, because arrests have been made in Germany, an investigation has been opened in Belgian regarding a French residence who apparently provided a car to some of the attackers. So this is the beginning. But it won't take long, I can tell you, until we uncovered the full network of those responsible and those behind them.

BURNETT: And Jean-Charles, I want to talk about an issue that I think is going to be getting a lot of conversation. We don't yet know if the attacker who had the Syrian passport, a passport that we now know is linked to someone who had just come through Greece as a Syrian refugee in the past few weeks, we don't know if that is truly the attacker's passport or if he took it from someone else. We don't yet know that. But if it turns out that that is the case, that that is his passport, if that's who that was, what does that do to the conversation here in Europe where you have hundreds of thousands of refugees coming in, many of whom are unable to determine what their past is, who they are, and what their intentions are.

BRISARD: That would be a big issue. Again, as you said, this could be a fake passport, a stolen passport. Or he could be also one of them could be older of the passports. But if he's the one that is the immigrant, this will raise a real question in terms of border checks. It is already the case for terrorism cases where countries like France and others are raising the issue of border control to improve the border controls of the external borders of space. This will probably add to the current issue and crisis inside the EU regarding the immigrants, obviously, obviously.

BURNETT: All right, Jean-Charles, thank you very much. I know you're going to be staying with us.

And for those just joining us, we're talking about the borders, the agreement that allowed people to move from country to country within Europe without having to show a passport or without having to go through any kind of border control, a crucial part of what defines Europe right now.

And next, much more on our breaking news coverage. Raids are underway at this hour after a discovery of a rental car linked to some of the attackers. We are learning more about that at this moment.

We're also going to be talking to people who were inside the stadium when one of those explosions went off right near them.

And just in at this moment, we are getting breaking news from the NFL about what security preparations the league is taking for the games in America tomorrow.

This is CNN special live coverage. We'll be right back from Paris.

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[14:59:42] I'm Erin Burnett live in Paris, and I want to welcome all of you watching in the United States and around the world tonight. This is CNN's special live coverage of the coordinated terror attacks across this city of Paris. And we are just about now 24 hours since a horrific and tightly organized series of attacks that the president of France calls an act of war and ISIS calls merely the first of the storm.