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France Steps Up ISIS Campaign, Obama Offers No Policy Change; Family of Paris Attack Suspect Salah Abdeslam Speaks Out; Evidence Paris Terror Cell Rented Apartment in Suburbs; ISIS Releases Video Threatening Washington, D.C.; Islamophobic Attacks Rise After Paris Attacks; French Journalist Gives Rare Glimpse into Islamic State; France Stands Firm, World Stands with France Aired 2-3a ET

Aired November 17, 2015 - 02:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:34] CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN ANCHOR: We are live from Paris as France steps up its campaign against ISIS. More strikes from the skies as President Hollande vows reprisals against the Paris attackers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, FRENCH PRESIDENT (through translation): France is at war. The acts committed in Paris on Friday evening, these are acts of war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: But despite new threats against U.S. targets, President Barack Obama offers no change in his ISIS policy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The strategy that we are putting forward is the strategy that ultimately is going to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Coming up, on a special one-hour edition of our program, new information emerges on the investigation into France's biggest ever terrorist attack.

Good morning, everyone. And welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Christiane Amanpour, live in Paris, with continuing coverage of the terror attacks.

It is 8:00 a.m. here, and investigators seem to be connecting the dots between Friday's horrific violence and ISIS leadership in Syria. The French President Francois Hollande says the attacks were planned in Syria but organized across the border here in Belgium. Authorities say the mastermind is a man named Abdel Abaaoud, a Belgian citizen with direct ties to the ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

And new evidence is emerging that the Paris cell rented an apartment in the suburbs for a week before the attacks.

A global manhunt is under way at this hour for the 26-year-old man called Salah Abdeslam. Belgium's interior minister has released new pictures of he who is believed to be the eighth attacker.

France says it has launched more air strikes on ISIS targets in the terror group's self-declared capital. Defense ministry saying 10 planes dropped 16 more bombs in and around Raqqa in Syria in the early hours of Tuesday morning.

Now the family of the terror suspect, Salah Abdeslam, has spoken out. His brother, Muhammad, is telling the French press that he had no idea what was planned.

Our diplomatic editor, Nic Robertson, has the latest on that investigation.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR (voice-over): Eight suspects, seven of them now dead. According to CNN's French affiliate, BFM TV, six had spent time in Syria. They carried out Friday's attacks in multiple locations across Paris broken into three groups. Three suicide bombers attacked the Stade de France. Among them, Bilal Hafdi, a Belgium said to be 19 or 20 years old. Ahmed al Muhammad, if that's his real name, came from Syria posing as a refugee, traveling on a fake or doctored passport. At the Bataclan Concert Hall, a second group of three suspects. Ismael Omar Mostefai, a 29-year-old French national, spent years in the city of Chartres. Also Samy Amimour, a 28 year old born in a Paris suburb.

(EXPLOSION)

ROBERTSON: Police say Mostefai had a criminal record, had been radicalized, but had never been accused of terrorism. Amimour was the subject of an international arrest warrant and had been placed under supervision after attempting to travel to Yemen in 2012. The seventh suspect detonated his suicide bomb at a cafe on Boulevard Voltaire. The Paris prosecutor's office has identified the attacker as a 31- year-old French citizen but hasn't disclosed his name. Sources tell CNN it was 31-year-old Ibrahim Abdeslam. According to multiple sources, Abdeslam rented the black car authorities say was used in a string of deadly attacks on restaurants and bars on Friday. That car was later found abandoned in a Paris suburb with three Kalashnikov automatic rifles inside.

After being questioned by police in Belgium, one of Abdeslam's brothers spoke to CNN's French affiliate, BFM TV.

[02:05:05] MOHAMMED ABDESLAM, BROTHER OF SALAH ABDESLAM (through translation): You also need to understand that in spite of the tragedy, my parents are in shock. We do not realize yet what has happened. My family and I are affected by what happened. We found out by TV just like many of you. We did not think for a moment that one of our brothers was related to these attacks. ROBERTSON: A third brother, Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old Belgium

national, may be the eighth suspect in the attacks. He remains at large, the subject of an international manhunt, and French police warn he is dangerous.

Nic Robertson, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: As we've heard and seen, the French President Francois Hollande has repeatedly said this country is at war now. And he's asking to extend the state of emergency to another three months.

The senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, is here with me in Paris.

And, Fred, first and foremost, when they say Abdeslam and his cohorts rented an apartment for a week before the attacks, you were there as the manhunt was going on yesterday.

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It seems to be playing more of a role in all of this. It's obviously a place where they rented this apartment. It was apparently rented for a week by the brother of the man now being searched for, Salah Abdeslam. It was his brother, Ibrahim Abdeslam, who rented that. And it appears to be where some of the planning for all of this and the preparation, obviously, appears to have been going on. And on top of that, another one of the attackers, Samy Amimour lived right close to that area. It's a working class area in the north of Paris. People we've been speaking to yesterday there are obviously shocked all this had been going on there. We talked to them about Samy Amimour a little bit. He said he was a fairly quite individual. His parents' house, right around the corner, was raided as well. It seems as though that suburb seems to be one of the places where a lot of this was going on.

AMANPOUR: Was there any indication? Did the parents know? Did the authorities know these guys were dangerous?

PLEITGEN: This is one of the things that's really shocking about all of this. In Samy Amimour's case, he was one of the guys in the Bataclan Theater, who gunned down many people and then blew himself up. Both of his parents were very aware of the fact he was radicalized and worried he was being radicalized and both of them went to the authorities. His mother apparently went to the mayor and said, listen, my son is in Syria, my son has been radicalized, please help me do something.

AMANPOUR: And?

PLEITGEN: And they didn't do anything. The mayor came out and said that he tried to notify authorities. He said nothing happened at that point. And he was quite critical of the authorities of not trying to do more. And his father, Amimour's father, traveled to Syria to try to get his son back and didn't manage to do that.

AMANPOUR: This will be the heart of the postmortem of how all these people slipped through. At least half of the attackers we've found out had been to Syria and came back. And at a time when so much emphasis was being put on the danger and the threat of all these thousands of people going from Europe and the United States and then coming back to commit these terror attacks, it does seem incredible.

Let me ask you this because French media is saying this apartment was potentially identified when they found that car that you also went up and reported on. The Seat, this was the getaway car from some of the restaurant attacks. They identified the GPS coordinates with that address.

PLEITGEN: Yes. It was inside the car's GPS system. And that allowed -- because, obviously, they put it in there to try to find the place. We know both of the cars were brought to Paris here from Belgium. And so they were rented by French nationals in Brussels and then driven over to here. We know one of the cars, the V.W. Polo, was found at the Bataclan Theater. The Seat Leon, which was also a rental car, was also brought here from Belgium.

And it also shows how much cross-border activity there was and how much sophisticated planning there must have been.

AMANPOUR: And as you and Nima and others are focusing on the investigation, the Belgian authorities have at least had the grace to admit publicly that they are the weak link.

PLEITGEN: They are the weak link. And you remember, at the beginning of the year, when we were talking about "Charlie Hebdo," and we were sent to Belgium to cover that. Molenbeek was one of the places that everyone was focusing on. This is the area where Belgium authorities have said for a long time they have trouble with people being radicalized. And, yeah, they said they dropped the ball on this. They didn't keep track of them. They are having trouble keeping track of them. The other side to that is, on the one hand, you have the people they are losing track of, but the other thing is the weapons pipeline as well. It seems as though Belgium plays a big role in that.

AMANPOUR: Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much

In terms of per capita jihadis going, Belgium has the highest number going to Syria.

[02:10:08] Just three days after ISIS launched those deadly attacks here in Paris, the terror group has a new video out vowing that the United States could be next.

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AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program. The French interior minister has been talking to the French press just at this hour, reporting 128 more raids in the overnight hours on locations around this country. When we have more details, what they found, whether they made new arrests, we'll bring them to you.

We here at the Place de le Republique on a raining morning, a rather bedraggled memorial behind us. This, as President Obama and other world leaders are meeting in Manila for an APEC gathering. The economic cooperation meeting is supposed to focus on bolstering trade, but much like the G20 summit that's just ended in Turkey, threats of the Islamic State may end up overshadowing other issues.

[02:15:08] Meanwhile, the Philippine authorities are investigating a viral video thought to be released by militants that support ISIS and threatening an attack on the APEC meeting where Mr. Obama has just arrived. Police are still evaluating the authenticity but they maintain security is air tight.

Earlier, ISIS did release another new threatening propaganda video. That's in the last 24 hours. An Islamic State fighter praises the Paris killers and warns other countries taking part in the air strikes on Syria that they will be next. And this person specifically threatened Washington, D.C.

Speaking in the U.S. capital, the head of the CIA said the Paris attacks were, quote, "not a surprise and that ISIS likely has more operations in the pipeline."

I spoke with the French magistrate, Charles Prats, who has long called for authorities here to be much more active, proactive in fighting the jihadist threat. I also spoke with Aimen Dean, a former al Qaeda member who long ago turned against that's terrorist group and turned into an informant for the British intelligence, MI-5.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Welcome to both of you on this evening.

Can I just start with you?

What went wrong, from your perspective? How is it that all these French citizens went over? People knew there was a threat of Jihadism. They came back and they were not processed. They slipped through the net.

CHARLES PRATS, FRENCH MAGISTRATE: The problem is we have thousands of people suspected from jihadis and suspected from being able to become terrorists, thousands of people, maybe 10,000. So to follow and monitor tens of thousands of people, it needs thousands and thousands of policemen.

AMANPOUR: Right. What's the option?

PRATS: We don't have the number of participants to monitor 10,000 people. So the solution is diligence, and we have to improve our system to detect -- better detection of jihadists. That's the problem.

AMANPOUR: The president announced a three-month state of emergency. You had recommended a state of emergency last year, that they should have implemented it nearly a year ago.

PRATS: This year, last April, after the first problems because, you know, as we have -- people in the French Secret Service. We can't monitor everyone. So we have to go and search weapons because the program in France is all the time for one year. Each time there's a terrorist attack, we learn that people were in files.

AMANPOUR: In files, right, exactly. Some of them were.

PRATS: So the solution is to use this information to go to those people to make search and then to take the weapons. That's been happening since yesterday.

AMANPOUR: Were you surprised that they found a rocket launcher in somebody's house?

PRATS: No, I'm not surprise. It's not surprising. In France, you can't make a search at people's home without an inquiry. It's not a warrant, but it's quite the same. And only you can't -- the prosecutor hasn't the right. That's the problem. So we can't make -- only on the information from the Secret Service. We can go to suspect home and then we search. That's what's happening now.

AMANPOUR: That's what's happening now.

OK. Stand by.

Let me bring in Aimen Dean.

You're very familiar with the kind of opportunism these jihadi groups are able to exploit, obviously, given what the prosecutor has said. Aimen Dean, from your perspective, how easy is it now to exploit all the loopholes in the law, in the lack of police presence, in the online community to commit these crimes undetected as we've seen here?

AIMEN DEAN, AL QAEDA FOUNDER WHO BECAME MI5, MI6 SPY: Well, it is easy to exploit many loopholes in the law but also at the same time, there are many ungoverned spaces in the cyberspace. In the past, we didn't have to worry about that because cyberspace was really small. But now it is big and it's a labyrinth. It's difficult to navigate for even the most expert of experts. So, therefore, there are many loopholes that need to be plugged. And it's difficult. It's basically authorities playing catch-up with it.

AMANPOUR: Just give us a sense from your perspective. You know, you were in the group al Qaeda. You came out. You were an informant for a while. Now you're a security expert and analyst. Tell me how you turned and what made you get out. And can others, who have been groomed, how can others be de-radicalized?

[02:20:23] DEAN: The most important aspect is doubt because without doubt you can't question yourself and question your own core beliefs, the core beliefs you have embraced in the past. And, therefore, doubt was the most important aspect of my conversion. And doubt came after the atrocities in the American embassies in 1998, as you're well aware.

The trouble here is that the theology of jihad has evolved, or I would say actually more or less regressed over the past two decades to the point where it is a far more darker place than it used to be. In the past, it was all about defending Muslim civilians across the world in the frontiers of Islam, as they used to call it at that time. But now we have a whole generation suffering from identity crisis, embracing what I would describe as psychopathic piety. And that is far darker than what I used to experience 20 years ago.

AMANPOUR: Aimen Dean, thank you.

And finally, to you, Mr. Prats, Judge Prats, the communications, people have said that their communications sort of went dark. They were encrypted. They have learned a lot about surveillance and how to evade that surveillance, you say, right?

PRATS: Yes. The problem is encrypted communications and communications by ways and other scope, for instance, using video games, Playstation, private parties, et cetera. So that's a question. That's why intelligence has to be improved. And another way to improve is new projects like TCI, terrorism identifications, with financial intelligence and the way to monitor financial activity, and then to -- based on knowledge before terrorist attacks.

AMANPOUR: Judge Prats, Aimen Dean, thank you for joining me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

Well, now we have new video from outside the Bataclan Theater which was captured, desperate, the terror as people tried to escape the deadly attack. It also shows an act of courage.

And Anderson Cooper has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SHOUTING)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, A.C. 360 (voice-over): The woman hanging from the window is clearly desperate. She shouts out that she's pregnant.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sir! Sir! Sir! Sir! I'm pregnant.

COOPER: On the street below, there's chaos and confusion. Concertgoers spilling out into an alleyway.

(SHOUTING)

COOPER: Some are seen lying on the ground. Others run for their lives.

(SHOUTING)

COOPER: The woman hanging from the window begs for help, unable to pull herself up from the ledge.

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Please! Please! I'm gonna let go. I'm Pregnant! Please, I'm -- I'm gonna let go. I'm pregnant!

(SHOUTING)

COOPER: On the street below, the chaos continues. Severely wounded people are being dragged to safety. A man hobbling, struggling to escape.

(SHOUTING)

COOPER: Then again, more shots.

(GUNFIRE)

COOPER: And more panicked concertgoers pour into the street. Their footsteps echo against the pavement.

(SHOUTING)

COOPER: The shooting continues.

(GUNFIRE)

COOPER: Then, after more than two minutes, the camera captures a man on a nearby ledge tentatively making his way back into the theater pulling the lady to safety. The man says she has since reached out to him to thank him for saving her life and the life of her baby.

The last image we see, two men struggling to pull another victim out of the street.

Anderson Cooper, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[02:24:45]AMANPOUR: Those dramatic scenes from Friday night just show the sheer terror of what people went through. And in the aftermath, many, many young people have come to the Bataclan to resist and to support the equally young people who were caught up in the killing there at a concert. And the newspaper this week started its front page with "Generation Bataclan, Young people standing up for young people who have been mowed down."

Coming up, the latest on the investigation in France.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMANPOUR: Welcome back to the program. And we are at the Place de le Republique in central Paris where people going to work are still coming to pay their respects, to lay flowers and to relight candles after the overnight and early morning downpour. Now the French crackdown after Friday's deadly attacks is growing

stronger. Overnight, French police carried out 128 new anti-terrorist searches. That's according to the interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve.

And French war planes have also launched more air strikes against the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa in Syria. The jet flew from bases in the UAE and Jordan as they did the first night and they say they targeted a command base and recruitment center.

Now here in Europe, police are looking for the man believed to be an eighth attacker during Friday's rampage. He is 26-year-old Salah Abdeslam, a citizen of France. One of his brothers killed himself while carrying out one of the attacks. But another brother said his family is shocked at both men's involvement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMMED ABDESLAM, BROTHER OF SALAH ABDESLAM (through translation): You also need to understand that in spite of the tragedy, my parents are in shock. We do not realize yet what has happened. My family and I are affected by what happened. We found out by TV just like many of you. We did not think for a moment that one of our brothers was related to these attacks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[02:30:10] AMANPOUR: Around the world, Muslims are saying, Not in my name," and they are condemning Friday's attacks.

Even the Hezbollah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, has vowed retaliation for the Beirut bombings and he's offered his condolences to the victims of the Paris massacres.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HASSAN NASRALLAH, HEZBOLLAH LEADER (through translation): People of the region of Arab countries living under Daesh, including Lebanon, which suffered a few days ago from it, are the most aware and sympathetic of what hit the French nation last night. We offer our deep condolences, solidarity, sympathy, moral and humanitarian stand to those innocents who were invaded by the barbaric criminal management of Daesh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Quite extraordinary comments from the leader of Hezbollah.

And here in France, the words of the director of the Grand Mosque in Lyon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMEL KABTANE, DIRECTOR, GRAND MOSQUE, LYON: It falls on France and it also falls on Muslims because will have to pay. We are going to pay for what these people did Friday in Paris or what they did in January. We are the ones who have to explain to justify ourselves and to apologize for what we didn't do. We are the ones who have to suffer people looking at us. This is why, today, with all religious people, we have to be strong and go forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: And worryingly, but perhaps unsurprisingly, indeed, this morning, there are reports of an upsurge in Islamophobic attacks here in France since Friday.

I spoke to Daisy Khan. She founder and executive director of WISE, a non-profit organization in the United States dedicated to equality and justice for Muslims around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

Daisy, you are no stranger to these kinds of spikes of terror and the backlash against Muslims in general. What is your reaction to all of this right now? What's happened here and how it's being reported and the backlash that you are feeling?

DAISY KHAN, FOUNDER & EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, WISE: Well, just at the top of the hour, you've seen that so many -- these ISIS people kill indiscriminately. They are enemies of humanity. Even if Nasrallah comes out and religious leaders are coming out and speaking out against this, it's an indication that many people now worldwide believe that ISIS is a threat to all of humanity. There is nothing Islamic in anything that they say. They are psychopaths, and they have created a huge problem for the Muslim community because all their actions set the Muslim community back by decades.

The event that happened in Paris now has to be -- the Parisians, the Muslims, who are integrated and invested in Paris and in France, have to now, you know, double their efforts. And it affects institutional building. It affects our ability to have a trajectory to restate ourselves in Western countries, like in our case when, as you know very well, we proposed the ground zero, what was called the ground zero community center as a way of creating a counter momentum to extremism. It was our way of amplifying the voice of the Muslim community and, yet, we were set back because people misunderstood our intentions.

AMANPOUR: So how do you struggle to overcome this? Because, obviously, it's Muslims who are being killed as well by these extremists, and you and others like you are being caught up in the global backlash. We're hearing in the United States some states are saying no Syrian refugees in our state, for instance. This is just going to ramp up, particularly in a political year. How do you try to combat this?

KHAN: I think what has to happen is the politicians have to stop, you know, portraying the Muslim community as a national security threat. We've already heard the drum beat of, you know, Muslims need to be treated differently or there have to be more spying programs. All it does is it really feeds into the hands of ISIS. All they do is they take these quotes that are said by Trump or Rubio and they just put them on their recruiting manifesto to recruit more people from the West.

So, yeah, we Muslims are caught in the middle. We have the best of intentions to be law-abiding citizens, but yet the events that unfold overseas really set us back. And what is need is a different rhetoric. And the rhetoric is one of peace and national unity. That's what's needed most.

[02:35:04] AMANPOUR: Daisy, the president, President Obama, speaking in Antalya at the G20 summit today, said we're not waging a war against Muslims, but I'm asking you, do you not think Muslims are waging a war against the collective us. And how does that reality -- these extremist Muslims, I'm talking about, the ISIS types -- how does that reality stand up to scrutiny? And how do you basically use the book, the holy book to try to stop it and to try to, you know, separate the mainstream from the extremists? Because this keeps -- this nexus just keeps coming up again.

KHAN: Yeah. Christiane, the thing that really needs to happen is we need to actively delink the religion of Islam, which, you know, 1.6 million people practice, from the actions of the terrorists. And this is the problem that we have, because even the media, even CNN sometimes makes the error and mistake by calling them Islamic terrorists or Islamist terrorists. This linking -- this delinking has to happen because is and Daesh and al Qaeda, they have used Islam as a way of legitimizing their actions. And they are anything but Islamic.

This is the most important work that needs to be done and it can be done by the community. That's why I welcome the recent remarks of President Obama when he said the Muslim community needs to step up and get more active. And we are active. The difficulty is we've not really been at the table since 9/11. Most of the efforts to counterterrorism have been kinetic efforts, military, intelligence and law enforcement. The Muslim community has not been actively invited to partake in this. So what we're doing right now --

(CROSSTALK)

KHAN: -- and I was very happy to hear -- Yes?

AMANPOUR: Sorry to interrupt you. But I want to ask you, because many Muslims are very concerned the actions of extremists like ISIS, Daesh, they are desperately trying to drag their Salifism, their extremism, whatever you want to say, into the mainstream and get it accepted as the mainstream. So again, the mainstream has to put up some kind of dam against that.

KHAN: Yeah, so we have to cast the doubt into people's minds. And this is what -- I will be rolling out a project very soon with 30 contributors, and that's exactly what our aim is, to look at this ideology and to see how they take core concepts of Koran and Islam and how they distort them. I have to tell you that there has been a lot of people that welcome this kind of initiative because its community led and meant for parents and it's meant for your friends. It's meant to educate and empower Muslims so they can actively discredit this ideology within the communities. That is the work that really needs to be ramped up globally as well as locally. AMANPOUR: Daisy Khan, thank you so much for joining us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: Among just one of the many conversations I've had as CNN continues its ongoing live coverage of these terror attacks.

And coming up, another one, the ISIS hostage who had a lucky escape. French journalist, Didier Francois, was captured by the terror group and held for 10 months in Syria. He gave us rare firsthand insight into life under the Islamic State. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:42:24] AMANPOUR: Welcome back to our special ongoing live coverage of Paris, the terror attacks and the aftermath.

Now authorities here this morning are telling us they have conducted 128 more raids around France. That is according to the interior ministry. And the defense ministry says they've conducted more air strikes against Raqqa, the ISIS stronghold in Syria, overnight as well.

Now the French president declares that "Terrorism will not destroy France. France will destroy it." That vow on Monday.

French journalist, Didier Francois, was held by ISIS for 10 and a half months and he knows their brutality firsthand. He joined me last night when I asked him about how he managed to get through it and what he thinks is going on there right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMANPOUR: We keep asking you because it is so rare to actually talk to a living surviving victim of ISIS.

DIDIER FRANCOIS, FRENCH JOURNALIST HELD BY ISIS 10.5 MONTHS: I was lucky, yeah.

AMANPOUR: You were really, really lucky. 10 and a half months, and it was Jihadi John himself, the mad slaughterer, who was one of your guards. Just start by giving us a sense. Pull yourself back 10 and a half months.

FRANCOIS: Well, yeah, as you say, I was really lucky. Those people are ruthless. We know it and we saw it on the streets of Paris as we see in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, everywhere they've been killing people. So, yes, no doubt about it.

AMANPOUR: Did you ever think you were going to be killed? Did they threaten you?

FRANCOIS: Yes, of course. I had friends, James Foley, who never made it. They didn't survive. All were beheaded and murdered. So, yes, sure, there was that risk and a very real one. AMANPOUR: I thought of you first when I heard that the American

drones had killed, they say, Muhammad Emwazi, Jihadi John. What did you think?

FRANCOIS: I was saying yesterday, it makes the world much safer. Just not safe enough. Yes, this guy was really trained to eat at the West. He was one of the recruiters. He was one of the guys training people, sending them back to us to kill us.

AMANPOUR: So he was one of the guys who was training like the French misguided youth who are going over there --

(CROSSTALK)

FRANCOIS: The French, British, from Europe. There's a group. You see the way ISIS is working now. They do have two feet. One is very well put on the tribes in Iraq and Syria. The main parts, main core of ISIS. But also another part of it, which are all coming from all different countries and wanting to fight back to us. And, of course, those rings have been animated and organized by people like Jihadi John or French guys or Belgian guys coming from here who are recruiting, working on Internet, trying to select young guys coming to Turkish border.

[11:45:39] AMANPOUR: Didier, are you surprised -- you probably aren't surprised given what you just said -- that five or six of these terrorists who have been killed are French, had gone over to Syria for fighting and training.

FRANCOIS: No, of course. That is the main issue. We know basically the intelligence community and the security service knows that roughly 3,000 young French people are deeply involved in to that terror ring. 500 of them are still fighting over there. About 300 came back. So that's a huge number. Not compared to the French, but it's a huge number in itself. And that why it's sometimes difficult to stop all the -- all the --

(CROSSTALK)

AMANPOUR: It's a huge number but they still know. And this is what everybody is worried about. How is it possible that this number of people went over, came back, and slipped through the fingers of French intelligence, French security?

FRANCOIS: Well, we stopped a lot of them. Actually, in the last 10 months, about 10 attacks, 10 attempts have been thwarted. Not more than a week ago, on the 29th of October, one of them was arrested in Toulouse, south of France, where he wanted to kill some navy men from the French Navy who were going to board the ship.

(CROSSTALK)

AMANPOUR: In the eastern --

(CROSSTALK)

FRANCOIS: -- to reinforce the military, and reinforce the first strikes over there.

AMANPOUR: So the president said we will be ruthless and hit back against them. And they, ISIS, have released yet another video, a new video, mentioning and praising the French killers and threatening more, wherever it might be here, England, and mentioned specifically Washington, D.C.

FRANCOIS: Yeah, I have no doubt they are serious about it and we have to be careful and work together. The level of information sharing these days has been absolutely amazing. The French army got a lot of intel from the U.S. It's been very --

(CROSSTALK)

AMANPOUR: In the last three days?

FRANCOIS: And really it's something which should be continued because it's going to last. They have the will to -- and the determination to kill us. We really should show the same kind of will and even a stronger will not to surrender.

AMANPOUR: The president today addressed the nation and said they won't kill us, we'll kill them. They won't destroy us, we'll destroy them. Are those just fighting words, or do you believe there will be some punch behind it?

FRANCOIS: No, there is some punch behind it. Today, the president, they have been waiting from the security apparatus for some time. It's still in the framework of the constitution and democracy. It's going to give much more flexibility and much more muscle to the action. And it's -- people did realize the level of the threat. And I'm sure that now the legislators, the M.P.s are going to follow. I mean, they have been a conscience taken at all levels and I'm sure it's not only words. And you can see more troops are going to be recruited. More police are going to be. It's not only just more means. There is a will. It's very important to have a will.

AMANPOUR: Let's hope that will last, out of this tragedy.

FRANCOIS: These things are stronger because they don't feel this, but we don't feel this and we love life so we are going to be stronger.

(CROSSTALK)

(LAUGHTER)

AMANPOUR: My colleague, Journalist Didier Francois, thank you so much. FRANCOIS: Thank you.

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[02:49:17] AMANPOUR: And after a break, we continue our reporting as Paris, as this country continues to stand firm. More raids around this country. More air raids against Syria. But next, we imagine a world standing with Paris, the compassion reaching out beyond borders. But first, a tribute from a French pop icon, Johnny Hallyday, France's

answer to Elvis and Bruce Springsteen. He led a moment of silence in his Strasburg performance this weekend.

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PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Thank you for making CNN your latest source for news. We'll give you an update for weather across the Americas right now.

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AMANPOUR: Welcome back to our program. And this morning, the French defense ministry announces that it is further deploying its aircraft carrier "Charles de Gaulle" closer to the theater to support the air strikes against Syria.

And French authorities continue to investigate the situation and see how they can get to the attackers. Of course, as we know, at least one is still on the run.

The French President Francois Hollande, as we've reported, continues to declare that his country is at war with the terrorists, and he's following through on his promise to intensify efforts against ISIS.

The interior ministry says that the police overnight conducted 128 more searches.

Also as we've said, French war planes have carried out another round of air strikes on Raqqa and other targets inside Syria. The defense ministry says fighter jets dropped 16 more bombs in and around that stronghold of Raqqa.

Meanwhile, French authorities now say ISIS leaders may have been directly involved in planning the Paris attacks. One of them is this man, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, described by sources as the mastermind and close to the ISIS leader, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

[02:55:04] Finally this hour, we imagine a world of liberty, of equality, of fraternity, but especially solidarity this week as countries everywhere showed their true colors, expressing compassion for the victims in Paris. And at New York's Metropolitan Opera, the Spanish tenor, Placido Domingo, led a rendition of "la Marseillaise," conducting the orchestra there and the chorus in the French national anthem.

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(SINGING)

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AMANPOUR: Such beauty in that show of solidarity after the carnage and the horror that unfolded here.

And that is it for our program this morning. Remember you can always see all our interviews online at amanpour.com. And you can always follow me on Facebook and Twitter.

Thank you for watching. The news continues now. Good-bye for us from Paris.

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