Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Intense Rescue Operation Underway in Burkina Faso; Indonesians Denounce Extremist Ideology; Sean Penn Now Regrets El Chapo Interview; Polls Closing Soon in Taiwan; Snow Expected for Eastern Europe; Space Oddity; Remembering David Bowie. Aired 2-2:30a ET

Aired January 16, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:10] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: (HEADLINES)

ALLEN: We have all that ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM. Thank you for joining us. We're live in Atlanta. I'm Natalie Allen.

We begin in West Africa where an intense rescue operation has been underway following gunfire and explosions that rocked the capital of Burkina Faso. Hours after armed militant stormed to hotel and cafe, soldiers are now inside the hotel. They have been going from room to room looking for the attackers. Dozens of people were held captive for hours, have been freed, there are reports saw of death.

Let's get more now from our David McKenzie who joins us now.

David, these are also the same gunmen that attacked Mali, so -- and witnesses now are describing horrifying scenes. What did they say?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's the same group of terrorists, we believe, not the same gunmen who attacked Mali. But what we are hearing from witnesses on the scene which describe this horrific attack as it then falls at late Friday evening in Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, listen to a patron who was in that cappuccino cafe which was packed with patrons as the gunmen entered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YANNICK SAWADOGO, ATTACK SURVIVOR: (Speaking in Foreign Language): It's horrible. Because everyone was panicked and was laying down on the floor. There was blood everywhere. They were shooting at people at pointblank. The sound of the detonation was so wild, you could hear them talking and they were walking around and kept shooting at people that seemed alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKENZIE: Well, that it was ruthless actions by the gunmen. They then moved across the street to the Splendid Hotel or near the international airport in Ouagadougou. At this stage, the bad news, the terrible news in fact is that the fireman is just saying this 20 had been killed in this terror attack, they are more wounded, at least where (inaudible) wounded, 50 unharmed from all kinds of nationalities including other Africans, Europeans, and American hostages, at least and Japanese, according to the Foreign Ministry.

Details still emerging though and they say that operation to end the siege is still underway going from room to room as he described in that hotel to (inaudible) and this deadly the attack.

ALLEN: Well, we certainly hope that it's over soon. Do you know anything more about how the gunman operated, David, and whether any terrorist have been captured?

MCKENZIE: Well, we don't know if terrorists have been captured at this stage. Often, gunmen will fight to the death, this kind of attack like we saw in Mali late last year. But what we are learning from the Foreign Ministry is that this appeared to be a very coordinated attack. They say some of the gunmen were in plain clothes as it were in acting like tourist during the daytime hours of Friday then joined up according to the Foreign Ministry by other attackers as that attack unfolded.

There were scenes of gunfire mayhem and people fleeing the scene. This is the first major attack of its kind in Burkina Faso, certainly, the first attack in the capital. But Burkina Faso is surrounded by countries which were dealt with the threat of Jihadi groups. This attack has been claimed according to intelligence monitors by Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb and executed as it were by Al- Mourabitoun. They joined forces in early December last year and they were also involved in that Mali attack.

Natalie?

ALLEN: All right, David McKenzie, calling it off for Johannesburg. Thank you.

Joining me now is Daveed Gartenstein-Ross. He is the senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Thank you for joining us.

So I want to ask you first, what do we know about this group that is claiming responsibility? Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS, SR. FELLOW, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is the North African branch of al-Qaeda. There have been a resurgence in recent years that are much more operationally involved. In particular, it's one group that had split with them a little while back called Al- Mourabitoun led by a notorious terrorist Mokhtar Belmokhtar.

For a few years, there had been looked to al-Qaeda even though they had left Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb or AQIM. But just after they carried out an attack at the Radisson in the Malian capital of Bamako, Al- Mourabitoun rejoined AQIM and this attack seems to be, based on their earlier reports, the work of Al-Mourabitoun specifically which basically functions like special forces for al-Qaeda. They're very good at terrorism and they had carried out high profile attacks in multiple countries.

[02:10:20] ALLEN: I was going to say so they are targeting areas frequented by westerners and in this case, U.N. operatives, say in this hotel. Correct?

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: That's correct. And in particular, they figured the French which are a particular villain for AQIM, because the French ended up intervening in Mali after al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb sees northern Mali indicative of the dominant force in that country from 2011 to 2012.

The French intervened in January of 2013. Since then, we've seen Mali in the north descendant to an insurgency and meanwhile, the French have become a definite target for Jihadis. Not that they worked before but this is something that al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, in particular, will basically figure the French for.

ALLEN: And what can be done to try to reign this group in.? You say they are highly skilled and clearly they're moving around Africa.

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: Yeah. Look. These are some of the key questions that we're dealing with across unfortunately multiple theaters now. This is becoming the new normal in which major world capitals are being hit several times a week. You only have this just on the back of the Jakarta attack, we of course had too high profile attacks in Paris, attacks in countries that haven't seen terrorist attacks in decades by giving -- Kuwait, you have the Istanbul bombing. It's hard to keep track of them all. That's how frequent the pace of attack is in major areas.

So, there is a question about how do you distinct the group like this which as we know from things like the Cody (ph) 2012 Campaign isn't an easy thing to do. It's hard to get out a small group of guys. Number one.

Number two, there is the question of prevention and mitigation. How do we make our urban area safer especially given the lack of capacity as security forces in so many of these countries? That's one of the key things that the U.S. is trying to do right now. It's working with partner nations to try to build up the capacity of security forces in order to mitigate and prevent attacks. But that's only a partial solution, and survey is not willing to present any short -- a sort of short term solution to this overarching and worsening problem.

ALLEN: We appreciate your time and your expertise, thanks.

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: My pleasure.

ALLEN: Daveed- Gartenstein-Ross there with me earlier.

Indonesian police have named one of the five attackers who killed two people and wounded dozens on Thursday in Jakarta. They say the man named Afif, was killed in the attack. He was also known as Sunakim and had been previously convicted for terrorist activities. Police also say this militant, Bahrun Naim, orchestrated the attack from ISIS headquarters in Syria.

Many people in Indonesia are declaring they're not afraid and are (inaudible) have met with Indonesian Muslims denouncing extremist ideology.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT : While the capital remains mosques, press to those killed in India and sort from a destructive violence extremist (inaudible) recruiting Indonesians in the name of Islam.

In a strongly worded sermon during Friday press, here are the grand mosques in Jakarta. The (inaudible) has said that terrorism is a crime against humanity. And that Islam shouldn't be something to be scheduled or used to spread fear among people. These -- The first attack on Indonesian soil quite inspire ISIS but compelled people here to speak out against terrorism in the name of Islam.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What happens yesterday, they are not Muslims, they are infidels. I condemn them. I demand that government solve this problem. As a Muslim, I reject this terrorism in the name of Islam.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Islam has become a scapegoat. People believe Islam is identical to violence. Every time violence happens, people think it's related to Islam but it's not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no, no, I'm not terrorist. And then Muslim and Indonesia, I'm not terrorist. But I want to say it so the reward (ph), the human the (inaudible) Muslim, Islam, Muslim, not terrorist, our terrorist, not to Muslim.

MOHSIN: Across the city, Nahdlatul Ulama, an association of Islamic scholars with 50 million Indonesian members worldwide held an interfaith dialogue with representatives of the Catholic and Protestant churches, Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist communities, calling for unity and peace.

In November 2015, recognizing the potential threat, the association released a video campaign and countering extremist ideology.

[02:15:03] This growing concern heightened by this attack about ISIS gaining a foothold in the world's largest Muslim country. At least 500 fighters have believed they have troubled to Iraq and Syria from here. But that's 500 to 200 million to moderate Muslims in a sedulous faith.

ISIS claimed responsibility for Thursday's Istanbul attack saying the group is targeting the Crusader Alliance which is fighting the Islamic state.

(Inaudible) faith, Indonesian Muslims.

Saima Mohsin, CNN, Jakarta, Indonesia.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Iran, could no, in a few hours, if several international sanctions against the country will be listed, some of which have been in place for decades. The International Atomic Energy Agency is expected to issue its final report on Iran's nuclear program at a meeting in Vienna.

Iran's foreign minister is on his way there now. The IAEA was tasked with certifying if Iran has taken certain steps to curve its nuclear weapons program including limiting its stockpile, often which uranium.

After Sean Penn speaking out for the first time about this interview with El Chapo, why he says his Rolling Stone article on the drug kingpin failed.

We'll have that next. Plus, polls are closing within the hour in Taiwan and voters are set to make history. We'll have them with (inaudible).

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALLEN: After Sean Penn is calling his shocking interview with the Mexican drug lord El Chapo a failure, Penn's article appeared this week at Rolling Stone magazine after he secretly met and later submitted questions to Joaquin Guzman. But now, the actor says he regrets the interview.

CNN's Rafael Romo has one.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sean Penn says he wants to set the record straight. In an interview with Charlie Rose for the CBS Show 60 Minutes, Sean Penn says that his goal was not to glorify Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman or the Sinaloa Cartel. "What I wanted to do," he told Rose, was "to start a conversation about the policy of the war in drugs." But the cover to about Sean Penn's 10,000 word article that appears Saturday in Rolling Stone magazine has centered on potential legal problems he may face because of it and the process of how he got access to El Chapo in the first place.

Penn also wanted to discal (ph) the notion the interview helped Mexican officials find El Chapo's whereabouts leading to his capture.

SEAN PENN, ACTOR: We have met with him many weeks earlier on October 2nd. On October 2nd in a place nowhere near where he was captured. We're not smarter than the DEA or the Mexican Intelligence. We had a contact upon which we were able to facilitate an invitation.

CHARLIE ROSE, HOST, CBS THIS MORNING: Do you believe that the Mexican government released this in part because they wanted to see you blamed and to put you at risk?

PENN: Yes.

ROSE: They wanted to encourage the cartel to put you in their cross hairs?

PENN: Yes. [12:20:14] ROMO: Mexican officials have told us in the last few days that meeting with El Chapo were essential to the drug lord capture. Kate del Castillo the Mexican started that facilitated this interview may also be in legal trouble. Before he say, they want to find out whether El Chapo funded her tequila distribution business in the United States and so why?

All authorities have said so far is that they want to question both actors to find out more about their interaction with El Chapo.

Rafael Romo, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: In France health ministry is investigating what it calls a serious accident. One man is brain dead, five others are hospitalized after volunteering an early stage clinical trial. The Portuguese science group could develop the drug says, it was already given to dozen of people with no serious adverse reaction. Testing obviously has been stopped.

Polls are closing soon in Taiwan where voters could elect their first female president. Tsai Ing-wen entered Democratic Progressive Party, are both looking for historic win. The result could have major implications for Taiwan's diplomatic ties with the China.

Kristie Lu Stout is covering this election for us in Taipei and she is there live. And what a day it is for the people there and they might have a historic outcome, that looks that way Christine.

KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. And also on a clear day, the skies have clear, the rain has stopped. And this is Election Day for what we're expecting to be a historic result. Tsai Ing-wen is took to become the next president of Taiwan in a landslide victory.

That's what we're expecting right now. Tsai Ing-wen is of course the leader of the DPP a position party. She is 59-year-old, former trade negotiator known for his daily calm and her calm domineer. And she becomes president here in Taiwan. She'd be facing a number of challenges including how to deal with stagnating economy here, a widening which core device. Sky high property prices and use movement here.

That's becoming increasingly vocal and very politically active as well as relation with China. And then there's an interesting issue this rising Taiwan identity. The background to all of this there's this video that's gone viral of a Taiwan pop star being force to apologize and to bow. He apologized for doing what? For holding a Taiwan flag during a recent concert and that is spark the conversation on this day Election Day on Taiwan, on whether or not she need to apologize for doing such a thing.

Earlier today was it polling station and this topic of Taiwan identity came up again and again. And especially among the quarter of the DPP, they said that no one should have to apologize for being proud of asserting their Taiwan identity. The polls would be closing very soon, 4:00 p.m. local time. It's just a few hour after that we expect to get the final result for the Presidential election and the parliamentary election here in Taiwan. Natalie.

ALLEN: Yes. And the other question that about I guess the identity of the Taiwan people and their independent is what is China doing as far as watching this election.

STOUT: Yeah, China is watching this election very, very closely. And it's interesting because Tsai Ing-wen is at opposition DPP Party which is traditionally advocated for an independent Taiwan. In fact when I was at the last DPP campaign rally last night, we saw a banners about saying in Chinese the man in characters independent Taiwan.

Now, the candidate Tsai Ing-wen when herself has stressed that she wants to maintain the status quo of relation. These warm ties that already established by her KMT predecessor if she's become the next president of Taiwan by the incumbent Ma Ying-jeou.

I mean, there are more closer trade links between Taiwan and China as well as traveling between the two places. It is unlikely if she becomes the next president of Taiwan that those policies will describe anytime soon. That's when analyst are telling me.

But there will be an interesting period of time of both sides sort of waiting and feeling each other out, to figure out what's forward and what's next in cross-strait relations. Back to you.

ALLEN: All right Kristie Lu Stout for us there in Taiwan. Thank you.

Well, U.S. presidential candidate Ted Cruz is being slammed for his criticism of New York City. (inaudible) going to speak Cruz said his Republican rival Donald Trump embodies New York values. Trump called this comment "Very insulting." And receive rare backup from New York Democrats including former New York Senator Hillary Clinton.

The New York Daily News was more blunt in it's response putting "Drop Dead Ted" at the Statue of Liberty saying her top their on it's Friday cover.

Cruz has now apologizing for his comment sort of.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), RESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, you're right. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and Andrew Cuomo and Bill de Blasio have all demanded an apology.

[02:20:06] And I'm happy to apologize. I apologize to the millions of New Yorkers who've been let down by liberal politicians in that state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: As far as he'll go. Trump and Cruz are now neck-and-neck in the first caucus state of Iowa just two weeks before the vote. A bright star went dark this week with the lost of David Bowie. We'll hear from a man who cover the music legend "Space Oddity" a few years ago while orbiting the earth back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALLEN: Derek, you're now with the weather because heavy snow is a common to Eastern Europe. You're saying it is going to blanket within.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is not going to be nice if you're going to be traveling to the southern Balkan States over the next 24 to 48 hours and it's going to get really nasty in the places like Romania, Bulgaria, Serbia. The capital of Bulgaria being -- excuse me Sofia. That particular region could see 15 to 30 centimeter of snow. They've already receive snow fall this winter. But this will be the most significant storm so far, it will disrupt flights and travel across that area.

Let's get more details Natalie and fill the public in on what they can expect. We got a huge deep in jet streams are the thin layer of winds of the upper level of atmosphere that drives the weather system across our planet. And it also separates two different air masses, cold masses to the north and warm in there to the south.

So what we have set up here is this deep in the jet stream and it's taking our low pressure system across southern Italy into the Balkan Peninsula and it's going to draw that cold air from the north and allow for precipitation to change over from rainfall, eventually into the frozen Friday being snow especially into the southern Balkan Peninsula.

Rainfall for southern Italy, so Rome to Sicily expects that even western Greece just north of Athens. There could be 50 to 100 millimeters or rainfall. So, too prong approach here. We've got the heavy snow falls to the north but also the potential of some minor localize flooding over western Greece.

There's our snowfall total going forward anywhere between 15 to 30 centimeters. On top of that we've got strong winds a company in the storm, that means that will blow around the snow reducing visibilities and making it very difficult to travel over that part of the word.

I'm going to talk about one last thing because we continue to talk about a tropical storm rather a hurricane that broke records this January. This was the strongest recorded Atlantic hurricane in the month of January ever. It impacted the Azore's Island. This is a nation that belong to Portugal, it just west of Portugal. And here's the progression of this track of the storm as it moves across the area. It was impressive but more of a news since anything.

Here some footage coming of the Azore's and you can see the waves crashing into the shoreline there. It was strong gusty winds that a company the storm but nothing more than that. There were no reports of injuries or real destruction aside from a few palm trees. But nonetheless this was a historic because tropical storm of hurricane have not form this time of the year. ALLEN: All right. Derek, thank you.

Well, we said goodbye this week to a man who's influence has been hard to completely capture. Singer David Bowie died Sunday night at the age of 69 as you probably now. Well, rather than a traditional obituary,

[02:25:01] our Jeanne Moos focused on this star man's love of space and spoke with an astronaut instruct a specular cord with his own rendition a Space Oddity.

(BEGIN VIDETAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The illustrator who created this calls a 29 careers spanning faces of David Bowie. His most recent face from his news song Lazarus is haunting.

DAVID BOWIE, SINGER: Look up here. I'm in hell.

MOOS: With Bowie in a hospital bed buttons on bandage eyes release mere days before his death.

Do you have favorite David Bowie song?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's Dance.

MOOS: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's dance to changes.

MOOS: The astronaut.

BOWIE: This is Ground Control to Major Tom.

MOOS: Space Oddity was Bowie's first big hit. And then it hit again more than 40 years later.

CHRIS HADFIELD, ASTRONAUT: This is Ground Control to Major Tom.

MOOS: When a real astronaut sang it in space upon hearing of Bowie's death coming under Chris Hadfield Twitter "Ashes to ashes, dust to star dust."

HADFIELD: It was like a slap in the face to wake up and realize that he is no more.

Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles.

MOOS: With Bowie's approval the astronaut did change the lyric a little to give the song a happier ending.

HADFIELD: The astronaut dies at the end which of course I didn't want to be singing that living onboard a spaceship.

MOOS: So commander Hadfield unless they have these words.

BOWIE: Your circuit dead. There's something wrong. MOOS: People seems to connect with Bowie's connection to space lyrics from the song ended up on tributes.

BOWIE: The stars look very different.

MOOS: Even a Vatican cardinal quoted the song "As for Bowie he called the astronaut rendition.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The most poignant version of the song ever done.

HADFIELD: Here am I floating in my tin can.

MOOS: And at least one cartoonist imagination Bowie is floating in his high heeled platform shoes eternally in space.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: That's a huge icon he was indeed. But here's an on inspiring sight from Cambodia. Conservation international realize video of what it said is the largest group of wild Asian elephant to be captured on camera over the past decade. The video coincides with the law of the conservation trust fund for Central Cardamom Protected Forest, which house many endangered animal.

Thanks for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen. Your top stories are after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)