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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Terror Raids and Manhunt in France; Paris Suspect Headed to Belgium; Obama at G-20 Summit in Turkey. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired November 16, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:16] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning, more than 150 terror raids overnight in France. Investigators revealing new information about who was behind the Paris attacks. A manhunt happening now for one dangerous suspect as French jets bomb ISIS in Syria.

Live team coverage breaking it all down begins right now.

Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans here in New York.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm John Berman live in Paris this morning. It is Monday, November 16th. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East. It is 10:00 a.m. here in Paris. And we want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world.

This morning, I am standing in the Plaza de la Republique. This has been sort of gathering point over the last few days for Parisians coming together to mourn what happened here only on Friday.

Today, there are not as many people here, but that may be a good sign. To an extent, this city is getting back to work today. People are going to work. Kids are going to school. Some of the museums and landmarks are beginning to open today, though not all.

We do have breaking news at this hour on the investigation. Overnight, police conducted more than 150 terror raids across France making arrests. Not clear whether these raids were connected directly to the attacks here on Friday or whether they were separate from separate interests and investigations that have been going on. But 150 raids and French media reporting from police sources that a rocket launcher was recovered in the French city of Lyon.

A manhunt underway this morning for this man, Salah Abdeslam. He is one of three brothers now suspected of being involved with the terror attacks that killed 129 people here last Friday. Injured more than 350. Attacks that French President Francois Hollande blames on ISIS and for which ISIS is claiming responsibility. And just this morning, the French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said that these terror attacks were planned in Syria.

As of now, they say seven terrorists died launching the attacks. That one remaining brother on the loose right now believed to be at least an eighth involved. CNN has confirmed the names of two of those killed, Bilal Hadfi and Ismael Omar Mostefai. The state of emergency exist in effect across France. About 1500

troops at least at this point deployed to secure strategic locations across the city and across the country.

As I said, the investigation, new leads coming in by the hour. Let's get the very latest and bring in CNN's Atika Shubert.

Atika, a very busy night, a very busy morning not just in France, but Belgium as well.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We're actually at the scene of one of those attacks at the Le Charonne, the bar here that was shot by those attackers.

Now just to bring us up to date on what's happening, we had more than 100 security raids as you point out, these are usually on people that was sort of on a list, a watch list, a terror watch list across France, and they've gone in, searched a number of homes, found a number of weapons. This is happening in numerous cities from Lyon to the suburbs of Paris.

Now at the same time that that's happening, police are following up on the investigation leads, they've identified a number of the attackers, but now what they've discovered essentially is that this was -- there was a safe house in Belgium and it looks like at least two, possibly three of the French -- French nationals were living in Belgium and that's where they rented the cars and planned out the attacks. And that's where those leads are continuing today.

Just to give you a sense of what is happening in Paris today, I want to show you from this memorial here. You can still see the bullet holes shattering the glass here and the police measuring tape where they use to actually measure the bullets. People are now have been putting flowers here and people have kept streaming in throughout the day even though police have told them last night they should stay at home and keep safe. Parisians have defied that to come out and pay their respects to those who died in the attacks -- John.

BERMAN: My word, the bullet holes and the glass there, Atika, vivid memory sent that these attacks very much still surrounding all the people in this city.

And, Atika, we did get word late yesterday that one of these men on the run, Salah Abdeslam, that police did question him on the road in the hours after the attack, on the road headed to Belgium. They questioned him but did not detain him at the time.

SHUBERT: Yes. This is one of the missed opportunities that police are now looking at. Essentially he was in a car. He was traveling to Belgium. He was stopped. Police saw his last name and knew that perhaps one of the brothers may have -- his brothers may have somehow been involved. They didn't know the extent of it at the time and he was then let go.

[04:05:10] What we now know is that his brother, Ibrahim, was one of those who detonated his suicide bomb vest actually quite near this area. So police are now trying to retrace what happened. Where was he going? Was he going to meet other accomplices in Belgium? These are the leads they're following. And that's why they're coordinating with Belgian police to find out more about just how extensive this network really is.

BERMAN: And there is international manhunt for that man that French authorities made clear. A man they believed to be very dangerous.

Atika Shubert here in France, at the site of one of the attacks. But as Atika points out, the investigation right now not just in this country, but very much focused on Belgium as well. It seems that many of the roads in this terror investigation lead to the Belgium neighborhood of Molenbeek. That is where some of these terrorists are believed to have lived. It is a suburb of Brussels. Right now it is believed to have been the home of at least two of the attackers whose bodies have been identified so far and it is where police have conducted raids over the last several days.

Joining us now from Brussels, our senior correspondent Ivan Watson. He is there.

Ivan, what can you tell us about the raids in Belgium and the latest on the investigation there?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, we are waiting for an update from the Belgian authorities as to what they've learned since they conducted a number of detentions in that neighborhood of Molenbeek. At least seven people arrested there. They have said that a lot of the suspicion focuses on three brothers. One of them is that man, Salah Abdeslam, born here in Belgium, a French national, on the run, and as the French authorities have said, do not approach them. They believe that he is dangerous. He's 26 years old.

Now two of his brothers, one of them was killed in the attacks in Paris, an apparent suicide bomber. Another brother was arrested here in Brussels. Now there are a lot of indicators that suspected militants here were very integral in some of the planning and the logistics for those deadly attacks in Paris Friday night.

For example, authorities say that two of the cars suspected of being used by the attackers in Paris were rented here around Brussels last week. And the person that rented the cars was believed to have been moving from France towards Belgium over the course of the weekend. The car that that individual was driving was later found in that neighborhood of Molenbeek.

Now that is a name that comes up again and again, not just in this terrorism investigation, but in previous ones. It is a big neighborhood of Brussels that has a very large immigrant, very large Muslim community and had a number of hardcore radical groups operating there that were integral in recruiting militants to go and fight in Syria.

Belgium is a small country. It has a population of only about 11 million people. And yet it has the dubious distinction of having more recruits per capita than any other Western European county that have gone to fight in the Middle East, in Syria, in the ranks of the Islamic State in Syria.

Now the Belgium Interior minister has come out and said, why is it that this neighborhood always comes up in these terrorism investigations? And he is sworn to personally be involved in the effort to try to cure whatever terrorism problem it has taken root in that neighborhood. In the meantime, here in the capital of the European Union, you can see the flags behind me have just been lowered to half staff in honor of the victims in Paris -- John.

BERMAN: Ivan, I think it's important to know particularly our American viewers, there is very little distinction between being in Brussels and Paris. Traveling from Belgium to France will be like going from Boston to New York. There is freedom of movement across those borders. So if they are gathered in Brussels to plan it, there would be no problem to come across the border here.

And as you say, there were raids in that very neighborhood following the "Charlie Hebdo" attacks here in Paris back in January. And security officials here in France, Ivan, note to me that Belgium and Brussels something of a weapons-and-arms hub for the black market in Europe.

WATSON: That's right. You know, we were here last January after the "Charlie Hebdo" attacks when Belgium authorities were involved in a deadly shootout in the Belgian town called Verviers with two men who were killed in the shootout with police and then were found with a cache of weapons, explosives and more ominously Belgian Police uniforms. And then an investigation subsequently went back to that neighborhood of Molenbeek.

[04:10:03] That's also an area where a radical group that was called Sharia for Belgium was operating out of. That group has since been declared a terrorist organization. And I've met with the mayor of Molenbeek who tried to defend her community, of course, and argue that the vast majority of the people living there are peaceful, law-abiding citizens. But there are some challenges there. Number one, very high unemployment. Estimated around 40 percent among the youth in that area.

Another problem that many people bring up is overlapping police agencies. This is a federal city in a country that's divided between two languages and there are security experts that argue all of the different police agencies that are operating in Belgium and in Molenbeek are perhaps not cooperating well enough. And also there is a fact that there is a major arms manufacturer in Belgium. And there are believed to have been groups that have taken advantage of the overlapping police forces to do things like smuggle weapons and also hide from the law.

These are all questions that are going to be -- need to be asked, especially when you again come to that issue. Why is it that this city, the capital of the European Union, that builds itself as the heart of Europe, again and again comes up as a recruiting ground for international terrorism and violent jihadi activists -- John. BERMAN: One of the key questions, Ivan, one of the key questions for

the world community. Ivan Watson, for us in Brussels, thank you so much.

One of the other key element, the breaking news overnight. The French launching retaliatory raids, air raids in Raqqa, the de facto capital of the ISIS caliphate. Air raids overnight hitting more than 20 targets with U.S. intelligence. President Obama is meeting with world leaders right now in Turkey, the G-20 Summit, to discuss how to deal with ISIS and prevent possible future attacks. What are they discussing? What will he announce at a news conference coming up in just a few hours? Our live coverage from Paris continues.

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[04:16:17] BERMAN: All right. We have more breaking news in just the last few minutes. A fourth terrorist has been identified from the attacks here in Paris. The Paris Prosecutor's Office has identified 28-year-old Samy Amimour as the suicide bomber -- one of the bombers and attackers at the Bataclan. That was the concert venue where so many people were slaughtered. Officials do say he was known to law enforcement as recently as two years ago. He was under an international arrest warrant.

Again, several of these terrorists do appear to have been known at some point to the French authorities, but it just goes to show how hard and difficult it is to keep an eye, to monitor them around the clock, but with such a threat prevalent in the city like this. That is one of the issues facing not just for France, but frankly the world.

President Obama is meeting with the world leaders at the G-20 Summit this morning in Turkey. He is vowing to accelerate U.S. efforts to wipe out ISIS and prevent future attacks like the one in Paris.

What does that mean? He has ordered the Pentagon to share intelligence with the French for their new round of airstrikes in Syria. The airstrikes staged overnight based on U.S. intelligence.

President Obama also calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to focus his military action in Syria on ISIS alone and not the so-called moderate rebels battling Russian-ally Bashar al-Assad.

I want to go to Antalya, Turkey right now, bring in CNN senior White House correspondent -- CNN White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski at the G-20 Summit where President Obama meeting with world leaders.

Now, Michelle, going to deliver a statement in a news conference later today where there could be a good deal of news.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes. I mean, he's going to face questions and there are so many questions surrounding this and what the response will be following the Paris attacks. What is the U.S. strategy going to look like? Is it going to change at all? So we're going to hear him respond to those questions. Whether or not

there are any changes or anything to announce, that's what we're waiting to see. What we do know is that the president will talk about the bombardment of Raqqa overnight by France because the White House is telling us this morning that for the past two days, the U.S. has worked very closely with France to develop those targets.

Because, of course, the U.S. has been leading the airstrikes over Syria for the last year. More than a year. Has that kind of intelligence already developed, so even if the French has been participating for some time, and they were one of the first countries to jump in with the U.S. to conduct strikes over Syria, the U.S. is sharing that intelligence. So we expect the president to go into more details about that.

But if you listen to what the president has been saying in his meetings with other world leaders, you mentioned the one with Putin but also meeting with the Saudi Arabian king yesterday. President Obama talking about redoubling efforts in the fight against ISIS. And the deputy national security adviser told us yesterday that what we can expect to see from the U.S. is more resources in the effort.

That means more airstrikes, more targeting of leaders and they really emphasize that because those are the people who have the capability to launch external attacks similar to what we just saw in Paris. And that national security adviser said that he does think that these attacks demand more resources and more urgency among the international community in response in the fight against ISIS -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Michelle Kosinski for us with the president at the G-20 Summit at Antalya, Turkey, where there are so much for those leaders to discuss, and again where the president about six hours from now will deliver a news conference with perhaps some new information or new insight in the U.S. plans to battle ISIS.

Our thank you to Michelle for that.

[04:20:03] These attacks here in Paris, it's not just dominating the political discussion in Europe, but also now very much a part of the discussion in the race for president of the United States. The candidates weighing in. That's right after the break.

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ROMANS: Two days after the deadly attacks in Paris, terrorism is the only topic on the campaign trail in the U.S. Candidates from both parties weighing in on the national security debate and the appropriate U.S. response to the tragedy. There's plenty of finger- pointing at the president and at each other.

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[04:25:02] HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It cannot be an American fight. And I think what the president has consistently said, which I agree with, is that we will support those who take the fight to ISIS. JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton last night said

that it's not our fight. It is our fight. And without our leadership in building a coalition to destroy ISIS, it won't happen.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This was clearly an act of war, an attack on one of our NATO allies. And we should invoke Article 5 of the NATO agreement and bring everyone together to put together a coalition that confront this challenge.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Nobody had guns but the bad guys. Nobody. Nobody had guns. And they were just shooting them one by one. But if they had guns, if our people had guns, if they were allowed to carry.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As I've said all along, you know, bringing people into this country from that area of the world, I think is a huge mistake because why wouldn't they infiltrate them with people who are ideologically opposed to us?

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I wouldn't invite the Syrian refugees here. I will oppose them coming.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: The Paris attacks prompting questions about the Obama administration's plan to allow more Syrian refugees into the United States. Overnight, Alabama governor Robert Bentley taking a stand against it. He released a statement saying, "After full consideration of the this weekend's attacks, the terror on innocent citizens in Paris, I will oppose any attempt to relocate Syrian refugees to Alabama through the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program. As your governor, I will not stand complicit to a policy that places the citizens of Alabama in harm's way."

Overnight, more than 150 terror raids across France as we learn new information, new information this morning about those behind the Paris terror attacks. Five attackers now identified. Our live team coverage from Paris right after the break.

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