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London Flight Passenger Restrained; Fugitive on the Loose; Suspect's Car Found Paris Security. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired November 17, 2015 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:02] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, thank you so much. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin live here in New York.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jake Tapper in Paris, France.

We're going to begin this hour with breaking news. A flight originating in London on its way to Boston has just landed over issues apparently having to do with an unruly passenger. Let's go to Rene Marsh to find out more about this.

Rene, what can you tell us so far?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION & GOVT. REGULATIONS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, we know that just minutes ago, roughly 30 minutes ago, this flight, British Airways Flight 213 from London Heathrow bound for Boston landed there. And we know that police met this aircraft once it landed at the request of the crew.

We know that a passenger had to be restrained while this flight was still midair. The FAA saying that this passenger was trying to escape through an exit door on the plane while it was still in the air. However, Massachusetts Police giving a slightly different story saying that the passenger tried to charge the cockpit doors. Still trying to hash out which one was it. But police say that this person was a woman - is a woman in her 30s and that troopers, as we speak, they have boarded this aircraft. They are taking this passenger into custody. They plan on interviewing not only the flight crew but the other passengers on board. Again, this was a female passenger in her 30s. The airline also confirming to CNN very unruly and made the crew on board very uneasy and that is why we saw a police presence once this aircraft touched down.

Of course, as we get more information, we'll get it to you because the big question now is what was this individual's intent.

TAPPER: All right, Rene Marsh, thanks so much. I know you'll say on top of that story. And as soon as you have more information, we'll bring that for the viewers.

But back to what's happening here in Paris, the epicenter of a frantic worldwide manhunt for not one but now a possible second fugitive tied to these ISIS terrorist attacks. This apparent new hunt for a ninth subject is coming to us from CNN affiliate BFM. At this stage, CNN cannot yet confirm the identity of this fugitive, but we are learning more about Salah Abdeslam. That's, of course, the Belgium born French national considered dangerous and still at large four days after the deadly and coordinated ISIS terrorist attacks. He is the eighth terrorist, the one to survive.

Today in the city's 18th district here, heavily armed police zeroed in on a suspicious car, a black Renault Clio, with Belgium plates. French media outlets say that Abdeslam rented that vehicle. We now know he also rented a budget hotel apartment room days before the attack. CNN cannot independently confirm, but you can see in this video from French magazine "Le Point," among the pizza boxes and syringes in the room "Le Point" says the terrorists occupied. Bomb specialists telling CNN that if the terrorists did indeed have syringes in their room, that this may have been used in the making of explosives for the attackers' suicide vests that were used so horrifically four days ago.

I'm joined now by CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson.

Nic, investigators are collecting clues, the car, the budget hotel room. Now we hear about a second possible terrorist or accomplice on the loose. Are investigators any closer to catching either the 8th terrorist or this possible 9th?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It appears not at the moment. They searched the vehicle today. They went - they found that Salah Abdeslam rented this black Clio. They went door to door - armed police went door to door in that neighborhood in Paris questioning people. But it seems unlikely that he'd somehow driven that car back. Very unlikely. So his whereabouts are still unknown. The accomplice whereabouts are still unknown. The longer they're at large, the less likely it seems that they will be caught.

These are people, we have to remember, who have become adept and were adept already at evading detention by authorities. That's how they got back in it is presumed to France without detection. How they got back into Europe, in some cases some of them from Syria. So, at the moment, no, there - at the moment it doesn't appear that they're closer.

TAPPER: And there are literally tens of thousands of individuals who are on watch lists throughout Europe. Any number of places where these individuals could hide, networks that would help them hide or even escape back to Syria and Iraq.

Nic, obviously the horrors of the last four days began at a soccer game or futball, as it's called here, between France and Germany with suicide bomb attackers. There was a game that was moved from - I think it was going to be here and it was moved to the U.K. and now there's word of something else having to do with a different game affected by this terrorist fear.

[14:05:08] ROBERTSON: Yes, these are European friendly soccer matches between the national teams. So you had Germany and France playing last Friday. That was at the Stade de France here that was attacked by the three suicide bombers. France is playing tonight at Wembley, in Britain, a friendly match. But the German team were playing the Netherlands in Hanover tonight. A match that was due to kick off in about 45 minutes. The police there say they're not evacuating that futball stadium right now, but they've asked the fans to leave calmly. It appears this match is not going to go ahead.

Now, that is worrying enough in and of itself in the context of these recent attacks, but we've now learned that the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, was going to attend. Her justice minister was going to attend. Her interior minister were going to go to attend. Huge - big targets for any potential attack. And we know that the French president, Francois Hollande, was at that friendly game on Friday. The attackers got so close to that. So it appears this match in Germany now, that has been called off. The fans are being told, please make your way calmly away from the stadium.

TAPPER: Very worrying. Nic Robertson, thank you so much.

As Nic mentioned, French authorities have reportedly found a car rented by one of the terrorists who survived. Local media reports here in France say that police believe this eighth terrorist, Abdeslam, rented a black Renault Clio. It was found today abandoned in a neighborhood here in Paris. It had Belgium license plates. CNN's senior international correspondent Atika Shubert is on the scene.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now, we arrived at the scene just a short while ago and what we understand from local resident here is that around 9:30 in the morning heavily armed police came. There was a suspicious car parked at the circle over there, a black Clio with Belgium plates. That's very concerning, of course, because we know the attackers rented their cars in Belgium.

Now, police have since towed away that car, but while we were here, plain clothes officers with bullet proof vests showed up. They had a briefing. And then immediately moved into the area, including this shop actually right here. Now what we believe they are doing - as you can see residents here still very much on edge - what we believe they are doing is asking people what they saw, looking for any CCTV footage they might have, how long was the car parked there.

This is exactly what we've been seeing, police going door to door talking to shopkeepers and residents. What we know is that they've been showing them a picture of that suspicious car, a black Clio, asking them if they saw that car, when they saw it. This is all part of that ongoing investigation.

TAPPER: Atika Shubert, thank you for filing that report.

Authorities say that the massacre that happened here in France four days ago was hatched to the north in the country of Belgium. Now we're learning at least three of the key terror suspects were on Belgium authority's radar before the coordinated ISIS terrorist assault that left 120 people dead. In fact, a Belgian prosecutor now saying that investigators had this eighth terror suspect, Salah Abdeslam, in custody for questioning nine months ago, along with his brother Ibrahim, who blew himself up on Friday.

Now, Salah has been the focus of an intense global manhunt. Apparently the only one of the eight terrorists to escape. His other brother spoke to CNN's Erin Burnett just earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMED ABDESLAM, BROTHER OF TWO SUSPECTS IN PARIS ATTACK (through translator): I think that people do not quite understand what we have been through. But my brother, who has participated in this terrorist attack, was probably psychologically ready to commit such an act. These are not regular people. You cannot have the slightest doubt that they have been prepared, that they must not leave any trace which would cause suspicion that they might do such things. And even if you saw them every day, their behavior was quite normal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Joining us now is senior investigative correspondent Drew Griffin, who is in Brussels, Belgium. Also with me here in Paris is CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruikshank.

Drew, let me start with you. What else have you been able to learn about the brothers' time in Belgium?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: That they were very well known to the police. More known as petty criminals and drug dealers than anything else, Jake. But you mentioned, they were both questioned last February. That is after the Belgium police were told by the Turks that Ibrahim Abdeslam tried to get into Syria. Now the Belgian police questioned both brothers then and apparently were convinced that they were not trying to get into Syria.

[14:10:22] We also learned that just eight days before this bombing, that one of the brothers, Ibrahim Abdeslam, was operating a bar not too far from where I am. I believe we even have pictures of that bar. And the bar was shut down by the local authorities here because of what they said was a lot of illicit activity, including drug dealing and drug use. So these were people who had many interactions with the police, but the police say just none of those interactions put up the red flare of terrorism. They thought they were just your run of the mill petty criminals who, quite frankly, there are a lot of in the neighborhood we're in here in Brussels.

TAPPER: And, Paul, let me bring you in here because you have some new information about the ISIS video that claimed responsibility for these horrific terrorist attacks.

PAUL CRUIKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: That's right, Jake. A security source here in France briefed by investigators telling me that they've identified the voice of a senior French ISIS operative on that claim of responsibility. And the individual in question is called Fabien Clain. Now, this is somebody with a significant track record of terrorist activity. He's believed to be playing a major role for ISIS. European counterterrorism officials I've been speaking to say that he's also suspected to have had a hand in that attempt to attack that high speed passenger train in August, the three Americans saving the day, and also a plot by ISIS to attack churches here in Paris in April. And so the fact that he's in this video would suggest that maybe he had a role in the planning of this attack, perhaps along with Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgium operative with ISIS in Syria.

And what we know about these (INAUDIBLE) recruits is they all stick together. It's a very tight knit circle there in Syria. And I think there could be multiple brains behind this operation. Fabien Clain is believed to be one of the key editors of Daral (ph) Islam magazine, the French language magazine of ISIS. That magazine, over the last few issues, has been saying loud and clear, we're coming after you, France. It appears that that's exactly what has happened.

TAPPER: You said there are lots of brains, but is there one person considered to be the chief mastermind behind the horrific attacks we saw Friday?

CRUIKSHANK: That's what the investigators are looking at. And there are a number of names they're looking at. One of them is Salim Bagalin (ph), who's also over there, had ties to the Kouachi brothers. Also believed to have been playing a substantial role for ISIS. And these are more senior figures who are French and Belgians are trying to persuade these younger recruits to come back and to launch attacks. They're organizing training for them. And then they're coordinating with them perhaps over encrypted messages when they get back to Europe. There's a real full throttle attempt now by ISIS to launch a string of attacks against France and other European countries that are involved in targeting it in Syria and Iraq.

TAPPER: All right, Paul Cruikshank, Drew Griffin, thank you so much.

Coming up next on the show, another major terror development today. Russia confirming for the first time it was indeed a bomb that brought down that Russian passenger jet over Sinai in Egypt. President Vladimir Putin vowing revenge. We will go live to Moscow, next.

Plus, Syrian refugees are becoming a contentious issue in the United States. More than half of state governors say that these Syrian refugees, these immigrants, are not welcome in their states. But is it up to them to decide? We'll talk to the governor of Florida. Keep it on CNN's special live coverage. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:18:21] TAPPER: Welcome back. I'm Jake Tapper. We're live in Paris for CNN's special coverage of the terrorist attacks and the manhunt for the terrorists behind them.

This is, of course, still a city on edge, understandably. Troops are visible pretty much everywhere four days after the attacks that killed 129 people. Paris, of course, is one of the most visited cities on earth, perhaps one of the most beautiful. Tourist sites are reopening today after being shuttered for the first of three days of national mourning.

I want to talk about what it takes in these early days following the terrorist attacks to oversee security in this city. That job falls to Colombe Brossel. She is the deputy mayor for security here in Paris and she joins me now. Madame Brossel, (INAUDIBLE). Thank you for being here. So, well, first

of all, just tell us, you can look at me, what happened at the Eiffel Tower today because I went there and there are police cordoning it off. There had been a bomb threat of some sort.

COLOMBE BROSSEL, PARIS DEPUTY MAYOR FOR SECURITY: Yes. We were afraid of a bomb threat, but there is no problem, so the Eiffel Tower we will - will open tomorrow. So, no problem for the Eiffel Tower. But we have many rumors or people that are afraid so they called the police. They say we - there is something here or we heard something there. You - you've seen that on the (INAUDIBLE) -

TAPPER: Right.

BROSSEL: I don't know, a few days ago.

TAPPER: A couple - right, a couple of times, yes.

BROSSEL: So no problem with the Eiffel Tower. It will be open tomorrow.

TAPPER: OK. And this is the first day that the landmarks and the beautiful memorials all over this city are open. Have things gone, with the exception of the Eiffel Tower, have things gone pretty much OK?

BROSSEL: The city is living. So everything is open. As you can see, all the restaurants, all the theaters, the cinemas, the movies, and the place where there is some concerts, everything is open. So the city is just living again.

[14:20:14] TAPPER: OK. Well, that's good to know.

Now, obviously, the fault of the terrorist attacks is entirely with the terrorists and the people who support them. And I don't mean to suggest anything else. But looking back, as the deputy mayor for security, re-examining what could have been done differently, is there anything you're seeing that the city could have done differently to have stopped or slowed these attacks?

BROSSEL: Well, we are not in charge of public security, so we - we, of course, we work with the police every day, every hour. Many attacks were stopped during the few months ago - the past few months.

TAPPER: Right. There was the attack on the train.

BROSSEL: Yes.

TAPPER: But three Americans stopped that.

BROSSEL: Yes.

TAPPER: But then intelligence sources and information and forces have stopped other attacks on churches, et cetera.

BROSSEL: Yes. Absolutely. So what we're doing now is to look backward and see if we missed something. Well, we - it's so - well, it was only a few hours, a few days -

TAPPER: Not enough time to say.

BROSSEL: We do - we didn't have enough time to do all this job. But what we have to do now, because we have to go forward, we have to think to the future, is well to absorb the energy of the Parisian people because what you can see just over there is the energy of the Parisian people. We are stronger. We will be stronger because we are together and we want joy, we want education, we want culture, we want everyone in the city, whatever is color or is religion or is social imposition in (INAUDIBLE) is, we have to be together. So that's what we can do for integration as a city. As deputy mayor, we are working on this. So we work with the Parisian. We work with association that work with teenagers because the thing we are sure of is that we have to work more with teenagers.

TAPPER: And make sure that people are assimilated into the culture.

BROSSEL: Absolutely, and make sure that the teenagers are young adults that are going on the wrong side are detected and that someone work with them to get them out of that, well, I don't know, anger, craziness.

TAPPER: Yes.

BROSSEL: So this is what we can do because we have people working in school, people working with teenagers. We are - we have public - social services. So that's what we want to do.

TAPPER: It's a tough job. Thank you very much. It's very nice to meet you.

BROSSEL: Thanks to you.

TAPPER: Merci beaucoup.

BROSSEL: Same to you.

TAPPER: Appreciate it.

Coming up next, Vladimir Putin says there will be revenge to pay as Russia confirms it was in fact a bomb that brought down that passenger jet over Egypt. Russia already responding with a show of force. We'll have a live report from Moscow, next.

Plus, a remarkably powerful moment as a French father tries to explain these horrific terrorist attacks to his young son. This is CNN's special live coverage. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:27:31] TAPPER: Welcome back. I'm Jake Tapper, live in Paris, France, as the world tries to come to grips with the horrific terrorist attacks that took place here four days ago.

A little boy and his father are captured on video trying to help one another understand what happened when those terrorists from ISIS killed 129 people in their city. Their conversation is in French with subtitles. Pay close attention to the little boy's face as he comes to grips, or tries to anyway, with what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SON (through translator): Bad guys are not very nice.

ON SCREEN TEXT: Father explains terror to his son.

SON: And we have to be really careful because we have to change houses.

FATHER (through translator): Oh, no, don't worry. We don't need to move out. France is our home.

SON: But there's bad guys, daddy.

FATHER: Yes, but there's bad guys everywhere.

SON: They have guns. They can shoot us because they're really, really mean, daddy.

FATHER: It's OK. They might have guns, but we have flowers.

SON: But flowers don't do anything, they're for - they're for -

FATHER: Of course they do. Look, everyone is putting flowers. It's to fight (ph) against guns.

SON: It is to protect?

FATHER: (INAUDIBLE).

SON: And the candles too?

FATHER: It's to remember the people who are gone yesterday.

SON: The flowers and the candles are (ph) to protect us?

FATHER: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Wow.

Let's bring in international security expert Bruno Tertrais. He's a senior research fellow at the (INAUDIBLE).

BRUNO TERTRAIS, SENIOR FELLOW, FOUNDATION FOR STRATEGIC RESEARCH: Close.

TAPPER: And French criminalist Stefan Debri (ph), who was one of the first to arrive on the scene at the "Charlie Hebdo" killings.

Welcome to both of you. Bruno, first, just tell us what you can about the ISIS group that is

claiming responsibility for these attacks.

[14:29:38] TERTRAIS: You know, what was very interesting is that as early as Saturday morning, (INAUDIBLE) claimed that they had established responsibility for ISIS and they did say that it was prepared and planned from broad. That means that even though the French were not able to prevent the attacks, at least the intelligence security experts were good enough to know immediately that this had been an ISIS act of terror and that it had been planned from Syria. This is interesting because it tells you a lot about the value of having prepared and infiltrated those networks even though, once again, they were not able to prepare - to prevent the attacks