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Fugitive Suspect's Rented Car Found; One Kilogram Bomb Downed Russian Plane; Suspected Eighth Attacker Still on the Run; French Airstrikes Pound ISIS Targets in Syria; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired November 17, 2015 - 10:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[10:00:28] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM. A homemade bomb. What Russia says brought down a passenger jet. Now Vladimir Putin vows revenge.

Also, a manhunt for a suspected mastermind. And missed warning signs? The U.S. now saying it sounded the alarm about the terrorists allegedly behind the Paris attacks six months ago.

Plus, rejecting refugees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I do not trust this administration to effectively vet the people who are proposed to be coming in, in order to protect the safety and security of the American people.

COSTELLO: Dozens of governors say, don't send them to my state. And two GOP candidates want to put a pause in place on a national level.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Syrian Muslim refugees should be resettled in the Middle East, in majority Muslim countries.

COSTELLO: What should our role be?

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And good morning to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Today's front line in the war on terror right now in Paris, French President Francois Hollande is about to speak at a United Nations conference. The forum was scheduled long before Friday's terror attacks that exploded across the city and, in Hollande's words, thrust his nation into war.

We'll join his remarks live as soon as President Hollande -- OK, President Hollande has started speaking. Let's listen.

PRES. FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, FRANCE (Through Translator): Present to the conference, present to his active council, director general, ladies and gentlemen, representatives of your different countries, I address you in particularly painful circumstances as you've just referred to. But I wanted to be amongst you after the disgusting, cowardly attack which took place on Friday night.

I want to say, all the symbol which I attach to my presence, I'm here at UNESCO, the organization that brings together countries for peace and culture. And that is the reason why it is important to be here amongst you, to hear and participate in this conference, to remind us of these values. Its values and principles. And this will, which was that following the barbarity of the Second World War, to make culture, science and education prevail over totalitarianism and Nazism.

I want to thank all the gestures of friendship which have come from the entire world. The Sydney Opera House, every pyramids of Egypt, the pearls of the east in China, and New York, with the Marseilles, who have been sung by Placido Domingo, all these places, in all your countries, covered with the colors of the French flag with the same message of solidarity that was addressed to us.

It was also the same trust that once again you wanted to bear test me of the strength that you give to France and carrying her values, because the killers wanted to damage was the very idea of France. Her values, her youth, her vitality, her culture, her art of living, aiming at cafes, a place where a show, and a stadium, the jihadists wanted to strike at us, at you, where we can exchange, share, laugh, enjoy ourselves, and these killers, such cowardly killers thought that they could attack people of all ages, all nationalities, all social classes, all religions.

[10:05:07] They were also thinking of a Cambodian restaurant, of an American concert, an international football match, places frequented by people from many different countries, 19 amongst the victims of the drama Friday night. They thought of weakening the French passion for receiving the whole world to reduce this pride we have of being a country that accepts all cultures. And they have already lost that fight.

Today, standing up, determined, faced with terror, we want to mark this indestructible belief in freedom, in the dialogue of cultures. Everything which goes against obscurantism, and fanaticism, fundamentalism, of radical Islamism. History teaches us it is always totalitarianism and fundamentalism which burns books, destroys heritage and tries to remove the memory of those who preceded them. And if we are at war, we are at war against terrorism and jihadism, war for civilization because these extremists have not brought any trace of civilization. The response must be pitiless, both externally and internally.

It is against the commanders we know where they are in Syria and against their -- encompasses, including in France and their armed groups. They cannot hide themselves. We cannot suspend our economic, cultural lives by stopping concerts, theaters, sporting competitions. No, we will not give in to terrorism by suspending our way of life. We will not give up anything. That is why after the emotions, France, with the same dignity will face up to this by remaining herself with city of theaters, cinemas, museums, shows, because culture will always be at home in France, because living shows something which is alive in France, and cinema which brings in a broad public and all the museums are open again to let the visitors discover the wonders that exist of our heritage, France is an open --

COSTELLO: All right. We're going to step away from President Hollande. He's speaking before a United Nations concert -- or conference, rather.

And as you heard him say that life will not change in France in light of these terrorist attacks.

With me now, we have Poppy Harlow and Atika Shubert, both in Paris, Matthew Chance is in Russia.

Poppy, I want to start with you. Do the people of France feel the same?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean, they absolutely do, Carol. You heard President Francois Hollande say there, "We will not give in to terrorism by giving up our way of life," the French way of life, right, live every moment. And they've been doing that frankly since Friday night. Pouring into squares like this at the Place de la Republique, even in the rain here. Even when the government said to them, stay inside, we're on the hunt for this eighth terrorist. They didn't because they told me that they feel like if they stay inside, if they stop going to the cafes, if they stop living their life, then the terrorists have won. So I think he's echoing what the French people have told him with their actions.

COSTELLO: In the meantime, the investigation goes on. Atika Shubert, there is a new development. Can you tell us about it?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol. I'm actually right on the spot where a black Cleo car was called into police. We now understand that that car was rented by the eighth suspect currently on the run. You can actually see some of the broken glass here. That's from the car. It's been towed away since. But the car was parked right here. And we're trying to figure out exactly when it was parked here. What's interesting is that this is the 18th Arrondissement, the 18th District of Paris. There were no attacks that happened here.

[10:10:02] But ISIS, when it put out its claim of responsibility, said that there had been an attack here. So now police are trying to piece this together. Why was that car here? Was the suspect here at the 18th Arrondissement? Was it something that went wrong? We don't know at this point. But police say they're trying to put the leads together and also trying to figure out where he is right now.

COSTELLO: Police were going door to door, Atika?

SHUBERT: That's right. They were going door to door in this neighborhood. We saw them actually with a photo showing it to residents and shopkeepers here, asking if they had seen this car, when it arrived. We also know that in the cafe behind there, they've asked for some CCTV footage to determine the timeline of events. It's all part of the ongoing investigation, Carol. COSTELLO: All right. Also an investigation going on in Moscow in

Russia.

Matthew Chance is here to tell us about that. The Russians finally came right out and said it. The bringing down of that aircraft was, indeed, terrorism.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes I mean, the Russians have been -- may have been slow in the past to acknowledge that terrorism could have been a factor, but they were first when it came to confirming that it was, indeed, a bomb that took down that Metrojet airliner that killing all 224 people on board when it flew out of Sharm el-Sheikh toward St. Petersburg at the end of last month.

The head of the Russian FSB, the successor organization to the KGB, said it was a bomb with explosive charges equivalent to about one kilogram or 2.2 pounds of TNT. Traces of that explosive, which he said was foreign made, was found on fragments of the aircraft that had been recovered and from bits of luggage that had also been recovered. And he said that the fact that it exploded in midair accounted for why the debris of the fuselage had been spread over such a wide area.

Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, swift in his response in a number of ways. First of all saying on state television as the nation looked on that we will search for them, talking about the culprits, of course, everywhere. No matter where they're hiding, we'll find them in any place on the planet and punish them. The Kremlin later confirmed -- clarified that when he said punish, what he meant was destroyed.

And also the Syrian intervention that Russia has been so controversially engaged in over the court of the past couple of months, that's already been intensified. Vladimir Putin confirming that before the details became known, saying that we won't just continue with it, we're going to intensify it so that the criminals understand that revenge is unavoidable. So the Russian president clearly pointing the finger of blame at ISIS, whom it says it is targeting most of all, inside Syria with its campaign of now extremely intensive air strikes.

Air strikes that have been added to over the course of the past 24 hours with new weapon systems. For the first time strategic long- range bombers have been used and submarines have been used to launch cruise missiles, 34 of them in the past 24 hours, at targets inside Syria. So the Russians are really, really upping their game when it comes to striking at targets inside Syria right now. As a response to these latest intelligence revelations.

COSTELLO: OK. So you have President Putin of Russia, and he's vowing to destroy ISIS. The British prime minister is asking parliament right now to OK airstrikes over Syria. That vote is going through parliament right now. You have France declaring war on ISIS, Poppy.

HARLOW: You absolutely do. Those were some of the first words out of President Hollande's mouth immediately after the attacks on Friday night. This is war, making that very clear. And right now authorities, Carol, are doing everything that they can, everything they can to try to hunt down this eighth terrorist, Saleh Abdeslam, 26-year-old who's living in Belgium. It's important to remember, he was stopped at the Belgian border. He was questioned after the attacks but then they let him go because they didn't know he was connected at the time.

Well, today we've learned that he's also the subject of a, quote- unquote, routine check in Austria back in September, and also in February he was questioned by Belgian investigators. So someone who was questioned three times and let go. He's believed to have been radicalized -- to have also radicalized his 13-year-old brother, if you can believe it.

Let's talk more about this with CNN senior international correspondent Ivan Watson. He is in Brussels for us. Also joined by CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen.

Ivan, you just spoke earlier today with the Belgian federal prosecutor, and they said something to you that is incredibly disturbing. They are preparing for the worst and they can, quote, "barely keep an eye on the 130 people who have returned from Syria." 130 and they can barely keep an eye on them.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. I mean, Belgium has this dubious distinction of being a major recruiting ground for jihadis who have been joining the Islamic State and fighting in Syria.

[10:15:07] This little country of 11 million people has had, by some estimates, close to 500 volunteer foreign fighters. Now according to Belgian authorities, about 130 of them have since returned home. And the Belgian federal prosecutor says that the law enforcement here have their hands full, keeping an eye on them. They are the first priority category of radicalized Belgian citizens.

The two brothers who are key suspects in the Paris attacks, the Abdeslam brothers, the younger of which is Saleh Abdeslam, who is on the run right now, and an older one, Ibrahim Abdeslam, who is believed to have been one of the suicide bombers in the Paris attacks Friday night, they had both caught the attention of investigators here. Notably after the older brother apparently tried to go to Syria earlier this year and was deported by Turkish officials back to Belgium.

That prompted authorities here to question both brothers at the beginning of this year and eventually to let them go because they both insisted they did not want to go to Syria. That is, again, according to the Belgian federal prosecutor. Well, months later, both of them implicated in the deadliest attack that France has seen since World War II.

In addition to that, there is a third suspect, another suicide bomber in the Paris attack. His name is Bilal Hadfi. He lived here in Brussels. Belgian authorities said they knew that he was a volunteer fighter fighting in Syria. What they did not know is that somehow he had gotten himself back into Europe and was later discovered to have blown himself up in Paris. So at least three of the suspects in the Paris attacks were all on the radar of Belgian authorities, but that wasn't enough to stop them from carrying out this deadly series of attacks -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Ivan Watson, live for us in Brussels. Thank you very much.

Peter Bergen, to you, I mean, you just heard Ivan outline the problem here. That even though they were under the nose of police, even though they were questioned at some point, they still were released and carried this out. Now some intelligence experts have said to me, the only way you prevent this again is through preventative detention, but that is something that Western civilization can't stomach. Do you agree that that's the only way at this point?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I agree Western civilization has long established the idea that you can't just hold people indefinitely without charging them. I mean, that's been a concept that's been around since the Magna Carta in 1215.

HARLOW: Right.

BERGEN: And that's the basis of all civilized legal systems. So, you know, mass preventive detentions is not something that I think any Western society should engage in. And in fact, Poppy, when you look at any of these kinds of incidents there's always intelligence in the system that wasn't properly processed. Just think of the Boston attacks where the FBI knew that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the brother who conducted the attack, the older brother, was somebody that the Russian thought was a militant. They questioned him and they -- you know, they dropped the assessment of Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

Similarly before the 9/11, CIA knew that there were two members of al Qaeda living in California. The FBI knew that there was an Islamist militant who is getting flying lessons in Minnesota. The list goes on and on. So, I mean, this is not to excuse these intelligence failures. It's to say that it is extremely rare in this kind of incident that somebody involved or many people involved in the plot haven't come to the attention of authorities.

HARLOW: Wow. All right, Peter Bergen, thank you very much for that. Stay with us.

Carol, I'll send it back to you in New York.

COSTELLO: All right, Poppy. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Secretary of State John Kerry sits down with CNN. Why he says attacks like what we saw in Paris are not the new normal.

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[10:23:10] COSTELLO: All right. I want to take you briefly to our nation's capital, Washington, D.C., where the House leadership is speaking at its weekly shindig with the press. As you can see, the new House speaker, Paul Ryan, is talking. Just a short time ago he said, "Our nation has always been welcoming, but we can't let terrorists take advantage of our compassion." Let's listen.

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REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: What happened in Paris is pure evil. And I simply want to say that our prayers and our condolences go out to the victims, families, and to the French people. It's clear that this was an act of war and that the world needs American leadership. The National Defense Bill that I will sign later today requires the president to come up with a plan for defeating ISIS, not just containing, but defeating ISIS. A containment plan is not enough. That has failed.

In addition, the majority leader and our committee chairs are developing a plan to address the Syrian refugee crisis. Our nation has always been welcoming, but we cannot let terrorists take advantage of our compassion.

This is a moment where it's better to be safe than to be sorry. So we think the prudent, the responsible thing is to take a pause in this particular aspect of this refugee program in order to verify that terrorists are not trying to infiltrate the refugee population. In the end, the ultimate solution to this crisis is a strategy to defeat ISIS. All of this rises above politics. This is not about politics. This is about national security.

And so we will invite all of our colleagues, Republicans and Democrats, to work with us quickly to address the urgent nature of this situation.

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COSTELLO: Of course, France is also struggling with how to defeat ISIS.

Poppy Harlow is in Paris with more on that. Hi, Poppy.

[10:25:03] HARLOW: That's exactly right, Carol. The French military again overnight last night pounding ISIS targets in Syria with those airstrikes. French warplanes carrying out a new round of airstrikes on the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa, their de facto capital, in the early morning hours. Today we know that a French aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, has moved into the eastern Mediterranean to be on the Syrian coast.

CNN's senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh joins me from Irbil, Iraq.

Nick, when you look at this, I know you have some information on sort of what exact targets they are hitting with these airstrikes early this morning.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The French Minister of Defense hasn't laid out what exactly it was aiming at. It did say on the first night it was looking at a command center and a recruitment center, generic terms. But on that first night, the activists in the city known as Raqqa Slaughtered Silently, they talked about a stadium and a museum, key ISIS headquarter and jail buildings.

Last night they're saying about seven strikes, mostly to the south of the city and one other key ISIS parliament structure there saying a place known as the parking garage, yet another ISIS headquarters here. But the significance of the Charles de Gaulle moving into the eastern Mediterranean is it speeds up the ability of the French to refuel, to resupply their jets, to keep them in the sky longer, to have more of them there at one time.

They have before that been flying out of Jordan and the United Arab Emirates after three, four hours potentially flight time away. But this comes, the French second night of bombardments. As you know today the Russians have launched a staggering number of cruise missiles. Sometimes accurate, of course, but at the time passed there have been problems as well. The sheer volume of firepower focused now toward Raqqa are quite staggering, Poppy.

HARLOW: Absolutely. And we don't have any sense yet, do we, on the ground there, Nick, how many casualties, how many ISIS members have been taken out?

WALSH: Well, activists there, they say there have been ISIS casualties but they can't tell the numbers because it's all dealt in great secrecy. And they have been insistent until the last few hours surfing on their Twitter account, there have been no civilian casualties. In fact insisting that if there are some, they will certainly let everybody know. But they are also, I think, the point they make in their anti-ISIS, in their outlook, is that there's some sense of relief amongst those who feel repressed and forced to stay in Raqqa by ISIS when they hear those jets and hear those bombs because they hoped they will at least be targeting the militants rather the civilians inside their city. But potentially given the volume of firepower being used now, the potential for the Americans or co- collateral damage is slightly increased, I think, Poppy.

HARLOW: Absolutely. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you, live for us in Irbil, Iraq, tonight.

Carol, back to you.

COSTELLO: All right. Thanks, Poppy. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, after the attacks over there, officials ramping up security over here. But can you compare the two?

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