Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Awaiting DNA Test Results; ISIS Threatens Attack on New York. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired November 19, 2015 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:00:00] HALA GORANI, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW HOST: Hello, everybody. It is 9:00 a.m. here in Paris. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Hala Gorani.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW CO-HOST: I'm John Berman. You're watching CNN's special coverage with a Paris terror attack. And we are waiting right now, everyone is waiting for the results of DNA tests from the apartment in this Paris suburb of St-Denis.
Investigators want to know if the allege planner of the Friday's terror attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud if he was one of the two people killed. They're literally testing the body parts found in that apartment right now. We do know that a woman blew herself up inside. She has been reportedly identified as Abaaoud's cousin.
GORANI: Well, hundreds of police officers, Special Forces, military troops descended on the building early Wednesday looking for Abaaoud. Eight people in the end were arrested.
Meanwhile, in other development this morning, ISIS has published a photo showing this a soda can bomb, which they say brought down that Russian jet over Egypt last month, killing 224 people. It's not confirmed that that's what it is, John, a rudimentary device, if indeed, that's what brought down the commercial jet liner.
BERMAN: Yes, scary for people who fly.
GORANI: Yes.
BERMAN: ISIS, also threatening to attack New York City in a new video just released. The New York Mayor, Bill de Blasio says, there is no current or specific threat. The police tell us the video used, some of the footage used is old footage. The threat is new in on itself but nothing specific or credible, just goes to show, says the mayor and the police chief of New York City, the kind of thing they deal with, frankly, all the time there.
GORANI: Well, let's bring in our senior international correspondent, Frederik Pleitgen, he's live in Paris. And you were in St-Denis when that raid took place. We saw, essentially all the windows blown out of the building.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
GORANI: I mean, that building doesn't even hardly look like it's going to be able to stand.
PLEITGEN: Structural damage exactly is what -- what was caused. And there were various reasons for that. Obviously, it was the woman blowing herself up, that in the first place. But the authorities also said that the resistance that they faced when they got to the scene was so fierce that they themselves also had to use some pretty heavy ordinance and that that also caused some of the damage that that inside.
They say that one floor of that building essentially collapsed, essentially fell apart.
And that's one of the reasons also why it's so difficult for them to find out where the bodies in there are, so get any sort of DNA because it's difficult for them to sift through there.
I was there until very late last night. And even in the night hours they were still conducting controlled explosions at that site because they were finding unexploded ordinance. That's how fierce that fire fight was.
BERMAN: Thousands of rounds fired up. Thousands of rounds fired between the law enforcement forces there and the people inside, who, apparently did have enough time to stage a defense. The door itself had to be blasted through.
PLEITGEN: The door itself had to be blasted open. And one of the things that sort of surprised people was that the female suicide bomber that she was able to rig herself and then blow herself up. How did she have the time if this was a surprise raid?
One of the things that the authorities said was that they had had one apartment under surveillance. They came to that apartment, and after the raid or during the raid of that first apartment, they found out about the second apartment.
So, it's possible that she might have been in the second apartment. That would have tipped her off that there was this commotion going on, giving her enough time to rig herself and then blow herself up. But it was, I mean, there was an unbelievable amount of police there.
GORANI: Absolutely. Well, it was a military operation, quite literally, you see troops there. Let me ask you about who's left in that -- I mean, there are two bodies, do we know that for sure? OK. And also, they're still conducting -- conducting DNA test to determine about Abdelhamid Abaaoud is one of those bodies.
PLEITGEN: Yes, they are. They are still the DNA testing. It's not conclusive at this point. Yet, there was a press conference yesterday by the Paris prosecutor who said at this point in time he cannot say if Abdelhamid Abaaoud is among those who were killed.
All he can say is he's definitely not among those who were arrested, even though they haven't been able to interrogate everybody who's been arrested just yet. They are some who are still in the hospital because of the gunshot wounds that they got when this raid was going on.
BERMAN: It's interesting. Our chief international security correspondent, Jim Sciutto was telling me, they don't have his DNA on file. It's not something that they have. So, they have to go out and find a relative of Abaaoud, test, literally it's grizzly but literally test the body parts they're finding in that apartment.
That's how violent that confrontation was. They're sifting through the ruble right now to get to that. Of course, that would be a major development; if it turns out they did get their man, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, believed to be the ringleader behind Friday's attacks here.
[03:05:07] PLEITGEN: Yes.
GORANI: Right. And quick question, though, about the possible -- apologies, but about -- about the people who have been arrested, do we know who they are?
PLEITGEN: It's unclear at this point who they are. Again, they haven't been able to speak to them yet. It's also unclear, the female suicide bomber whether or not that was Abaaoud's cousin or whether or not one of the people arrested.
There are -- there are reports -- and that was also one of the reasons why the raid was triggered, it's because they thought a relative of Abaaoud was there. They gathered that from that intelligence, from those cell phones intercepts that they got.
But one of the things of course, that the French were saying is that, if indeed Abaaoud was killed in that raid, it wouldn't only be obviously be a big thing to get the ringleader of this, but it probably or possibly also saves lives down the line. Because, I mean, he was known to try one plot after the next.
BERMAN: And in fact, what police told us over the course, over the raids yesterday was they believe they got there just in time, just in time to stop another attack that could have been just minutes or hours away.
PLEITGEN: Yes, yes. They had those intercepts and they said they monitored the place for only about 24 hours. And you know, you're familiar with these operations. Very often sites like that get monitored for days, for weeks to see, you know, what sort of patterns these people have. To move in that quickly is something that is quite remarkable, and it did seem that it was quite urgent when they moved in.
BERMAN: All right. Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much.
GORANI: All right. Frederik Pleitgen. A lot of attention is focused on the allege planner. We'd been discussing it with Fred here, the planner of Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris, Abdelhamid Abaaoud. Brian Todd has more on him. BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He was a target of the dramatic
violent raid on two apartments in St-Denis outside Paris, where officials say, suspects were about to launch an operation.
Belgium State TV says a woman who blew herself up in the raid was his cousin. DNA tests are under way to determine if Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the alleged mastermind of the Paris massacres was among those killed in the raid or if he got away.
Abaaoud is apparently good at being a ghost. He bragged to ISIS' magazine about being able to enter Europe and Syria whenever he wanted, quote, "My name and picture were all over the news, yet, I was able to stay in their homeland, plan operations against them."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Another saddened point, Abdelhamid Abaaoud actually fake his own death, made his own family back in Belgium who disowns him feel like he was dead so that he could cover his tracks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: Abaaoud then communicated with ISIS operatives, planning an attack in Belgium back in January. A lot which got thwarted by police. Abaaoud is also linked to the attempted assault on a train bound for Paris this summer, which was disrupted by three Americans.
His raveled in ISIS' brutality. He's seen here dragging the bodies of victims behind a pick-up truck. And here, Abaaoud makes an impasse call for Jihadi.
ABDELHAMID ABAAOUD (TRANSLATED): Are you satisfied with this life you're having? This humiliating life, whether it's in Europe, Africa, Arabic countries, America?
TODD: The New York Times reports when his family heard that he possibly been killed last year, Abaaoud's own sister said they prayed he was dead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRUICKSHANK: Well, one of the reasons they disowned him, is he came back to Belgium at a certain point from Syria, and essentially kidnapped his younger brother, just 12 or 13 years old and brought him all the way back to Syria to sort of make him join ISIS.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: And new information linking Abaaoud to another Paris suspect going back at least four years. The Belgium federal prosecutor tells CNN, Abaaoud served time with this man, Salah Abdeslam, who is now on the run, at a Belgium prison in 2011.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's quite possible that as Abaaoud's father says
was that prison was that catalyst which pushed him towards the Jihadist movement.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TODD: If Abdelhamid Abaaoud has been taken out, a significant threat to Europe is removed. But analysts say there are other top ISIS operatives who likely had connections to the Paris attacks still out there.
Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
BERMAN: Brother, thanks to Brian Todd for that.
This morning, China is condemning what it calls the coldblooded and violent killing of one of its citizens by ISIS.
GORANI: All right. Now the terrorist group is claiming as well that it has killed a Norwegian hostage. ISIS posted pictures of the man in the September issue of its online magazine. Bullish if they have an online magazine actually, when you think about it, it's surreal. Dabiq is the title of the magazine with the words for sale below their portraits.
BERMAN: Joining us now is Janine di Giovanni, she is the Middle East editor of Newsweek, she's also a friend, Janine, of Steven Sotloff, the Israeli journalist kidnapped in Syria and killed there by ISIS. So, it is chilling to see today, ISIS claiming the responsibility for two more deaths.
[03:09:58] But you can sense that in a way that it's their retaliation or response perhaps to the raid here yesterday. It's ISIS saying we're still here. We can do what we want in the land that we control.
JANINE DI GIOVANNI, MIDDLE EAST NEWSWEEK EDITOR: I think ISIS, one of their main strategies is to provoke and to provoke retaliation. And I think exactly what's happening now is playing into their greater plan. They're getting a huge amount of media attention which makes them, which lends them credibility and also gives them more of a status than they had before.
I think the main thing we have to remember as well that what ISIS detests is tolerance. Tolerance is the thing that they cannot -- that they cannot adhere to. They want a society that is completely divided, which is of course why France was a target.
They -- they sensed divisions within this country. Deep divisions amongst the Muslim youth, French youth, I shouldn't say Muslim youth, they're French-born.
GORANI: Yes.
DI GIOVANNI: But also the extreme right wing. So, it was almost in a sense horribly, horribly tragic, but they knew, they knew what they were doing. GORANI: So, I spoke to Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far right
party, the National Front, just about an hour ago. We'll have a portion of that interview in a moment on CNN.
But I essentially asked her, you know, you are calling for France to close all of its borders to migrants, when it's not really even determined, there is no real solid confirmation that any of these attackers were indeed Syrian or legitimate refugees.
She -- she justified it by saying we don't want to take any risks. Why risk it, if there is even the shadow of a possibility that this was a refugee, let's close all our borders. Will that play politically here in France?
DI GIOVANNI: I think -- I think this is terrifying. I mean, frankly, I think having worked with refugees for so -- for such a big part of my career, I find that these politicians playing into their own agenda is disgusting. Because frankly, we know, what we do know is that the most of the Syrian refugees or refugees from any conflict that are fleeing are desperate people. To leave your home, to leave your family, to leave your country is a huge act.
BERMAN: Fleeing from the violence not going somewhere to commit violence.
DI GIOVANNI: No, absolutely. And ISIS might, we still don't know, there is absolutely no confirmation of this. Let's be clear, all of the killers we know of were E.U. residents. They were -- the Syrian passport we know was a fake or forged. So, for politicians like Le Pen, to play into this is really I think absolutely bogus and disgusting. But she's probably going to do well in local elections in two weeks.
GORANI: She's a very skilled political operative. No doubt about it. And I wanted to talk about this state of emergency. Because we know constitutionally, France can only apply it for a few days, they need to request special permission to extend it to three months, which is currently happening today.
DI GIOVANNI: Yes.
GORANI: So, is this something French people support, the extension of the state of emergency?
DI GIOVANNI: Hala, this is a -- this is a law that's rarely, rarely used. It goes back to 1955. It has over tones of the French Algerian War, which as you know is a very tender topic here in France, a keen to America's Vietnam.
Very few -- it's interesting because the Algerian War, very few novels have been written about it, very few films made about it. It's something you don't go near. Anyway, this law what it means is that it really could encroach on civil liberties in a huge way.
Three months is a long time. It means they could have house arrests, search -- search houses, arrest, they can confiscate materials, they can dispel crowds, so, no, I think that people are very wary of this.
BERMAN: They have had more than 100 raids every night since the attack here on Friday. It will be interesting to see how much longer they keep that pace up and if there is a reaction. I mean, right now I think there is a tremendous amount of support and I get the sense of people are very supportive.
DI GIOVANNI: Ordered. People are frightened; France is in a state of anguish and mourning. And so people are supportive of order, they want security. But at the same time, I think personally, we're going to see a blowback from those hundred raids last night.
How many of those people are actually were in some way involved and how many were woken up in the middle of the night and have this experience of the security forces charging in. So, I think we will see in the weeks to come more blowback from this and how it actually does, encroach on people's individual rights.
And France of course, is a country which has great bearing on their freedom of speech, freedom of expression, crowds gathering. So, let's see what happens this morning in Senate if the state of emergency is allowed to extend to three months, which is -- which would be a precedent.
GORANI: It is still certainly very raw here in Paris and in France throughout the country. Janine di Giovanni, the Middle East editor at Newsweek. Thanks so much for joining us.
DI GIOVANNI: Thank you.
BERMAN: Well, and another show of force this morning, Russia's military claims it used airstrikes to destroy tanker trucks inside Syria. Russia says these trucks were using, being used by ISIS and other groups to transport oil. That's a key means of finance for these groups.
GORANI: Well, it's not clear though, where or when the air strikes occurred. But this news comes just a day after Russia bombed some ISIS sites in Syria.
And in fact, speaking of the terrorist group and its involvement with Russia, it is showing off what it claims is the homemade bomb that took down a Russian passenger jet last month.
[03:15:10] BERMAN: It's really a remarkable image. They posted the picture of the photo in their online magazine. It shows this soda can and two components that appeared to be a detonator, maybe also a switch. But just a soda can.
Remember, Russia said it was a 2-kilogram device or 1-kilogram device, maybe 2-pounds that took down the plane, our experts tell us that would be enough to perhaps put -- hold up a plane that would ultimately take it down.
ISIS claimed that it was the one behind the downing of that Metrojet crash over to Sinai Peninsula killing all 224 people on board. No one really has confirmed the claims at this point. But Russia says now it was a bomb. A lot of people acknowledge it was a bomb. And intelligence services all over the world suspect it was ISIS.
GORANI: And John, if indeed, something like this soda can took the plane down it means it was a suicide bomb experts. They're telling us because as a detonator somebody would have needed to operate it.
Let's turn now to Matthew Chance, he's in Moscow with more. Any reaction to this claim that this soda can was used to bring down the plane?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, it's interesting because there hasn't been any reaction so far, at least not officially here in Russia to that picture, the image that was put on the ISIS online magazine showing that tin can, a soda can, a switch and the detonator.
But I expect there will be later in the day, because there is a briefing of various officials coming up in the next few hours. And so maybe they'll have something to say then. But what the Russians have been emphasizing over the course of the past few hours is the action they're taking in Syria to combat -- combat ISIS.
And they've been talking about the raids they have been carrying out. You mentioned they've been targeting the convoys of oil tankers heading towards the Iraqi border from ISIS-controlled territory inside Syria.
The Russians saying that over the past several days, they've destroyed 500 vehicles carrying oil, oil tankers. In their tracks, essentially. They've also been targeting other oil installations in the ISIS-held territory to try to cut off this essential flow of revenue to that -- to that group, Hala.
GORANI: All right, Matthew Chance is live in Moscow. Thanks very much.
BERMAN: The news is really shaking this out at States right now, very controversial. Honduran authorities say they arrested five Syrian nationals, travelling with passports stolen in Greece.
GORANI: Now the man travelled to five other countries before they were caught in the Honduran and capital. Police have yet to confirm it but they say the men were likely trying to reach the United States and that they're being investigated on charges of falsifying documents.
BERMAN: All right. Coming up for us on CNN. ISIS has said its attacks are carried out in the name of Islam. But one of the highest religious authorities in the Sunni Islam has a much, much different take. This man not mincing words at all. Stay with us for a live report.
[03:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORTS HEADLINE REPORTER: Hi, there. Thanks for joining us. I'm Patrick Snell, with your CNN world sports headline. Starting with the very latest on the ongoing FIFA crisis, with the association suspended president Sepp Blatter, and the head of European Football, Michel Platini, both losing their appeals against provisional 90-day bans. Now the pair was suspended last month.
The 79-year-old, Blatter is allege of signed the contract deemed to be unfavorable to FIFA and making a so-called his loyal payment to the Frenchmen. Both deny any wrongdoing and will up all -- will appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
Former world number one at golf Tiger Woods has been appointed one of the U.S. five U.S. captains for next years' Ryder Cup in Minnesota, the 14-time major winner is a veteran of seven Ryder Cups but has undergone two surgeries in recent months and he has not yet set a date to return to action. The U.S. looking to end a dismal stretch of eight defeats by Europe in the last 10 editions of the tournament.
And in the NBA, more red-hot stuff from Steph Curry, the Golden State Warrior star scoring 7 of his game-high, 37 points in the final 88 seconds to help the reigning champs stay unbeaten, 155 points to 110 to win over the Raptors on Tuesday. Some are worrying for their rivals, Curry saying he feels his team can improve yet further. They're 12 and zero right now in the current season.
Thanks for joining us, you're being up to date.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right. One of the highest religious authorities in Sunni Islam condemning the recent string of attacks by ISIS.
GORANI: Well, the grand Mufti of Egypt is now saying that the terrorist groups actions are not justified by the Quran and that he rejects the militant's ideology. He also has a word of caution for young people around the world. Ian Lee reports.
IAN LEE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Three ISIS attacks in three weeks, explosions and gunmen kill more than 120 people in Paris, twin suicide bombings killed 43 in Beirut, and 224 people killed after ISIS blew up a Russian plane in Egypt, all in the name of Islam. I sat down with Egypt's grand Mufti, one of the premier legal authorities in Sunni Islam.
How do you feel when terrorist attacks are carried out in the name of Islam?
(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
SHAWKI IBRAHIM ABDEL-KARIM ALLAM, GRAND MUFTI OF EGYPT (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): Terrorist operations carried out in the name of Islam are pain us. In fact, Islam rejects such operations. We stand in solidarity with those killed in these events.
LEE: ISIS says they're using the Quran to support their actions. Does the Quran justify this violence? ALLAM: ISIS' actions aren't justified in the holy Quran. ISIS warps
its teachings. We have found 50 verses from the Quran which ISIS has misinterpreted and twisted out of context.
LEE: What would your message be to someone who is thinking about joining ISIS or someone who is already in ISIS?
ALLAM: I would tell the world's youth not to be seduced by ISIS and these terrorist organizations. Find a qualified expert in Islamic law. ISIS only serves its own interest and the world.
LEE: What can the average Muslim do, then, who is part of these communities in the wake of these attacks?
ALLAM: Muslims in the West should interact with their communities into positively assimilate in these communities, the type of assimilation that doesn't cancel their Muslim identity but geared towards building good behavior and showing the right image of Islam.
LEE: The grand mufti is spearheading a global initiative called not in the name of Muslims, to combat Islamophobia. The mufti stresses the only united can the world defeat terrorism.
BERMAN: We're joined by CNN's Ian Lee in Cairo right now. Ian, a very interesting discussion, do you have a sense of how much the grant mufti considers ISIS in this terror groups out very nearby. How much of a threat he considers them to be not just to Egypt, but to the type of Islam that he promotes?
LEE: Well, I have interviewed the grand mufti a number of times and after these tragic incidents, the last one was after ISIS killed that Jordanian pilot. And he has every time said that ISIS is one of the largest threat not only to national security but also to the religion.
[03:20:07] He says that it is a moderate religion and that these people who, he says, are not Muslim are trying to hijack it, trying to taint the name of Islam and trying to sew discord between the Muslim community and other communities. So, he does see this has a real threat on two different fronts.
GORANI: All right. Ian Lee, thanks very much for that and that report. The interview with the grand mufti in Egypt. Here in Paris, people are pulling together after the attacks, but the political climate is shifting to the right. And one woman is leading the move.
Up next, I talk to Marine Le Pen the president of the National Front Party.
BERMAN: Interesting stuff.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Hala Gorani in Paris.
BERMAN: And I'm John Berman. You're watching CNN special coverage of the Paris terror attacks.
This morning, French police conducting DNA tests to try to identify the two people, at least two people, who died in the raid in an apartment, two apartments in St-Denis early on Wednesday.
GORANI: Well, we...
BERMAN: Yes.
GORANI: ... as what we know, John, that the target was Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the man suspected of orchestrating, organizing these attacks in Paris. His whereabouts still very much unknown at this stage.
BERMAN: Yes, that's why they're testing the body parts found to try to find some kind of match to determine if he was dead. Amateur video it gives you a sense of the overwhelming force used in the raid. Thousands of rounds fired.
[03:30:00] Authorities say they moved in just in time they think to keep these people from launching another attack.
GORANI: Now, apparently, cell phones left behind at the scene of Friday's attacks led them to the apartment. All in all, John, eight people have been arrested. Now, this is going to be interesting because usually in these cases terrorists end up dead.
And then you have to sort of walk back with the different types of forensic evidence or circumstantial evidence, et cetera, and try to figure out what happened that led to the attacks. In this particular case, there is human intelligence, it must be invaluable.
BERMAN: Yes. They have human intelligence. Unclear the identities of the eight people now in custody. The one thing that French officials did say is it, it's not Abdelhamid Abaaoud. He is not one of the people in custody, so either he is dead or he was not there.
GORANI: Well, the French President Francois Hollande says his country is at war. He, in fact, is proposing new laws and more spending on public safety in response to these attacks.
BERMAN: They're going on right now, the French national assembly gathering to debate this plan, to extend France's state of emergency for three months. That would be relatively unprecedented.
GORANI: Right. And this is the type of law that has been used only a few time. That the last time was during the Franco-Algerian War in the late '50s and the early '60s.
Now just to give you a little bit of a sense of what's happening here in terms of the mood, people in Paris are trying to get back to some sense of normalcy. But the after effect of the terrorist attacks are real and they are everywhere.
BERMAN: Yes. One prominent example, the day after the attacks, Marine Le Pen, the president of the far National Front Party, she demanded a crackdown on Islamist in France declaring France and the French are no longer safe.
GORANI: Well, just about an hour and a half ago, I talked to Le Pen to find out what is behind her controversial comments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: You have asked for the immediate halt of migration and the refugees, of Syrian refugees to France. Are you not using this tragedy for political gain?
MARINE LE PEN, NATIONAL FRONT PARTY PRESIDENT (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): No. I did not use the attempt -- the terrorist attempts to stop immigration and refugees. One million refugees in 2015, 3 million, I think, I just think this is crazy. I have been saying it for a long time since 2011.
However, I had also warned the French and the authorities very clearly that there will be in these immigrants, terrorists who will infiltrate into. And it is exactly what has happened. So, confronted with this reality of this threat, I think we have to make an urgent decision.
GORANI: But it has not been proven that this is a Syrian man. It could have been a stolen passport; we don't have definitive proof of any of this, so how can you jump to those conclusions?
LE PEN: But that passport, whether it's real or false, when came through Greece, came through Serbia and came to Paris. So, there is somebody who accompanied that passport and made that journey.
So, given this kind of huge threat, and which is literally a declaration of war to France, we cannot take the risk. It questions the safety. It challenges the safety of French, and I am here to fight for the safety of the French.
GORANI: You've talk of 3 million potential migrants over the next few years; France has only accepted or agreed to accept tens of thousands. Those numbers don't correspond to reality at all, do they?
LE PEN: Yes, but 3 million comes from the European commission, of the whole union, the European Union. Yes, but you have to understand. But there are no more frontiers exist. All national frontiers have gone.
But however, when Germany takes 800,000 people it is incapable of looking after those refugees. The moment they have legal status they can go anywhere in Europe. So, this idea of a few thousand that have come here, I am from Cali, that region, and I can tell you that it is a totally crazy situation.
They're mad to say it's only that amount. Multiply that by three, just for Cali, so -- so, there is a huge amount of immigration coming in. And this is going to add to the high immigration.
GORANI: This is the message of ISIS, be afraid of everyone. They want to terrorize the world. Are you not simply also repeating the same message?
LE PEN: It is the argument that was immediately developed by Mr. Obama and Madam Merkel, and by the U.N.
[03:35:04] Yes. So, it's an idea that they want to develop. I will say once again, I am here to protect the safety of the French. I can see that the United States, some of them believe now to receive Syrian refugees is to take a risk that is not acceptable.
There are other solutions that we have been suggesting for years. Which means to put humanitarian centers where we can look after the population who are genuinely in danger. Close as possible to their country, to their territories instead of bringing them here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Marine Le Pen is the leader of the National Front, it's a far right party. Now, John, crucially, there are important regional elections in three weeks. And even though politicians in this country have said we are going to respect a period of sort of solemn reflection in the country.
Let me tell you something, within 24 hours they were all out making statements. Certainly, it appeared as, though, in the case of Marine Le Pen and others, trying to capitalize a little bit on the situation in this country to score some political points that has to be said.
BERMAN: It's really interesting. It's really interesting. You know, first of all, French President Francois Hollande he said he will receive the 30,000 refugees he has promised to allow into this country, he will not change the policy there.
And to hear her talk, that's exactly the debate going on in the United States right now over a far small number of refugees. President Obama has promised to veto a measure that Congress will discuss over the next few days that would place restrictions on accepting Syrian refugees.
GORANI: And the full interview will air a little bit later on CNN International. But one of the things I asked her was, are you not playing into ISIS' hands, essentially they want people to be afraid of refugees; they want to divide society in this country. And you're essentially being the sort of you are embracing that same message -- message. Of course, she disagreed with me on that one but we'll have the full interview a little bit later.
(CROSSTALK)
BERMAN: Right. This is -- this is part of the discussion right now taking place inside the French Parliament. We have some live pictures now to show you. What's going on here is they're discussing extending the state of emergency in France. Extending this really unprecedented level of activity, emergency going on right now, they're looking to extending it what, another three months?
GORANI: That's correct, and that's the Prime Minister Manuel Valls there addressing parliament. He is expecting that this measure will be approved. And we'll keep following that and the rest of the day's news after a quick break. [03:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right. Welcome back to CNN Newsroom.
An international manhunt underway this morning for Salah Abdeslam who was believed to have been involved in the Paris terror attacks. He was last seen on the road headed to Belgium in the hours after the attacks. And his brother, Ibrahim, reportedly one of those killed in the attacks.
GORANI: And as CNN's Kyung Lah reports, this is not the first time we've seen family members commit acts of terror together.
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the St-Denis raid, the woman who blew herself up as police approach, believed to be the cousin of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the ringleader in the Paris attacks. Family, tied in terror.
Also seen with the Abdeslam brothers. The French newspaper reporting Ibrahim Abdeslam rented this car, then detonated his suicide bomb outside this cafe in Eastern Paris during Friday's attacks. As he died, his brother, Salah Abdeslam fled. Now Europe's most wanted man. They share a family name, a life history and radical beliefs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE MOORE, FORMER FBI SPECIALL AGENT: A lot, a lot of our cases revolved around family members working together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAH: Just look at recent history. Earlier this year, in the Charlie Hebdo attack, brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi spearheaded the massacre. The Boston Marathon bombing, homegrown terrorist and brothers, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
The 9/11 hijackers, of the 19, there were 3 sets of brothers.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOORE: They'll support each other sometimes even when they are not ideologically sold on what you're believing in. They're following you, not an ideology.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAH: In 2013, Ahmed Halane left his family in England to join ISIS. One year later, his twin sisters, Salma and Zahra, once popular high- achieving twins followed and became Jihadi brides.
And last fall, then, 19-year-old Mohammed Hamzah Khan packed his bag and headed to Chicago's O'Hare to join ISIS in Syria. Traveling with him? His 17 and 15-year-old brother and sister. U.S. Customs stopped them at the gate. His mother made this impassion plea.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ZARINE KHAN, MOHAMMED HAMZAH'S MOTHER: We have a message for ISIS,
Mr. Baghdadi and his fellow social media recruiters, leave our children alone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAH: But blood is not necessarily thicker than beliefs. Although police have been questioning the brother of Salah and Ibrahim Abdelslam, Mohammed Abdeslam claims he wasn't radicalized telling Erin Burnett why.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ERIN BURNETT, OUTFRONT SHOW HOST: You live in the same house, did they ever approach you?
MOHAMMED ABDESLAM, BROTHER OF TWO ISIS MEMBERS (THROUGH TRANSLATOR): No. They know who I am. It's difficult to get close to me. Nobody can radicalize me. I have my own ideas.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAH: Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.
BERMAN: Now, of course, the Abdeslams they lived in Molenbeek, a neighborhood outside Brussels right now. The fact that they were all in Belgium, the fact that Brussels and Belgium it becomes something of a hub for international terror right now has really caused an enormous debate in that country about what they do.
GORANI: Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected mastermind of these attacks as well, suspected to have been very active in trying to organize big attacks in that country as well on that high speed train that tell us just a few months ago this summer.
All right. Our senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson joins us now live from Brussels with more. And what more do we know right now about the status of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected ringleader?
IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, at this point, the Belgium security services are not telling us about his current status. There's -- they have told us that all the information about the raid in St-Denis in Paris has to come from the French authorities.
In the meantime, Hala, we are now monitoring a speech that's being given by the Belgium Prime Minister in the Federal parliament here, in which he is discussing the aftermath of the Paris attacks, and very much aware of the role that Belgium citizens and Belgium residents have played in these terrible attacks.
Now, he has proposed a number of new measures to strengthen the security services here in Belgium. For example, proposing an additional 400 million euros budget to go towards some of these efforts to control Belgium real problem Jihadi volunteers. [03:45:11] After all, per capita this country has more volunteer Jihadist trying to get to the battlefields in Syria, joining ISIS than any other Western European country. He has also proposed measures such as putting an electronic security bracelet onto people who are suspected of being involved in terrorist activities.
He has called for more actions to support the local authorities in that neighborhood that has come up again and again in this investigation. Molenbeek, that is a neighborhood of Brussels, the capital of the European Union, that the suspected ringleader of the Paris attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, that he grew up in. And just a few doors down from two brothers who were key suspects in the Paris attacks. Ibrahim and Salah Abdeslam.
Ibrahim being one of the suicide bombers, and Salah being perhaps, one of the most wanted man in Europe right now at large. And the vehicle he had been travelling in after the Paris attacks actually ended up back in his home neighborhood of Molenbeek.
Belgium authorities have gone on to say that there are some longstanding ties between Abaaoud, the suspected ISIS ringmaster here, and the brothers, in particular, Salah Abdeslam, who is still a fugitive right now. Both of them were arrested and convicted on the same charge of theft in 2011 and spent a month in prison.
And it just goes to show that Abaaoud seems to have used people from his earlier years here in Brussels, as well as perhaps relatives like his female cousin who is said to have been in the apartment in St- Denis as part of this deadly conspiracy. Hala.
BERMAN: All right Ivan Watson for us in Brussels right now. Ivan is in the parliament. It's so interesting to see that discussion going on there in Brussels right now, the parliament there. Right here in France there is a debate right now that extending the state of emergency.
In the United States, over the next few days, they'll be having votes in Congress about the refugees issue with Syria. This is truly now an international discussion being had.
GORANI: Absolutely. But it all boils down of course, in this case to the victims. Up next, a powerful interview with a widower of Friday's Paris attacks and why he tells us he will not succumb to hate. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
( SPEAKING IN FRENCH)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: We'll be right back with that and more. He wrote an open letter to ISIS. You don't want to miss this. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN'S METEOROLOGIST: Good day. I'm your meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for CNN Weather Watch.
Watching storms on both sides of the United States, one exiting the picture, on the Eastern side of the U.S. another one trying to enter the picture across the Western side of the United States.
In between, high pressure and large and in charge them. A drier pattern expected but still, the eastern corner of the U.S. certainly can get some rainfall mainly across the south and back behind it. We've seen record rainfall reports out of parts of the United States, around Missouri, seeing observations of over 130 millimeters, and some of the higher numbers we could pick up.
And then you notice back to the West, the rain begins to enter the picture, this eventually brings in another round of wet weather towards the East later next week. But small showers also prevalent from the Bitterroot to the (Inaudible) to the Wasatch, the Siskiyous, and all the mountain ranges around the West beginning to accumulate the snow.
[03:50:06] In the Midwest, certainly who have seen their fair share of snow showers. Colby, Kansas coming in with 51 centimeters from this past storm system in place as well.
Well, high temperatures around New York City. Unusual to see this in late November, temperatures about one degree shy of what's happening in Atlanta, we'll get some rain out of this. Dallas sitting at 19 degrees with mostly sunny skies, and look at that about fridge there dive there, for a later into next week as the temperatures cool off from Saturday into Sunday as well.
Taking you to the South, quick glance here across the Caribbean and parts of Central America. And Mexico and Guatemala City, about 26 degrees.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: All right.
BERMAN: There have been some amazing displays of courage in the face of all the horror here, and Hala, you spoke with a man who lost his wife in the Bataclan Concert Hall.
GORANI: Right. Now, I was just telling you. She actually went to that concert with a friend who had introduced them. So, it was just such a tragedy. His name is Antoine Leiris. He tells me he lost the love of his life in the massacre, and he sent an open letter, John, to ISIS on Facebook.
It was shared -- but I think so far it has been shared 200,000 times. It really hit a nerve. I talked to him about his message for the killers and the anguish for searching for his murdered wife.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANTOINE LEIRIS, WIDOWER OF PARIS ATTACKS: In past two days, before I know she was -- she was dead. I spent the night on the road with my brother to see every hospital in Paris and in the suburb. And I learned...
(FRENCH SPEAKING)
LEIRES (TRANSLATED): ...of her death Saturday when the medical examiner called me that they have my wife's body.
GORANI: So, you learned on Saturday but still you had to wait until Monday and you felt bad about that, because you weren't close to her.
LEIRES (TRANSLATED): Yes. I felt very bad to have left her alone. That she could have lived through this. And I wasn't even there. Dead or alive, that was not the point, I just wanted to be with her.
GORANI: And then you wrote this post on Facebook, which is the reason we are speaking. Because it has been shared more than 120 or 130,000 times. The headline of it is, I will not succumb to hate. (FRENCH SPEAKING) Friday night you stole an exceptional life, the love of my life. The mother of my son. But I will not succumb to hate. What made you write that?
LEIRES (TRANSLATED): I saw her and I felt I had to force myself to write. That I had no choice. I wanted my son to grow up like a human being, like a person who will love what his mother loved. Literature, culture in general, music, cinema and pictures.
I wanted my son to be open to the world like his mother was and if I hadn't promised myself not to succumb to hate, if I had succumbed to hate, I would have raised a person who would grow up to hate just like the terrorists.
GORANI: And the other thing you said is, (FRENCH SPEAKING) we are only two, my son and me, but we are stronger than all the armies of the world, which I thought was so beautiful.
LEIRES: I don't know about death and et cetera.
GORANI: Yes.
LEIRES: We stand free. We stand with the taste, we stand with happiness. We play games with my son. And then no, they don't win. No, no, we stand.
[03:55:08] GORANI: Your son is only 17 months.
LEIRES: Yes.
GORANI: So, still he doesn't understand.
LEIRES: But he feels everything.
GORANI: Yes.
LEIRES: And he knows everything. We talk about it. And then he cry, but he was crying about -- because his mother, he misses his mother. So, I took him -- my phone and put some music that he was listening with his mother. And we looked at photos.
He showed me this is my mother. Mama, in French, "mama, mama, mama," then he cries and we cry together. We don't pretend that we're not sad or devastated. No, we are, but we stand. Since Friday night life decides for me. Day after day, I will see.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Taking it one day at a time, Antoine Leires, just a really heartbreaking story. A different kind of survival story.
BERMAN: I can't imagine having the strength to talk about it like he is after something like that and to hear him describe looking at the photos and having his child say "mama, mama, mama."
GORANI: Just really, really sad. We're going to have a lot more of our special coverage of the terrorist attacks, all angles. Of course, the suspected terrorists. But also the victims. I'm Hala Gorani.
BERMAN: we have some live pictures right now. We want to show you what's going on in the French Parliament. They are debating, extending the state of emergency here. This will be something that has not happened in more than 50 years in this country.
This could be an impassioned debate today. It is a very important debate it goes to show just the level of discussion, the level of interest right now of making sure these attacks don't happen again. We'll be right back.
[04:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
