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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

More Developments in the Paris Attacks Investigation; Sony Playstation 4 Terrorist Tool?; Terrorists Posing as Refugees Hinders Helping Actual Refugees. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired November 16, 2015 - 12:30   ET

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


[12:30:08] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN HOST: All of this has a global manhunt is also underway for this man, Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old French citizen, born in Belgium.

One of his brothers reportedly died in the attack. And another one of his brothers was arrested in Belgium then released. Six of the Paris attackers spent time in Syria, that according to CNN affiliate BFM T.V. details are also emerging about some of the attackers who were killed in the attack.

Bilal Hafdi -- or Hadfi, the stadium suicide bomber was a French citizen who had been living in Belgium. 25-year-old Ahmed Almuhamed -- that may not be his real name but he is another of the stadium suicide bombers and was among a group of Syrian refugees who arrived on a Greek island according to French official.

At least three of the suspects behind the deadliest night of the attack of the Bataclan concert hall were homegrown terrorists from France. But there are four boxes there that remain a mystery.

And for more on the suspects and the efforts to sign the terrorist, let's bring in International Diplomatic Correspondent Nic Robertson. And then also joining us is Mubin Shaikh. He's a former counterterrorism operative. He's a former jihadist reformed and the author of "Undercover Jihadist."

So, Mubin, I'll ask you to stay put for a moment as I turn to Nic who's live in Paris.

What do we know about the very aggressive search for those who may be still on the run who perpetrated what happened on Friday night or those who were behind the success of it? Those who orchestrated it.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, Salah Abdeslam is the one man that's believed that may well have been involved and either directly firing a weapon on some of the restaurants on the streets around here or he was driving a car for his brother who detonated a suicide explosive. This is the man who made a getaway to try to get back to Belgium. He's a French born man living in Belgium. That's the most recent information the police have.

The arrest warrants in France and Belgium are out for him. He's whereabouts. So now the Belgian authorities at this appeared to be close to or perhaps trying to nab him on a raid today that wasn't successful. So he is still on the run.

And more information is being loaned (ph) about some of the suspects. We don't have a picture yet of Ismail Omar Mostefai. He was 29 years old, lived in a -- just outside Paris in a relatively well-off neighborhood. He was radicalized about four or five years ago, was on a watch list of the French but went off to Turkey in 2013, presumed gone to Syria, snook (ph) back in to the country.

But the real search for those -- for more information about the search, if you wil, for the ringleaders behind this were in Syria, that seems to be beyond the reach of the French at the moment, I mean the best of it they've been able to do will put those S (ph) right down on (inaudible) last night, but that's really unlikely to get put their hands, if you will, on people like Abaaoud who I believe that have been among the ringleaders and organizers in Syria of this attack here in Paris.

BANFIELD: Who has a touch close ties as we mentioned to Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi, the head of ISIS.

Nic, standby for a moment. Mubin Shaikh, if I can get you in on this. So many people are so concerned about these recent threats. The newest tapes that are being released threatening Washington D.C. saying that anyone who's involved in the coalition is now right for one of these kind of attacks.

But it isn't quite the same and I wanted to get your sense of why America is different than say Europe when it comes to the kinds of conditions that many of these homegrown killers, murderers, terrorists are living in Europe that may have brought about the radicalization. Why it's different than America?

MUBIN SHAIKH, FORMER COUNTERTERRORISM OPERATIVE: Well, I mean it's -- I would put North Americas, particularly Canada and America, into the same category. We don't really have the level of marginalization and discrimination that is prevalent in France.

Number two, we don't have the geographic proximity to all these other countries. It's very easy for individuals to, you know, to be able to get on a bus and drive across several European countries picking up weapons along the way, acolytes along the way.

So there are many situational differences between Canada and U.S.. You know, we don't engage in -- I mean, there is open invitation to Muslims, involvements of Muslims in the public space. That's just not as prevalent in France.

[12:35:02] BANFIEILD: And so, Nic, jump in on this if you will because I'm not speaking most about France's disappointment, I'm speaking mostly about the Brussels' neighborhood that, you know, the Muslims there do remain poor and more marginalized without as much education, without as much opportunity as they do in America. But if that what people are speaking up there that that's in essence what foster the incubation of these killers?

ROBERTSON: Ashleigh, if you're asking that to me, that's -- that is sort of the firsthand one perhaps assumption that by living in sort of own place of areas particularly here, you're talking about Molenbeek just on the edge of Brussels. It's an area that the police have found how to operate and it's an area that I filmed in and I found very difficult to film and because outsiders aren't welcome there and that makes it really hard for intelligence services to know what goes on a death oasis, if you will. People living there and perhaps so if France isn't great (ph) of freedom to plan and plot things that the authorities weren't know about.

But if I can bring us back to Ismail Omar Mostefai, one of the attackers here in the Bataclan where the night club, where the concert was being played, and this is the guy that doesn't fit the stereotype. I was out in the town where I lived yesterday, Chartres, is one of the most beautiful towns in France. It's a tourist attraction. It's got staggeringly beautiful cathedral (inaudible) for Catholicism in France is relatively middle class.

I went out to the neighborhood, the very street where this attacker, this killer, Mostefai, came from. It's a relatively middle class neighborhood. There's no graffiti on the wall, there's no rubbish piled up in the streets, kids were scooting (inaudible) scooters. People were gathering up the leaves that have fallen on their driveway, putting them in bags, a middle class neighborhood.

So, I think we have to look further and harder beyond the sort of normal characterization that when it comes to expect to get to the roots of this precise problem.

BANFIELD: Well, I find it fascinating. Mubin, you're mentioning the fact that it's just not as easy to get here. You got to be on a plain to get here and since 9/11, America has done a lot more to make that a safer environment. But you're right, the vulnerability is still there.

Nic Robertson, Mubin Shaikh, thank you both for your insight and your expertise on this.

Coming up next, his video game console factor into this tech, faster into the plotting. Is this how terrorists are keeping their communications under the radar? And then coming up in just under 30 minutes, the Eiffel Tower is set to light up for the first time since the deadly terror attack on Friday.

CNN will bring that to you live because it is lighting up in a very specific way when it happens.

(COMMERICIAL BREAK)

[12:42:14] POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world, I'm Poppy Harlow, joining you live tonight with my colleague, Ashleigh Banfield from Paris. This is at the scene where here I'm standing at the Plaza Republique, a legendary square here in Paris.

Behind me, you have hundreds of Parisians gathered -- I don't know if you can see it but they're -- they've lit and they're setting off this beautiful Chinese lanterns that are going into the night sky here as does descends on Paris. You know, they called this square, the square that belongs to all in this city for all, and this is a population that is defiant that is not willing to be beaten by terrorism that it come outside and gathered in mourning, vowing to defeat the terrorists that attacked this city on Friday night.

The Eiffel tower which I believe we can show you will be lit up like the French flag in just about 20 minutes time. You can see it right there.

Back to the investigation and some of the big questions facing investigators right now, how did ISIS terrorists plot these coordinated attacks in Paris? You heard the President of Paris, Francois Hollande, to say a lot of this started in Syria, it was organized in Belgium and carried out with complicity right here in France completely undetected.

CNNMONEY Technology Correspondent, Laurie Segall is with me and Laurie, what has developed in the last 24 hours that I find astonishing? Is it some people are pointing to this Sony PlayStation 4 as potentially being utilized by terrorists. How can that be?

LAURIE SEGALL, CNNMONEY TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, pretty unbelievable. You have the Belgian and Interior Minister say that the PS4 is becoming huge problem because more and more terrorists are connecting on there. And I'm hearing this more and more, Poppy, and how they're doing it is they create these private groups, they can have long conversations for a very long time when they're playing "Call of Duty". There are about a hundred million users, so people, you know, Sony, it is very difficult to actually monitor this. They can also use these services to plan out attacks, to have voice communications that are difficult to monitor and even practice some of these attacks in a virtual world.

You're seeing a new level of sophistication. And I want to get into this idea of encryption, because we've all known that ISIS is very good with social media. They are good with Twitter, they are good with Facebook, but now they are really kind of migrating to a lot of the encryption apps that are popping up, what's app, it offers end to end encryption which make this -- makes this communications a little bit more secure.

I actually spoke to Chris Inglis, he is a former NSA Deputy Director, and he talked a little bit about this problem.

Listen what he said, Poppy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS INGLIS, FORMER, NSA DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Encryption is one of many ways that an adversary, whether that's a criminal, a terrorist, or a rogue nation, one of many ways that they might use to hide their activities, you know, their coordination activities, and I saw dozens of times more than that likely across my career where that in fact was an obstacle for us.

And we've all learned that we don't want to touch -- catch terrorists at the cockpit door. That's a dangerous proposition.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:45:19] SEGALL: You know, it is just looking at this kind of war happening online and the way people are communicate -- communicating. It's kind of like we're in this new territory, and I will say this, this is a hacktivist group online called Anonymous and now what they are saying is they are going to go up against ISIS, I've been in touch with senior members who have told me that they are actually trying to breach an ISIS server and trying to gain intel, if you've ever seen this old play out online, Poppy.

HARLOW: It's certainly a whole new level of warfare and it is terrifying.

Laurie Segall, thank you very much for that reporting as always.

Coming up next. One of the terrorists here in Paris, we know how he got here. He slips through posing as a Syrian refugee, and the question now that so many are grappling with, "Are there more like him hidden among the thousands of refugees desperately making their way to Europe for help?"

Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:50:36] BANFIELD: Earlier today, the president in reference to suspending the allowances of refugees to enter countries given that one of the refugees may have sneaked into Paris, because he posed as a Syrian refugee. The president said, "Betrayal of our values to slam the door in their face is un-American," those are his words earlier on. And then we have governor after governor, five at their most recent count here in the U.S., saying the opposite in fact. Let me put up this list.

The following states with serious refugee concerns, Indiana, Texas, Michigan, Alabama, Arkansas, and Iowa as well. Let me just read for you quickly what Michigan's Governor Rick Snyder said, "I have directed that we put on hold our efforts to accept new refugees until the U.S Department of Homeland Security completes a full review of security clearances and procedures. Iowa, slightly different thing, there must be an extra abundance of caution taken if there's any consideration to resettle refugees. We are requesting that the federal government be open and transparent with any refugee settlement."

But, you know, seriously, the Paris attacks have made it a grave concern now and probably an issue for 2016 as well regarding resettling Syrian refugees here in the United States. A lot of people, very worried, and the president is saying be careful how you categorize that.

I want to bring in Senior International Correspondent Arwa Damon who is live in the Greek island of Leros, that is the entry point for one of those attackers who gained papers and was able to sneak through into Paris and then prosecute his attack. Arwa, this must be absolutely terrifying and horrifying all at the same time for those tens of thousands of migrants who are innocent, and desperately trying to get their women and their children and their innocent away from the horrors that they are seeing at the hands of people who follow ISIS's series. What effect does this is going to have on those desperate people?

ARWA DAMON, SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: First of all, it is devastating. Those who we spoke to are horrified and appalled by the violence that took place, and they are very well aware that over the last few months, a number of European countries have been putting up physical borders where they're used to be and now they're very aware of the debates surrounding whether or not they should be resettled, where they should be resettled, how they should be resettled. But despite that, they keep on coming because at the end of the day Europe is meant to be a better option than the one they have back home.

If we look at what happened in Paris, the pain that the French people are going through right now, the defiance that they are showing in trying to go back out, this is something that the refugee population, especially that from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, they can relate to it very well and beyond, because for them it wasn't something that happened once. This is something that happens to them every single day, and that is why they end up deciding to go the problem.

Of course is that there isn't a system, a safe and established system that allows for the resettlement of the sheer volume of numbers that we are seeing. This particular individual whose passport was found at the stadium in Paris was traced back to this island. He crossed here on October 13, blended in with his most vulnerable of people, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: All right. It is just devastating no matter how you -- how you look at it. Americans are worried rightfully so, it happened. And then of course, there are those tens of thousands of innocent people who, God forbid, they are left out in the cold as people try to figure out what to do with them.

Arwa Damon, working the story for us. Thank you for that.

Thank you every one for watching. I want to remind you, we're just moments away from a very poignant moment, the full lighting of the Eiffel Tower is going to be the first time that it will be lit up in its full glory against the Parisian skyline since those terror attacks on Friday night.

[12:54:41] My colleague, Wolf Blitzer, is going to bring that to you live and he starts right after this quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) . [12:59:04]: WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's 1PM here in Washington, 7PM in Paris, wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

We begin with live pictures. Take a look at this of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Just lit right now. We're getting more information to mayor of Paris, Ann Hidalgo, has told us these lights have coming on in the colors of the French flag, the tricolors of the French flag as a memory, as a memorial, the Eiffel Tower had been dark since Friday night but now it is lit once again and look at how beautiful the Eiffel Tower is right now. Much more on this part of the story coming up.

But first, we are also getting some new details on the intense investigation, the international manhunt for one of the suspects, and the response from France and its allies.

Today, the French President Francois Hollande told Parliament, "The attacks were acts of war," and vowed that France will eradicate terrorism. The French official tell CNN, the suspected ring leader behind the attacks is Abdelhamid Abaaoud, Abdelhamid Abaaoud. The official describes him as very close to the ISIS's leader Abu Bakr al- Baghdadi.