Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Police Ramp Up Security in U.S. Cities; Governors Say No to Syrian Refugees; ISIS' Private Communications; Tight Security at Today's Soccer Game. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired November 17, 2015 - 10:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:32:13] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Back here -- Here in the United States, law enforcement is stepping up anti-terror efforts as a new ISIS video warns of an attack on the nation's capital. Police are now beefing up patrols and adding canine police dogs around the city.

Cathy Lanier, who's the chief of the Washington Metro Police Department talked with CNN about other ways her department fights the threat of terrorism.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF CATHY LANIER, WASHINGTON METRO POLICE DEPARTMENT: Our communities are very, very sensitive to reporting things to the police. And that's critical in this time. But we also have a great relationship with our federal partners. We were in constant contact on Friday, actually, as the attacks were unfolding -- phone calls and information going back and forth.

And, you know, we've been doing this a long time now. Unfortunately, our wake-up call was more than ten years ago. So, we have a lot of practice now and things just happen automatically.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. So let's talk about security here and abroad. CNN's Poppy Harlow is in Paris and Daniel Gerstein is a former deputy undersecretary for science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security. Welcome.

Daniel --

DANIEL GERSTEIN, FORMER DEPUTY UNDERSEC HOMELAND SECURITY: Thank you.

COSTELLO: I'll just ask you in plain language. How afraid should Americans be?

GERSTEIN: Well, I think it's important to understand that we live in a very dangerous time, but on the other hand, when you think about the attacks that we have seen in the United States to date, they have generally come from a very different sort of threat.

We have been facing the attacks really from lone wolf terrorists, from self-radicalized individuals, and so we have not seen necessarily the type of large-scale attack since 9/11 that has characterized what we've seen in Paris, in Beirut and in the Russian airliner downing.

COSTELLO: What are people saying about security in Paris in light of what happened there -- Poppy?

POPPY HARLOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are nervous. They don't want to be scared, but they realize they've been attacked twice in ten months -- Charlie Hebdo and now this. They do though feel encouraged by the fact that there are 1,500 troops now spread across Paris.

You've seen many more police officers on the corners here, with not just guns but with assault rifles. You had armed plainclothes officers going door to door in the 18th district here questioning people.

I'll tell you what it was like for me this morning Carol walking into a shop near my hotel. They asked me not only to open my purse so they could see it but also for me to open my jacket so they could see if I was wearing anything. I mean, they are taking nothing for granted.

You had 128 raids here again overnight on top of 150 the night before. Just speaks to the magnitude of precaution right now.

[10:35:02] COSTELLO: All right. I want to focus a little bit about -- I want to focus a little on Syrian refugees, Daniel, because right now you have a number of lawmakers saying that the United States should admit no Syrian refugees because, you know they might be posing as Syrian refugees that really would be terrorists. How afraid should we be that something like that might happen?

GERSTEIN: Well, to date, again, we haven't seen the coming together of a large-scale attack on this soil since the attacks of 9/11. Rather what we've seen are individuals who have been self- radicalized.

The other thing I would point out is Europe has a particular problem in that they are contiguous to Syria, and so the possibility exists for people to immigrate and wind up in Europe in very short order.

Here in the United States, it is a much more difficult trip to get here. So, we also have not had the numbers of people who have been to Syria and then returned. One quote that I saw said that in Europe they had 6,000 people who had wound up on the battlefields in Syria and then came back into Europe. So, it's a very different threat that is faced.

That doesn't mean that we shouldn't be vigilant, we shouldn't take prudent measures, but rather that I would say the threat is very different.

COSTELLO: All right. Daniel Gerstein and Poppy Harlow -- I have to leave it there.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, not welcome. More than half of the U.S. governors do not want the 10,000 Syrian refugees in their backyard. But can they really stop them from coming in?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:41:02] COSTELLO: "Shameful and not American", sharp criticism from President Obama who slammed lawmakers pushing back on his plan to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees into the United States next year. His comments coming as governors in 27 states, more than half of the nation, say they oppose letting Syrian refugees into their states. All but one, New Hampshire, have Republican governors.

Just minutes ago the House Speaker, Paul Ryan, just spoke on Capitol Hill. He says President Obama's plan to admit those 10,000 Syrian refugees must be put on hold. Not for political reasons, but for national security. CNN's Joe Johns is following the story for us. Good morning.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning -- Carol.

So first we had Republican governors balking at the idea of more Syrian refugees entering the country. Then we had President Obama pushing back on that idea just yesterday, saying it's un-American to single them out.

Now we have House Speaker Paul Ryan saying that he thinks there needs to be greater scrutiny of Syrian refugees entering the country. He's calling for a pause on the program that allows them to do so. And he has asked House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy to head up a task force to look into how to bring legislation to the floor of the house quickly on this very issue.

Let's listen to House Speaker Paul Ryan just a few minutes ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), HOUSE SPEAKER: It's important that we have a refugee system in place. We respect that. But we think it's simply prudent that for this particular program, in this particular situation, that we be better guarded against any possible infiltration of ISIS coming through this program.

That is why we think it's necessary to have a pause and to have a more comprehensive strategy dealing with guaranteeing that we do not allow ISIS members coming here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Now, it sounds like this program that he's calling for, this pause on allowing Syrian refugees into the country would be pretty much open-ended. And the task force he's asked Kevin McCarthy to head up apparently will be made up of Republicans.

The fact of the matter is Democrats appear to be very opposed to the notion. They say the program that allows Syrians into the country is a very careful vetting process and, in fact, lets very few Syrians through the door. Carol -- back to you.

COSTELLO: And just to put this into perspective because I do have some numbers. According to the State Department, in fiscal 2013, 36 Syrian refugees were admitted into the United States. Since 2011, the United States has accepted 2,100 Syrian refugees. I just wanted to put it all into perspective so that people are aware.

But going back to this committee, this task force that the Speaker wants to form, it consists of all Republicans?

JOHNS: That's what we're told right now. It apparently will consist of all Republicans. Apparently pretty clear that they would also invite Democrats. But it's clear that at least right now this is sort of falling along party lines. Democrats falling in behind the President who has said they need to continue allowing Syrians into the country, through this process, which includes very careful vetting. They say in the hopes of making sure that no terrorists get through the door -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Admirable. Paul Ryan says this isn't political, so who is being political? Is it the Democrats or the Republicans?

JOHNS: Well, million-dollar question and that is always the million-dollar question on Capitol Hill. Nonetheless, Paul Ryan says this is an issue of national security and, quite frankly, a lot of Republican governors have agreed with him, at least in principle, by their statements over the last day or so.

COSTELLO: All right. Joe Johns reporting for us live. Thank you.

[10:44:55] Still to come in the NEWSROOM: secret messages, encrypted apps -- the private communications ISIS is using that governments are having a hard time monitoring.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:49:34] HARLOW: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Poppy Harlow along with Carol Costello in Paris.

We are following breaking news on the attacks at this hour. Here's what we know right now. An international manhunt is under way for one of the suspects believed to be involved in the deadly attacks. 26-year-old French citizen Salah Abdeslam slipped through authorities' grasp over the weekend. His brother, Ibrahim Abdeslam was one of the suicide bombers who blew himself up here on Friday night.

Sources say France had tried to target the ISIS member Abdelhamid Abaaoud. He is believed to be the mastermind behind all of these attacks in Paris. However, they have not been able to locate him.

Additionally, police today arresting five people linked to the attacks they believe in Paris. Those arrests made in the German city of Aachen.

And Carol -- before I go back to you in New York, as this city grips and reels and mourns what has happened, I will tell you that they are paying tribute to those 129 lives lost, still almost 400 people being treated for their injuries, gathering here at a beautiful memorial, surrounded even in the rain by hundreds of people at Place de la Republique -- clearly showing and sending a message that they will not be defeated despite two terrorist attacks in less than a year -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Good to hear. Poppy Harlow, reporting live.

The terrorists who plotted the Paris attacks may have been able to plan in secret because they used heavily encrypted messaging techniques; the techniques -- including a messaging app -- difficult for intelligent services to monitor. So, what can one do to track their communication?

CNN Money tech correspondent Laurie Segall is here to explain. Good morning.

LAURIE SEGALL, CNN MONEY TECH CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

It's harder and harder, right? You have these encryption -- now encryption is a tool that's been around for a long time but over the last years and mainly after the Snowden leaks you saw this almost going mainstream. You saw a lot of app developers building out these encryption tools.

What we're seeing in relation to ISIS there's an app called Telegram that people are just beginning to pay attention to that over the last month more and more members of ISIS are using this, their private channels where you can actually broadcast messages.

This is where ISIS actually put out the claim that this is going to be the first of many attacks. This is where they took credit for downing the Russian airliner. You know, it's hard for law enforcement to actually even pay attention and see because this app is encrypted. It also offers secret chats. You can have members -- group chats with up to 200 people.

So, this is just one of many, many ways these guys are really connecting. It's almost a game of whack-a-mole. Because of the encryption it's harder than ever to see that they're moving beyond Facebook. They're moving beyond Twitter. They're becoming even more socially savvy.

COSTELLO: It's actually scary. Senator Dianne Feinstein said that maybe, you know, tech companies should re-evaluate selling these apps.

SEGALL: Yes. I think there's this larger debate. The pendulum swings one way, then you have something like the Paris attacks happen, it goes the other way.

I actually spoke to Chris Inglis. He's the former NSA deputy director. He spoke about encryption, he spoke about terrorism and how it just makes it harder and harder to track terrorists. Listen to what he said to me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN CHRIS INGLIS, FORMER NSA DEPUTY DIRECTOR: When they collaborate across a big distance, using whatever codes that they might, and they're further aided by the fact that we cannot discern what the nature of that conversation is because it's encrypted end to end. That denies us an opportunity to understand in the incipient phase of the operation what's going on. That's a dangerous proposition.

I saw dozens of times, more than that likely, across my career where that, in fact, was an obstacle for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEGALL: I think now we see this privacy versus protection debate in the spotlight again because of these attacks -- Carol.

COSTELLO: I want to touch a little bit on Edward Snowden because CBS is reporting it's because of Edward Snowden, you know, the NSA is not monitoring conversations as it once did, and that's really why we're not hearing chatter to stop these kinds of attacks. Is there anything to that?

SEGALL: You know, I think -- I kind of expect that to happen; after this happened, I would expect that conversation to come up. That could be very likely. I mean it is -- terrorists, I will say this, are probably just getting smarter and smarter about how the NSA has been detecting them. They're finding different ways every single day to communicate. There's actually a pamphlet that ISIS puts out on how to go undetected on Twitter and create fake numbers and e-mails.

So I think they're getting even better. But that could very likely be the case which is why you're going to hear this in the news. You're going to hear us talking about this quite a bit -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Laurie Segall -- thanks so much.

I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:58:23] COSTELLO: France's soccer team is about to take the field for the first time since horror struck outside their national stadium on Friday. In about four hours they face off with England at Wembley Stadium in London.

CNN's Amanda Davis is live at Wembley with more. Hi -- Amanda.

AMANDA DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi -- Carol. This really is an international friendly that is nothing about who are the players on form ahead of next year's European championships. The buzz word of the day is very much defiance. And I have to say, with the weather here at Wembley Stadium, it's a case of the fans and the players being very much defiant -- a storm is passing through London here.

There were the calls after the attacks Friday night for this match to be canceled. Remember, the French international team and the German opponents stayed overnight in the dressing rooms (inaudible) with suggestions the match would be called off, but the decision was taken by the football federation and the football association here in England for it to go ahead and solidarity and defiance are very much the buzz words.

Here on Olympic Way heading up to Wembley Stadium, you can see the colors of the trickle (ph) are proudly emblazoned on the front of this stadium. The words of the French anthem, "Liberte, Egalite and Fraternite" emblazoned on the front.

We understand there is going to be an increased police presence here. As things stand, you can't see too much because we're still four hours away from kickoff.

[11:00:02] Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, is coming as well, so too the British Prime Minister, David Cameron.

COSTELLO: I hope the rain stops.

Amanda Davis - thanks so much.

And thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts now.