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New Clues in Investigation Into Paris Attacks; MetroJet Crash. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired November 17, 2015 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:01]

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL NEWSROOM HOST: Welcome, everybody to CNN's continuing coverage of the terrorist attacks in Paris. I am Hala Gorani.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL NEWSROOM HOST: And I am John Berman. It's 9:00 a.m. here in Paris, where French investigators are uncovering new links between the men who carried out Friday's attacks and also ISIS leaders in Syria. Authorities believe the mastermind to be a man named Abdelhamid Abaaoud.

GORANI: All right, meanwhile inside of France, new developments this morning, 128 new raids overnight, not arrests, individual raids. That's in addition to the 150 such raids since Friday. Also in the last few minutes, we have just learned that France is deploying an aircraft carrier to the eastern Mediterranean to assist in its air campaign against ISIS. Now John, importantly, this decision was made before the attacks, but precipitated after the attacks.

BERMAN: It was already headed there, now of course much bigger role than previously imagined. There's new information tonight about what the terrorists did in the weeks leading up to the attacks, including where they stayed. We're joined now by CNN Senior International Correspondent Fred Pleitgen, Fred, what are you learning?

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, a lot of this is focusing on a district, a suburb of Paris in the northeast. What we've learned over the past couple of hours is that apparently the attackers rented an apartment there, which seems to be at least where some of the preparation for all of this was going on. Of course, there were many people who were asking how they managed to get all those explosive vests into the city, the guns, the ak-47 that they had as well. So they rented this apartment about a week before the attack took place.

It was actually rented by one of the attackers, the brother of the man who is now being sought in the manhunt, Abdulla Abdelaslam, his brother one of the other attackers actually comes from there. His name is Sami Amimour, he lives there, and his parents live there as well. They were taken into custody yesterday and questioned.

GORANI: Presumably, once an apartment is rented, you have a paper trail, you go can back to the source of the financing of this operation, at least at the (Inaudible) level here outside Paris.

PLEITGEN: You can. And you wonder why this wasn't caught by the authorities beforehand. On the one hand, you have this apartment that was rented where presumably you would have to get this from somewhere, have some sort of agent or website you would have to go to. There are certain things involved. Then you look at Sami Amimour, the other attacker who was in the Bataclan and shot many people there, both his parents went to the authorities and said, my son has traveled to Syria, my son has been radicalized, please help me, went to the mayor. His father traveled to Syria to try to get him out.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Everything they could. Which is so interesting, because you often hear where is the community? But his family went and did this. This really shows you the path this plot took from inside Syria, perhaps masterminded by Abaaoud, to Belgium and then to Paris.

PLEITGEN: Absolutely, it really shows the trail. And the other thing that will be interesting to see, we're more and more establishing where the people are from. You have that district in Belgium. The fact that the cars were rented and found at the scene of the attacks, the interesting thing is what path the weapons took, because there are many people who believe that Belgium is of course, on the hubs where you can get ak-47s.

GORANI: It's easier to buy weapons in Belgium than in France.

PLEITGEN: You can get them in France as well. It will be interesting to see if they can find out who the supplier is. Because judging by these raids that we're seeing -- in one those places, they found a rocket launcher, they found an ak-47, not just in Belgium, but here as well.

GORANI: All right, weapons of war, a rocket launch launcher. This is not something you expect to hear. And we'll get more from Fred of course, throughout the coming hours on the program.

[03:05:01]

BERMAN: We have much more on the investigation right now and the path it took, who may have been behind the plot. Our Senior Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson with more now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Eight suspects, seven of them now dead. According to CNN's French affiliate BFMTV, six had spent time in Syria. They carried out Friday's attacks in multiple locations across Paris, broken into three groups. Three suicide bombers attack the Stade De France. Among them Bilal Hafdi, a Belgian, said to be 19 or 20 years old. Almohammed, 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, Ishmael Mostefai a 29-year-old French national, spent years in the city of (Inaudible), Also Sami Amimour, a 28-year-old born in a Paris suburb. 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. He's identified as a 31-year-old French citizen, but hasn't disclosed his name. Sources tell CNN it was Ibrahim Abdullah Salam. Authorities say he rented the car that was used in a string of deadly attacks 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 Abdullah Salam's brothers spoke to CNN's French affiliate BFMTV.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You also need to understand, that in spite of the tragedy, my parents are in shock. We do not realize what has happened. My family and I are affected by what happened. We found out by TV like you. We did not think for a moment that one of our brothers was related to these attacks.

ROBERTSON: A third brother, Abdeslam Salah, may be the eighth suspect in the attacks. He remains at large, the subject of an international manhunt, and French police warn he's dangerous. Nic Robertson, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: It was a defiant French President Francois Hollande who said his country is at war with terrorism. France is at war, he said. He demanded sweeping new measures to tackle the threat here and really change in many aspects the French way of life. France says it's launched new air strikes on ISIS targets in Syria, in and around Raqqa. Planes dropped about 16 bombs in Raqqa on Tuesday.

GORANI: And the question is, is this just a pinprick, 16 bombs on targets that some are saying were very clearly identifiable targets. Some of the buildings might have been empty. Is it just a symbolic move by France to say, we are responding in kind? The other thing is internal. Because Francois Hollande, as you know, declared a state of emergency. Constitutionally, it can only go on for a few days. He needs to ask for special permission to extend it for three months. That's what he did at a special address of a joint session of parliament. In the United States, you would call it a joint meeting...

BERMAN: A joint session of Congress. It's only happened three times in the country.

GORANI: Three times since 1848. He's asking for laws to allow France to deport suspected terrorists, or even strip them of their nationalities if they have dual nationalities, not to render them stateless if they're only French. Listen to what he said at that parliament session.

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: U.S. President Barack Obama of course, struck a different tone.

BERMAN: He's first based a lot of criticism right now in the U.S. and around the world for his reluctance to put U.S. troops on the ground in Syria, but he defended that stance while speaking to reporters at the G20 summit. Listen.

[03:10:01]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: There had been a few who suggested that we should put large numbers of U.S. troops on the ground. It is not just my view, but the view of my closest military and civilian advisers that that would be a mistake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: There you have it, two leaders, two different messages. Agnes (Inaudible) is a Political Commentator and Journalist in Paris, and she knows the situation here more than anybody in terms of how the French are reacting to this. Is the French going to want decisive military action, do you think, because it's not always the case in this country?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, and what else could President Hollande do? It was expected of him to actually do air strikes, so he did it. It's almost symbolic. You attacked us. We are going to attack you. In the long term, of course, it's not -- we all know, even President Obama knows that aerial bombings hardly contained. So there's a coalition of many countries and they are going to face tough questions. On the ground, only the Kurds are fighting on our behalf and they're doing it with great bravery. And also the theater of operations, France didn't wait for Friday -- until Friday to actually -- it's been an ongoing fight for four years, in Mali.

And the operation was quite successful, has been quite successful in the last few years. So you know Daesh has all these different affiliates throughout the world, also in Asia and Africa. And France cannot go alone, obviously. So it's a question for democracies and for the U.S., for Britain. And there will be more attacks. That is a certainty.

BERMAN: The question for democracy, particularly France, what are they doing here, as what are they doing in Syria. Because it may be symbolic here, 150 raids 2 nights ago, 120 raids overnight, the French public, are they accepting of this? Do they want to see more aggressive action on the ground in their very own neighborhoods?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, certainly, they want to be protected. They want to actually continue to enjoy their way of life. Because what is -- what was targeted in the streets of Paris on Friday night was you know the French way of life, that is to say, not having to carry guns, because that's not in our culture. That is to say, to continue flocking to terraces and that has been the response. So what people did, they flocked to bars and cafes and terraces.

GORANI: But the difference in the reaction here versus Charlie Hebdo, the fear to me, knowing this city, it's palpable. It's very different from January.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're absolutely right. But it's due to suicide bombers. It's the first time it happened.

GORANI: And soft targets as well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cafe terrorists, restaurants, football stadiums. It's the Parisians' Paris. And it's not heavily guarded or protected like the Eiffel Tower or the Notre Dame Cathedral. Except, it's just the sheer ambition, scale, and capability of the attackers, but also it's the death of the hatred for us, of civilization, and democracy, that's what Paris stands for.

BERMAN: In the United States, the CIA Director John Brennan said to a certain extent, the United States has backed off its surveillance capabilities too much particularly after Edward Snowden. Is there a sense in France that there's a willingness to institute some of these surveillance policies, to listen more carefully?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With the key to terrorism, it's intelligence gathering.

BERMAN: Will the French people accept it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think they will. President Hollande talked about new technologies all the time, because those attackers actually managed to correspond without us knowing.

GORANI: All right, thank you (Inaudible), always a pleasure. Thanks for your analysis on this situation.

And this news just coming in just moments ago, by the way, the French interior minister, Bernard Cazeneuve said that 115,000 police, gendarme and soldiers are mobilized across France. Cazeneuve also told local media they would be investing in digital means to combat encryption techniques used by terrorists. And John, interestingly also, there are -- experts are saying that potentially some of these terrorists might have communicated through gaming consoles. You can do that, and that flies under the radar. Obviously, you're not going to text and send emails, but there are other ways to communicate.

[03:15:01]

GORANI: It's not necessarily that these people have programmer's lining up these new systems. It's using things like Game Boys or Playstation or Whatsapp which could me much harder to surveil than traditional phone lines, so big challenges. GORANI: Absolutely. The terrorist attacks have ignited a backlash

against asylum for refugees in the United States, even though the story happened here, the U.S. is reacting, that story ahead.

BERMAN: Plus, one of the attackers is suspected of slipping into France or into Europe, more specifically, hidden among refugees. Who was this man? Was he in fact, from Syria? And what does it tell us about how easy it was to get into Europe and get a Syrian passport to begin with?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, just a few days after what happened here in Paris, ISIS is threatening more, threatening an attack on the United States as well, specifically Washington.

[03:20:01]

GORANI: All right, of course, ISIS and these groups have one goal and one goal only, that is to scare everybody. And because of what happened in Paris, it is working in some cases. There are no specific threats, but U.S. cities aren't taking this lightly. Debra Feyerick has this story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In its latest video, ISIS continues its threats against the west, setting its sights squarely on the United States.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will strike America and its stronghold, Washington.

FEYERICK: CIA Chief John Brennan today, warned the terror group now has a lethal external operations agenda. And what happened in Paris will likely be attempted elsewhere.

JOHN BRENNAN, CIA DIRECTOR: So I would anticipate this is not the only operation that ISIL has in the pipeline.

FEYERICK: Following the attacks in Paris, police departments in several major cities across the United States have ramped up security. In Washington, D.C., metropolitan transit police stepping up patrols on public transportation, using bomb-sniffing dogs and additional bag screening, in New York City, highly trained, elite counter-terror forces deployed to protect crowded places, a force that will ultimately total 500 tactical officers.

WILLIAM BRATTON, NEW YORK POLICE COMMISSIONER: The assignment which you have volunteered, that assignment, there is now no more essential assignment in the world of policing.

FEYERICK: So-called soft target venues are also increasing security. The NFL which already uses counter-terror tactics like metal detectors and bag screening asked its members to further tighten its efforts. The CIA Director acknowledged ISIS has learned how to stay off the grid to help avoid detection. The attorney general said today these encrypted communications are a major concern.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are pursuing a number of options, looking for ways in which they can lawfully provide us information while still preserving privacy.

FEYERICK: The attacks in Paris have raised serious questions with serious implications, the CIA Director said these attacks took months to plan and yet raised no red flags. Also, several of the terror suspects were unknown to U.S. authorities, including the brother of one of the suicide bombers, a brother who was stopped and questioned by police, but who is now on the run. The fear, if this cell could operate apparently undetected in Belgium and France, the same could possibly happen in America. Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: Now in the United States, even though so few refugees compared to Europe from Syria, have arrived in the country, what happened here in Paris has intensified a debate after the attacks on Friday. A number of state governors have made it clear, they want no Syrians in their states.

BERMAN: I'll show you the states. The states highlighted in red say they are now opposed to accepting refugees from Syria. It's a large, large number. We also have a list of the states where they say they will accept Syrian refugees. And there are still a number of states as well that say they're not yet committed one way or the other. This has become a very hot, political issue with virtually every Presidential Candidate now weighing in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN CARSON, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Bringing people into this country from that area of the world, I think is a huge mistake.

MARCO RUBIO, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You can't pick up the phone and call Syria and that's one of the reasons why I said we won't be able to take more refugees. It's not that we don't want to, it's that we can't.

TED CRUZ, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me say it plain and simple, it is lunacy to be bringing refugees into this country who may be terrorists trying to murder Americans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: President Obama was very forceful yesterday speaking at the G20. He denounced some Republican suggestions. Jeb Bush for instance, has said the United States should accept Christian refugees only, Ted Cruz proposing a measure to Congress that would officially ban Muslim-Syrian refugees, but a lot of Christians as well.

GORANI: All right, we actually heard that from Slovakia, that they would be comfortable accepting Christian refugees, putting it in context for our viewers, 400,000 refugees from Syria have made it into Europe this year. BERMAN: Since the beginning of the Syrian conflict, only about 2,000

for the U.S.

GORANI: Exactly. And we still don't know who this individual is with the Syrian passport. We know it's fake. Is he a Syrian? Did he come from Syria? Is he a European who went to Syria and his passport was on a list, didn't want to take the risk and travel the conventional way and got in with the refugees. It is in the best interest of ISIS to have everybody fear refugees.

BERMAN: Selling discord as a form of terrorism.

GORANI: So, this backlash is directly of course, related to this report that one of the attackers came into Europe, posing as a refugee on October 3rd. He traveled to Macedonia before crossing into Serbia.

[03:25:01]

BERMAN: All right, that is the path for immigrants there. He registered in a refugee camp in Croatia before heading to this area, to Paris perhaps through Belgium. Who knows? CNN's Erin Burnett spoke to one refugee who explained how someone could get fake Syrian identification to begin with.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIN BURNETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When you first heard that at least one of the attackers had a Syrian passport had come in to Europe with refugees, what did you think?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, frankly because I know how easy to get a Syrian passport, I knew, yes, I knew this kind of message, they were not Syrian, because they just want to mislead, to throw this passport to mislead the investigation.

BURNETT: So you knew it wasn't real?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Frankly, I am not saying that, but if you read my articles about this, even with social media, you will read the same. That I know this is kind of Syrian -- fake Syrian passport to mislead the investigation. It's very easy to get a fake passport now.

BURNETT: When you heard it was a Syrian passport, though, were you afraid? Were you angry? How did it make you feel, as someone living -- a Syrian passport is all you have in this country?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Myself, I felt angry about it, because I know the society here. I am talking in France, especially in France. I know the society. I know here they have values, human values, and liberal values. They support liberties, so myself, I did not feel that scared.

BURNETT: So this is a Syrian passport. Just want to show it to everyone. How easy is it to get one of these, fake?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now, it will cost you about 700 euros or less, maybe, depends on the negotiation.

BURNETT: And I could have one of these?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By your name, even American name, even an Arabic name or any name.

BURNETT: Anything I want?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your photo, your name, anything you want.

BURNETT: So for the terrorists who want to do this and hide amongst the refugees, it sounds incredibly easy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I tell you something, nobody announced that and it's very important. When ISIS came they got 5,000 passports, 5,000 original passports without names. And you know what I mean? Nobody talked about this. They got 5,000 passports. So just imagine what's going to happen, 5,000 passports.

BURNETT: So how do you feel as a Syrian? You cannot go home. You cannot renew your passport. You have -- it's your identity. You're living in a country where it's not your country. How does that feel?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, sorry. I can't describe. It's like I am lost in the middle of the ocean, with a broken boat and a piece of wood, and that's how I am trying to survive, and that's all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: All right, there you have it. How easy it is to get a fake Syrian passport. Some journalists who've tried it have said, in fact, one journalist put the picture of a high profile politician on a fake Syrian passport, saying it cost him $300, I think.

BERMAN: We do have some breaking news to tell you about right now, having to do perhaps with ISIS terror around the world.

Russia media reports just now, it's on the Metrojet A31 crash in the Sinai desert. Russian investigators have found signs of explosives on the shreds of that aircraft. And that a one-kilogram bomb they now believe brought down the aircraft. A bomb, they now say, brought down the aircraft, killing all 224 people on board.

BERMAN: A one-kilogram bomb, it's small, but on a plane, big enough and it brought this plane down, apparently, according to these reports. We'll have a lot more of course, on that, we'll be going live to Moscow.

There are reports that the French government had some advance notice ahead of Friday's attacks. We'll tell you who had the intelligence just ahead.

[03:30:01]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) GORANI: Well, breaking news this hour, Russian-state media are reporting that the Metrojet A321 crash in Egypt showed signs of explosives.

BERMAN: A one-kilogram bomb, they believe a one-kilogram bomb brought down that aircraft, 224 people on board. Just think of that. The Russians, who by the way, were reluctant to confirm it was a terrorist attack, for a long, long time, now officially saying they believe it was a one-kilogram bomb. ISIS has claimed responsibility for this. So in this two-week period, ISIS essentially shown potentially the capability to bring down an aircraft with a bomb and stage the attacks they did in Paris.

GORANI: It's a game-changer and in Beirut as well. Two suicide bombs, the third one were avoided because of the heroic actions of a man, but two suicide bombs. Those are three distinct locations.

BERMAN: And three separate attack profiles, three attacks in very different ways.

GORANI: All right, new developments as well overnight in the Paris terror investigation, the French interior minister is now saying authorities have carried out 128 new security raids across the country. And police throughout Europe are looking for this man, believed to be the eighth attacker in Friday's rampage, Abdulla Helsalam, a 26-year-old French citizen.

BERMAN: Authorities here have also identified a mastermind, his name is Abdelhamid Abaaoud, probably in his late 20s, a man from Belgium, now believed to be living in Syria or Iraq, within the ISIS' caliphate.

GORANI: They've raised the terror alert to three out of a possible four. And they actually canceled a soccer game.

BERMAN: There was supposed to be a Spain/Belgian friendly in Belgium tonight. Obviously, leading up to the big Euro Championship next year, a highly anticipated, now canceled, shows you the level of fear and concern there.

GORANI: And France/England tonight, is going ahead in London.

BERMAN: There will be a big show of solidarity there.

BERMAN: Ok, there's also the military angle, French warplanes have launched more air strikes. A French aircraft carrier is deploying earlier than anticipated to the eastern Mediterranean.

[03:30:01]

BERMAN: On Monday, the French President Francois Hollande addressed his country's parliament and vowed new military action against ISIS.

GORANI: He is the commander in chief, he needs to sound and act like the commander in chief. He's politically in trouble. So he called for sweeping new laws to make it easier to deport suspected terrorists. He asked, as was anticipated, for a three-month extension for the country's state of emergency.

BERMAN: All right, we're joined right now -- a French resolve was on full display on that speech Monday, but there are questions about whether France and other European countries should have reacted more quickly to advance possible warning about the attack.

GORANI: Now Corrine Narassiguin, a Spokesperson for the Socialist Party. Thanks for coming to us. The French President is socialist. He goes to this joint meeting of congress in Versailles, it's a historic moment for him, and he says I am the commander in chief, I want emergency powers extended. I want a coalition to combat ISIS. This is a moment of crisis for my country, and we need to fight back. Is it going to work?

CORRINE NARASSIGUIN, FRENCH SOCIALIST PARTY SPOKESWOMAN: Yes. We'll see in the details, the constitutional changes that he's proposing, if we have full unity of all the parties behind us. But he was unanimously applauded after his speech yesterday. And he's been very well respected in terms of his action on the international front, since the very beginning when he first decided to go into Mali, for example. So I think there's a distinction to be had between the questions of economy, policy, internally with politics, and the fight against terrorism and the international action.

BERMAN: But there are questions about whether France should have known more about this attack and these attackers leading up to what happened here. They had their eye on at least one or two of them. Should there have been more surveillance? Should there have been apprehensions? Were there signs that were missed?

NARASSIGUIN: They were under surveillance because some of them were believed but not proved to have been in Syria, and some of them were...

BERMAN: Six of the eight believed to be in Syria now.

NARASSIGUIN: That's a problem. We need more international, European cooperation so we can confirm this type of information and have more actionable evidence. And some were under surveillance because they were going to radical mosques, for example.

GORANI: But our reporter Fred Pleitgen was reporting that at least one of the suspects went to authorities and said my son is radicalized, my son went to Syria. Do something. Is it a failure of intelligence, or are intelligence agencies so overwhelmed that they just don't have the manpower to respond to every individual case?

NARASSIGUIN: I think it's a little bit of both. This is why we're increasing the manpower significantly. But also it's because we need more cooperation, because even if very concerned parents come to the authorities to say, my son is in Syria, it's not necessarily easy to actually locate that person and be certain that this is the case. And we are a state where we have to respect the rule of law. We're not going to imprison people on suspicion without evidence. So we can put these people under surveillance and this is where we have these new laws, from just a few short months ago, so we can increase our surveillance capacity, and we can collect more information, much more efficiently on these people.

BERMAN: You want to change the law in some ways to allow more powers?

NARASSIGUIN: Yes. We already passed a law to increase intelligence capacity in terms of digital surveillance. So we don't really need to increase this in terms of legislative measure. We don't need to increase that. We've already voted on that. Now there's a question of what happens when an attack like this happens. The President had to declare a state of emergency, which is not something we want to be doing on a regular basis. This has to be an exceptional measure. And the President has been very responsible, very reasonable, in applying the state of emergency, to make sure individual freedoms are respected.

Sorry, but we don't want to have to use the state of emergency again. We want to have provisions in our constitution that allows the President to act, for the police to act much more quickly in this case.

GORANI: Corrine Narassiguin, thank you very much, the Spokeswoman for the Socialist Party. There are important elections in three weeks. We'll see how your party does. Thank you very much for joining us.

But we do have breaking news.

[03:35:01]

BERMAN: We do have breaking news, important breaking news. Russian officials now say they believe that the crash that brought down that A31, that Metrojet airplane in the Sinai desert, they have found traces of explosives. They now believe a one-kilogram bomb brought down that plane that killed all 224 people on board. I want to go to Matthew Chance who is following this story for us in Moscow. Matthew, what are they saying?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Vladimir Putin, the Russian President speaking to his head of the security services, in a kind of staged briefing about the latest updates on the investigation into the Metrojet plane crash. The (Inaudible) chief told him that it had been found, traces of explosives had found that there was a homemade explosive device inside the aircraft with explosives the equivalent of one kilogram of TNT.

The explosion of that device, the FSB chief said, accounts for the scattering of the plane's fuselage across a wide area. And it's the first time of course, since this crash occurred that the Russians have acknowledged and confirmed that it was a bomb that is responsible for the deaths of those 224 people. Vladimir Putin then proceeded to give a very long, kind of remarks, comments about what the intention was to do next.

He said that the Russian foreign ministry should now appeal to all our partners. We are counting on all our friends in this work, including for the search and punishment of the culprits. He also then said that we will search for those responsible everywhere, no matter where they are hiding. We will find them and punish them. So Vladimir Putin then vowing revenge for the deaths of 224 mainly Russian citizens in that airbus A321 airliner that was bombed, apparently, on its way back to St. Petersburg from the Sinai Peninsula.

GORANI: And Matthew how is this going to change Russia's military involvement? For now, it's been mounting an aerial campaign. We know that Russia has some troops on the ground that they say stay within the bases. There are reports perhaps of them conducting other types of operations that haven't been confirmed. But will we see some sort of ground movement in Syria as a result?

CHANCE: I still don't think there's an appetite for that. Troops that are on the ground in Syria from Russia are mainly playing a supporting role. Of course, there may be Special Forces as well, carrying out other undisclosed roles. But there's no large Russian military presence on the ground there beyond the aircraft and the support troops that we've been seeing carrying out those intensive air strikes against various rebel groups, including ISIS over the past couple of months.

In terms of how this will change that equation, it's going to bolster, I think, if anything, the Russian determination to do what they set out to do in that country. They've been saying they're fighting against ISIS. They're bombing ISIS positions. They've been mainly focusing, according to other reports, on the opposition groups opposed to President Assad. One possibility is that this could help them refocus their attacks on ISIS. Certainly, that's the hope in the west that this attack on Metrojet -- now that it's confirmed to be a bomb, if it's proved to be the responsibility of ISIS, could help Russia focus its attacks more on ISIS groups in Syria, instead of the anti- Assad groups it's been targeting so far.

BERMAN: Matthew, it is extraordinary to hear the Russian leader come out today and essentially say we were attacked by ISIS, 224 people on a Russian plane killed now by ISIS. What's the attitude inside Russia among the Russian people now toward ISIS? Do they feel like they are directly involved in this growing international fight, the United States part of it, France now very much part of it. How committed are the Russian people?

(CROSSTALK)

GORANI: I believe we have U.S. Secretary of State...

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Hang on one second, Matthew.

GORANI: Bit of confusion there. What's going on, just to let our viewers know, we'll get back to Matthew in a moment. But the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is meeting with the French President Francois Hollande, and here's what's going on at the (Inaudible) Palace.

BERMAN: You just see the Secretary of State arrived there just now, the Secretary of State coming in from Vienna where he had been meeting with world leaders. President Obama was there and he is now in the Philippines, so our Senior Diplomat is here to meet with the French leader, obviously there are warm relations there with the Secretary of State speaking fluent French.

[03:40:01]

GORANI: Right. And we saw the U.S. Ambassador to France there accompanying the U.S. Secretary of State. We saw Francois Hollande as well, and yesterday he paid homage to the victims, he essentially said this is not a war of civilization, because Daesh, the Arab acronym for ISIS, represents no civil war, it's a war against savages and murderers.

BERMAN: And to make that point, again, we have the U.S. Secretary of State meeting with the French President and we're on the phone still with Matthew Chance in Russia talking about the Russian response to what they now believe to be an ISIS bombing of one of their planes. And Matthew, if you are still with us, again talk to us about the Russian resolve, what's the feeling among the Russian people about this battle with ISIS?

CHANCE: I think the Russians, as I was saying, have had a long history of fighting terrorism inside their borders. They've been victims multiple times in the past. Now this is confirmed to be another instance of Russians being killed by a terrorist attack. I think they'll stand squarely behind their government. The Kremlin has always said, we are engaged in a global war against international terrorism. They've always tried to fit their air strikes in Syria within that context.

So there's going to be, I suspect, although I haven't seen any figures on this yet -- there's going to be significantly stronger support for the Kremlin's campaign in Syria now. And so that's going to give the Kremlin free reign to up its ante in Syria if it chooses to do so. There may still not be the desire for boots on the ground, but in terms of intensifying the air strikes, I think we'll almost certainly go to be seeing that now.

GORANI: All right, and of course Russia has been accused of not targeting ISIS in the majority of air strikes it's conducted, but have actually gone after rebel groups opposed to President Assad in Syria. Because of its strategic interests in keeping President Bashar Al Assad in place, will it change that equation inside Syria with regard to Russia's military involvement?

CHANCE: Well, according to international -- sorry -- independent observers of the situation in Syria, it's been 20 percent striking at ISIS, the rest have been at non-ISIS rebel groups, opposed to Bashar Al Assad. The Kremlin's strategy is clearly to bolster President Assad. They don't want to see him fall. And one of the reasons for that is that they see the Syrian government as the main stay support against the spread of ISIS. So I don't think we'll see them take their pressure off the anti-ISIS groups, but we could see them intensify air strikes against Islamic state over the coming days and weeks as well, as a response to this airliner bombing.

GORANI: Matthew Chance is our Senior International Correspondent in Moscow with the latest on our breaking news. Russian media are reporting that a bomb brought down Metrojet flight 9268.

BERMAN: Not just Russian media -- Vladimir Putin 0in an interview, basically saying a bomb brought down the plane.

GORANI: And vowing revenge.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry now in a meeting with President Francois Hollande. Our continuing coverage on the Paris terror continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:49:01]

GORANI: Welcome back, everybody. More on our breaking news as we continue to broadcast from Paris.

The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, now says that the Metrojet A321 crash in the Sinai desert in Egypt was indeed brought down by explosives.

BERMAN: That bomb, a one-kilogram bomb, which is about two pounds, not big, but big enough on an aircraft, to take it down and kill all 224 people on board. Authorities believe the bomb was home-made.

GORANI: All right and Vladimir Putin of course, is not mincing his words. He is vowing to, "Search for and punish the culprits." It's going to be interesting, John, to see in terms of Russia's aerial bombardment campaign, whether or not they will intensify that. What will they do with the special ops forces they have in Syria? What will they do the support troops they have who are supporting the aerial bombardment campaign inside Syria?

Matthew Chance, our Senior International Correspondent was saying there's no appetite for ground troops inside that country, but as we've seen historically, what starts with a small level of military involvement from the air, the safety of the air, sometimes ends up becoming something bigger.

BERMAN: And to be clear, ISIS has claimed responsibility for that attack, and there are intelligence sources who say that ISIS is likely behind it.

GORANI: All right, now new developments in the Paris terror investigation. We have new video that has surfaced out of the scene outside of the Bataclan Theater that was the deadliest site of the attacks.

BERMAN: This video captures the desperation as people try to escape. And it shows just an incredible act of courage. Anderson Cooper has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ANDERSON COOPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The woman hanging from the window is clearly desperate. She shouts out that she's pregnant. On the street below, there's chaos and confusion, concert goers spilling out into an alleyway. Some are seen lying on the ground, others run for their lives. The woman, hanging from the window begs for help, unable to pull herself up from the ledge. On the street below, the chaos continues, severely wounded people being dragged to safety, a man hobbling, struggling to escape.

Then again, more shots. And more panicked concert goers pour into the street. Their foot steps echo against the pavement. The shooting continues. 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 said she has since reached out to 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: All right, unbelievable when you see the amateur footage of that poor pregnant woman, saying, I can't hold on anymore. Thankfully, someone pulled her back in, but so many lost their lives.

BERMAN: You see the amazing fear, but also the stunning courage displayed by people in the face of that fear.

GORANI: Absolutely. Thanks for watching our special coverage of the Paris terrorist attacks. We're going to have a lot more after a quick break. I am Hala Gorani.

BERMAN: And I am John Berman. More from Paris just after this, you're watching CNN.

BERMAN:

[03:58:01]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN breaking news.

GORANI: Hello, everybody, and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. We're live in Paris this morning. I am Hala Gorani.

BERMAN: And I am John Berman. We're following two major breaking stories this morning. We will get to the tragedy here in Paris in just a moment, but first, breaking news just in the last several minutes out of Russia.

GORANI: Now, Russian media are reporting that an explosive brought down Metrojet A321 plane in Egypt's Sinai. Security officials determined that the plane showed signs of explosives and that a one- kilogram bomb detonated aboard the aircraft that killed all 224 people onboard, but the Russian President is also speaking today.

BERMAN: Yeah, the Russian leader -- we say Russian leader has said in this...

[04:00:00]