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Soccer Stadium at Hanover, Germany Evacuated; At Least 31 Governors Saying No to Syrian Refugees. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired November 17, 2015 - 15:30   ET

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

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[15:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Bottom of the hour. You are watching CNN.

This is what we know. This is happening right now in Hanover, Germany in the wake of what happened in Paris Friday night. The multiple coordinated explosions including just outside of that soccer stadium south of the city, you now have a soccer stadium. We were just hours away from to watch the Dutch there, to watch Germany take on the Netherlands. It was a game the German chancellor was to attend. But because of some specific concrete intel, that's the phrase we have from the police chief in Germany, concrete intel that someone wanted to set off a device inside the stadium. Ahead of this match, they evacuated everyone. And so, we have pictures of bomb technicians and investigators combing this place looking to determine where, why and what.

Anthony May, let me bring you in, our explosives expert here, retired ATF explosives enforcement officer.

And, you know, on what's happening in Germany, we are not there. We don't know the specifics of the situation. But whenever threats would come in or concrete intel, how do authorities determine to, you know how and when to evacuate an entire stadium?

ANTHONY MAY, RETIRED ATF EXPLOSIVES ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Well, Brooke, that's a tough call. Generally, when you are setting up for security like this, you have your security in depth layered security, but the idea of, you know, stopping these things, you know, we're never going to completely secure any venue. So you have to be prepared for failures to occur in packages or something to slip through. But you have alternatives in place.

Now in this scenario, it appears that they have more than just a threat because, you know, we get threats at venues all the time and we continue operations. With this intel that they have got, they apparently decided to shut down the event completely and go back into 100 percent security sweep of the facility.

BALDWIN: What does that security sweep look like? What are they sweeping? What are they looking for or testing for?

MAY: Well, it's a very labor intensive process, especially when you're talking about a sports stadium. Right after 9/11, we were providing the same type of security sweeps at just about every sporting event. But it is people walking through the venue looking for items that are out of place. They could be utilizing and should be utilizing explosive detection K9s to enable the process to go a lot faster. But for a standard stadium, you need at least six, seven or eight hours to do an extensive sweep to ensure that you have got no problems.

BALDWIN: So that's what's happening right now in Hanover Germany.

Let me take you, though, back to Paris, Anthony, since I have you. Because as we have been reporting, authorities searched this budget hotel, this apartment where one of the suspect or suspects stayed days before the attacks Friday night. And so, they found and we have pictures of, you know, cigarette butts lying around this it room and pizza boxes and these syringes. What would these syringes potentially be used for?

MAY: Well, this is basically a chapter out of the Al-Qaeda playbook. The "Inspire" magazine that came out in 2014 talked about using syringes, and it is typical syringe, as their initiator of the device. The detonator that it is built into the system. In 2009 the underwear bomber utilized a syringe to initiate that device. It's just how the explosive is initiated with chemical reactions.

BALDWIN: Anthony May, thank you so much for your expertise. I appreciate it on what's happening in Paris, what is happening in Germany.

Let me show you what's happening in London. This is essentially like Yankees and Red Sox, right, bitter rivals. You have Paris and London. And the special moments here inside this London stadium, Prince William there, red, white and blue. The colors of the French flag.

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BALDWIN: Incredibly moving moments there inside of (INAUDIBLE) stadium in London.

Next, CNN goes one-on-one with the brother of a fugitive terror suspect tied to the attacks in Paris. What he reveals to Erin Burnett in a CNN exclusive, next.

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[15:39:36] BALDWIN: Welcome back, I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Talking to German reporter moments ago on what is happening there in Hanover Germany. . This soccer stadium totally evacuated in the wake of concrete intelligence that there were to be explosives detonated within that stadium. This German reporter said that the interior minister there will be holding a news conference on precisely what kind of device was that perhaps they found. So we are watching that for you out of Germany. You know, security, everything on heightened alert because of what happened in Paris. We also now know three of the Paris terror suspects were on Belgian

authorities' radar before that coordinated assaults Friday night that left 129 people dead. Investigators had even tracked (INAUDIBLE), one of Friday's suicide bombers back to Syria. What they didn't know is that he had come back according to a Belgium prosecutor.

He also say this. The 8th terror suspect, (INAUDIBLE), the target of an intense global manhunt had been in police custody nine months ago for questioning. But he along with his brother Ibrahim were released. Ibrahim blew himself up Friday night. The men's other brother talked to Erin Burnett earlier today.

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[15:40:55] ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST, OUTFRONT: Mohamed, what would you say if Salah is watching this interview somewhere? What do you say to him about what you want him to do, about what you want him to do and about what he has done?

MOHAMMED ABDESLAM, BROTHER OF TWO SUSPECTS IN PARIS ATTACK (through translator): I would tell him to surrender. That's the best solution. To contact the authorities. I know it must be difficult to watch on TV some actions to try to find him. And you can see that some of these actions to find him are impressive but he must not be afraid to surrender to explain. But of course, if he has something to do with it, he must accept responsibility.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Erin Burnett is live for us this evening in Brussels.

Erin, I mean, so here you talked to Mohammed - in Paris, forgive me, you talked to Mohammed. He wants his brother to turn himself in. What are his fears?

BURNETT: So, Brooke, yes, we are now back in Paris. Actually, we went up across the border and went to Belgium to meet with Mohammed.

Look. He thinks it would be horrible if his brother were to do something awful, to do something further to go ahead and kill more innocent people. He is worried also about his brother simply because he is his brother. He says he still loves him because of that. He is worried that he could go down in a blaze of glory type of situation with police. But he wants his brother to turn himself in.

He talks, Brooke, about the community in which they live. We went there, Mullenbach. This community you have heard so much about where so many have gone to Syria to train, to camps, to join ISIS. Mohammed knows other who have. He know other who are there right now. He told me that. But he himself is not that sort of Muslim. And he saw this change in his brothers where they stopped drinking and they started becoming incredibly diligent about their prayers. They started reading books about Islam. They completely changed as to who they were, gave up their jobs, all of that he said is how they started to radicalize. And he was also able to confirm for us when his brothers went to Turkey and he now believes that's when his brother tried to go to Syria to train with ISIS.

BALDWIN: We know that the older brother, Ibrahim, who blew himself up at a cafe Friday owned a recently shuttered bar in Brussels. What have you learned about that?

BURNETT: So he and the two brothers, one of whom, of course, was at the Bataclan and the other who is on the run owned this cafe together, Brooke. We understand that it was closed down because of perhaps drug infractions or something unclear exactly what the situation was there. But when that stopped, Mohammed said that's when things changed. His brother started staying out all night. They went on their own schedule. He lived in the same house with them, right. The three brothers and their parents. He said they were very, very close.

So you may find it hard to believe. How could Mohammed not have been involved in this as well? He' is the middle brother. So you have a 31-year-old brother, a 26-year-old brother and Mohammed, who I spoke to is 29, right in between. He says those two brothers, though, were always especially close. And he went through 36 hours of questioning, Brooke, in police custody, 36 hours. He didn't get a lawyer until he was done that questioning. And they did choose to release him. So he says that he did not know what his brothers were planning and was not a part of this at all.

BALDWIN: What an incredible story and that you tracked him down.

Let's all tune in to Erin Burnett "OUTFRONT" later this evening there live from Paris, 7:00 for that full interview. Thank you so much.

And again, we are watching and waiting for more information here on this stadium that has been evacuated. It holds about 50,000 people. It was a couple hours before the beginning of the match, but these are pictures outside of the stadium in which the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, was to attend, all because of concrete intelligence that someone wanted to set off an explosive device inside the stadium. This is huge, obviously, based upon as well what happened Friday night in Paris. We'll be right back.

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[15:49:44] BALDWIN: All right. Here is a new nugget as we have been reporting on this German soccer stadium that has been evacuated ahead of the match tonight. News conference has tapped in, what happened with this local interior minister saying there have been no arrests made. No explosives found so far relating to this incident. Remember, they had concrete intelligent of potential explosives inside of the stadium. However, they say, just before the news conference, they are examining a suspicious item in the area of the central train station. That's the latest we have.

Shawn Henry, let me bring you in on this, used to be executive assistant director of the FBI, been credited for boosting the agency's cybercrime and cybersecurity capabilities.

So Shawn, you are the perfect person to talk about with regards to what's happening in Germany. First up, when you hear this from the police chief there, concrete intelligence, it is someone wanted to set off an explosive inside the stadium, translate that for me.

[15:35:00] SHAWN HENRY, FORMER EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, FBI: Yes, Brooke. You know, these type of alerts come in all the time. You get anonymous calls, et cetera, and you don't evacuate whole buildings. When they talk about concrete information, that to me says they have got something with a high degree of credibility, perhaps it is a human source, it may be some signal intelligence they have intercepted or even quite frankly something that's come out of these searches that we have seen across Belgium and France in the last few days where they have picked something up, perhaps they picked up some plans or they saw something that indicates this is very specific, something has got the motive and they have got the intent, and they have acquired some type of explosive, perhaps.

They're going to take this very seriously by evacuating, that's the first step. They are now going to go throughout the entire stadium very. Very methodically, looking for signs of explosives, some indication to back up what they may have heard, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK. So that's significant with regard to what's happening in Germany. The second beat I wanted to ask you about which is what our justice correspondent Evan Perez is reporting on, a cell phone. The cell phone that was found outside one of these attack locations in Paris from Friday night, which essentially, you know, they will be able to, you know, look at the cell phone, hopefully give investigators a little bit more on, you know, how they coordinated these attacks. And there were some message to the effect of like, OK, let's go. What would you be looking for on that cell phone?

HENRY: That is a treasure trove of information, Brooke. You have got prior contacts. You have got text messages. You have got photographs. You may have geo-location on some of those photographs which will give you coordinates, longitude and latitude. You may be able to look at all of the contact list.

You know, those phones hold so much capable, so much capacity digital evidence, it's going to help them to identify perhaps a larger conspiracy. Who other associates are, there may be documents on there, pdf files, and those sorts of things. So that really is a significant exploitation opportunity for the security service there to look at a broader conspiracy, Brooke.

BALDWIN: A treasure trove. Shawn Henry, thank you so much. Appreciate you jumping on on that.

Again, stay with me. More on this breaking news as they have evacuated this Hanover Germany soccer stadium, the German chancellor was to attend tonight. And again, hearing from this news conference, they are examining a suspicious item in the area of the central train station there.

We'll be right back.

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[15:57:28] BALDWIN: We are following the stadium evacuation in Hanover, Germany. Jake Tapper is all over it in ear minutes on "the LEAD."

Meantime, for this these concert goers in Paris and those homeless Syrian migrants on the shores of Greece, the threat of ISIS terror is the same. But after authorities revealed that at least one of the suspected, believed to be involved in the attack Friday night, was among the refugees, this growing list of governors here in that states saying Syrian refugees are not welcome here. It is in response to the Obama administration plans to allow 10,000 refugees to come to the United States.

With me now is someone who met them face-to-face. Erin Schrode traveled to Greece earlier this month. You are an environmental activist who is sick of watching all these images appear on CNN and up and did something about it.

So tell me just first, as you were there in Greece, who are these people coming over?

ERIN SCHRODE, ASSISTED SYRIAN REFUGEES IN GREECE: These people are work professionals. They're like you and I, they are families, they are mothers, they are psychologists and engineers. These are people fleeing the exact same carnage and violence that we see hitting our shores now every day throughout Syria and Iraq.

BALDWIN: How many were coming over on these individual rafts that you saw with your owned eyes?

SCHRODE: We are seeing literally rafts as for 20 and carrying 40, 50 human beings coming by the hundreds. They estimated that one week that I was there, about 8,800 refugees arrived in Greece every day.

BALDWIN: The fact that now, and I'm checking and looking down, because the number keeps changing, 31 states, these 31 governors are saying no, based upon, you know, the fact that one of those attackers came through on one of those rafts, no. Do not come here. What would you say to the states, based upon what you saw?

SCHRODE: Yes, is the threat real that ISIS is sending terrorist in among the masses of refugees. Absolutely, but we cannot punish these masses of (INAUDIBLE) refugees and migrants because of the few. And we see it -- we're a country of refugees, of immigrants, and this is not the time to shut our doors.

BALDWIN: you are going back on Monday, because you were so moved by what you saw and who you helped, in 30 seconds I have with you, tell me about that little boy on Halloween night.

SCHRODE: So I spotted a light in the distance off the cliff, and it was the same cliff where two nights prior, it is about 200 feet down, there had been a rescue with this lifeguard team. There wasn't anybody there. And I said that looks like a boat. We stopped cars, and we went down, and sure enough there were people coming in, flashing flashlights, phones, whatever they had to signal that they were in distress. And one boy came off, and he was hypothermic borderline unconscious. I laid my body next to his, while the doctor checked him out, and there with these people who have risked it all for any opportunity. And I think it's our responsibility to do what we can.

BALDWIN: Erin Schrode, safe travels back to Greece on Monday. Thank you so much.

And thank you for being with me. I'm Brooke Baldwin. "The LEAD" with Jake Tapper live in Paris starts now.