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Paris Fugitive Captured. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired March 18, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:00:28] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We have breaking news coverage here of one of the most intense and deadly manhunts of our time. And we can now confirm that one of the fugitives, perhaps the most wanted man in the world, suspected in the Paris terror attack, has just been captured alive. We have just learned from our affiliate in Belgium, BTM, that he was shot in the leg during the capture. He was caught during a raid in the Belgium suburb of Molenbeek, an area plagued with terror cells and radicalization. Salah Abdeslam, we are told, is injured, but, again, is captured alive, is the suspected driver of the car that dropped off three suicide bomber at that French soccer stadium back on that Friday night, November 13th of last year. The night of those coordinated terror attacks throughout the city, and one of the suicide bombers outside one of the cafes was, in fact, his brother. He did detonate that suicide vest and kill himself.

Immediately after the attacks, Salah Abdeslam fled. He was even questioned by police, passed through checkpoints near the Belgian border. Police, at the time, did not realize who he was and let him pass on through. And ever since then, he has been on the run for four months, evading law enforcement. And finally this week, officers raided a different apartment in Brussels. This was a couple of days ago. They did find Abdeslam's DNA, sparking this intense hunt to track him down. The news that he had stayed so close to the scene of this alleged crime shocking many in the terror community who believed he would likely have fled perhaps all the way to Syria.

So we have you covered on every single angle here. Clarissa Ward, CNN's senior international correspondent, who was all over this story when it broke last fall in Paris, Bob Baer, CNN intelligence and security analyst and former CIA operative, Juliette Kayyam, CNN national security analysts and former assistant homeland security secretary, and Jim Bittermann, who was there through it all, of course, there, our correspondent and bureau chief in Paris.

So, Jim - Jim Bittermann, let me actually begin with you there. I mean it has been four months. This is perhaps the most wanted man in the world. The timing, the significance of this capture, give it some perspective for me.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think, for the French, this is a really big deal, for French authorities and for the French public. It was greeted here with a great deal of satisfaction amongst the French authorities, especially the fact that Abdeslam was captured alive. That's going to provide authorities with a wealth of information. He was in the - directly involved in the planning of what went on, on November 13th. And he may be able to identify all of the logistical support that this group that carried out the attacks had.

He's the only surviving attacker. And he's also thought to be not as - a convinced terrorist as some of the others because he abandoned a vest that was - an explosive vest that he had with him. He didn't blow himself up like the others did, and he fled. And today, of course, he didn't commit suicide as police were moving in on him. He, in fact, was captured alive. So he may be not so convinced as a terrorist and may be able to provide a lot of information about this logistical support, who was really in charge of this operation. Police are thinking that perhaps there may have been 20 or 25 people who were involved supporting this operation, renting apartments and safe houses and cars and getting weapons and that sort of thing. So he's going to provide a wealth of information for investigators.

Tonight, one of the Association of November 13th, which is an association of all the victim's families from November 13th, was on television. He said, we are very happy tonight. We are finally going to get some answers we think to some of the questions that we've had.

Brooke.

BALDWIN: Jim, thank you. Stand by.

Clarissa, let me just bring you in.

And the last time we talked about what was happening in Paris, we were standing in Paris. And I remember the breaking news that a suicide vest had been found in a trash can in a Parisian suburb, which apparently was Salah Abdeslam's suicide vest. Tell me more about his role back on that Friday night in November and the fact that he didn't stray far from home, that he stayed in Belgium.

[14:05:05] CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is what has always perplexed people because usually in these situation, as Jim says, everyone commits suicide at the end of these operations and so you don't get a chance for justice, you don't get a chance to interrogate, to find someone, to get more information on what actually happened. But Salah Abdeslam, who's 26 years old, he's Belgium-born, but a French citizen, he was a different case. We know - or we believe that he drove the car, the black Clio, with three suicide bombers to the Stade de France. One of them, in fact, was his brother, who detonated his explosive vest killing himself. We know that.

And then afterwards we know that this vest was found in a trash can.

BALDWIN: Yes.

WARD: In Molruje (ph). It's not really clear exactly what happened, though. Did Salah Abdeslam have a change of heart? Did something go wrong? Was there a problem with the vest? And so authorities have been absolutely fixated on finding him because he is the one piece of the puzzle -

BALDWIN: Yes.

WARD: That could potentially bring all the other parts together and provide a much clearer picture of what happened.

Now, beyond that, as you just touched on, there was also a fixation because it was a question of how on earth was he able to escape. We know that he headed to the Belgium border and was, in fact, stopped by the Belgium border just hours after the attack. We know we've seen this surveillance video that came out from a gas station -

BALDWIN: Gas station.

WARD: In days later. And then he was apparently hiding in plain sight for four months, Brooke, in this Belgium suburb of Molenbeek. So a lot of people will be asking the question, how was he able to hide? Who was hiding him? What other networks and what other cells exist in these areas?

BALDWIN: So, depending on whether or not they get him to talk, he could obviously be a treasure trove of information for all those other tentacles, right, that created this plot.

Bob Baer, here's my question to you, on this note that for four months, hiding in plain sight. I'm wondering, is it - is it appropriate to say he sort of had cold feet and he didn't detonate his suicide vest? So in a sense, if he were to want to go to Syria to ISIS, would they have - would he be a wanted man for ISIS, as he is a wanted man for law enforcement in Europe, is what I'm essentially asking?

BOB BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: Well, that's a good question, Brooke. I think if he'd gone back to the Islamic State, he would have been under suspicion. He probably would have been executed. He knew that.

But what concerns me really is that he was able to disappear in a major European capital for four months. And he was the most sought after man in the world. I mean, the discipline that takes to stay off telephones, e-mail, hide from the Belgium police, hide from everybody else, is quite extraordinary and tells us the length these people will go to and that they're frankly embedded in Europe and they're hard to get to.

BALDWIN: Bob, stay with me.

Paul Cruikshank has just been seated.

And, Paul, you're the one - you broke this story for us here at CNN, the fact that Salah Abdeslam was captured alive. I think we should start with the raid a few days ago where one of - one of the men associated with this was killed and the others, including Abdeslam, got away at that time.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Yes, so if we walk back to Tuesday afternoon in Brussels -

BALDWIN: Yes.

CRUICKSHANK: When everybody here in the United States, it's all about the primaries and so on and so forth, Super Tuesday number three. Well, in Brussels, there was a counterterrorism search going on in a neighborhood of (INAUDIBLE), which is in the southwestern part of Brussels. They had information linking an address to the Paris attacks. But that's all they had.

They thought that property was empty. They didn't believe anybody was in there. In fact, there was no power or water going in at all. So when they went to launch the raid, they didn't go in really strong, really heavy when they were trying to search that property on Tuesday afternoon.

Well, inside -

BALDWIN: Little did they know.

CRUICKSHANK: Were three heavily armed terrorists, as soon as they tried to open the door, they opened fire with their Kalashnikovs. The senior terrorist amongst them, Mohammed Belkaid, who was a senior figure in the Paris conspiracy, was the guy doing most of the firing on the police. He was providing cover for his other two accomplices to get away. They managed to get away.

BALDWIN: Through the roof, right?

CRUICKSHANK: Through the roof. So the property (ph) managed to melt away into Brussels.

When the police then - well, the next thing that happens is a police sniper manages to kill Mohammed Belkaid. So they neutralized him. They get inside the apartment. They find all sorts of evidence and intelligence inside that apartment, including the fingerprint, the DNA -

BALDWIN: Incredible.

CRUICKSHANK: And other evidence suggesting that Salah Abdeslam had been there after the Paris attacks, been there recently. And so the obvious assumption was, well he was probably one of the two people that got away. They didn't know that for sure. But over the last 72 hour they've been working around the clock to try and find these two individuals.

Well, they've managed to get Salah Abdeslam just a few hours ago in that operation in Molenbeek.

BALDWIN: How did they know where to go? How did they know where to go? Where - where did - where did - to connect "a" to "b," which is captured Abdeslam, where - where did this happen? CRUICKSHANK: Well, it was a very, very different change in the

operating environment because all this time Salah Abdeslam, the trail had gone completely cold. He's stayed in this one location, protected by other ISIS operatives in this location. Probably spending quite a lot of time at that location.

[14:10:14] All of a sudden, he's on the run. That creates all kinds of noise. And he's going back to one of those neighborhoods that they like to kind of operate in, they feel more comfortable operating in, and so all sorts of intelligence then starts coming in to Belgium counterterrorism services.

And today, just a few hours ago, there was a major armed police operation and they managed to take two of these terrorists, including Salah Abdeslam, into custody. They were injured in that operation, perhaps in a firefight. We're still trying to confirm exactly how they were injured. But they got two of these guys now in custody. And it would appear that there's a significant probability those are the two individuals who were also in that apartment. They're still trying to put all those pieces together as I speak, the Belgium investigators.

But even at this hour there is some word that there are some ongoing operations still in that area. Could there be -

BALDWIN: Some explosives going off according to (INAUDIBLE) -

CRUICKSHANK: could there still be others connected to them. They still want to get - they're still holed up.

BALDWIN: Wow.

CRUICKSHANK: It's all very, very dynamic. We're trying to get information as quickly as we can, Brooke.

BALDWIN: So, as this is still ongoing, I want to ask both of you to stay with me because, looking at you, I want to take everyone inside of what - how intense these police raids are. I remember when the ringleader, the mastermind, Abdel Hamid Abaaoud, was killed, you were there, perched on a roof or a balcony, and I just want to talk to you about that. We've pulled the video. We'll do that after the break.

And, Paul Cruickshank, much more from you on how huge this is. Perhaps how much information they could get from Abdeslam. And also we'll talk about, since he is a would-be suicide bomber, the fact that they caught him alive, how will he be tried, will he be brought back to France? So many questions during this active, ongoing situation in Belgium. Do not miss a beat.

You're watching CNN live breaking news. We'll be right back.

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[14:15:50] BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We're back with our breaking news here. As the raid is really, truly still underway, it is still an active, dynamic scene in Belgium as we have learned and confirmed that the so-called eighth attacker in the massive Paris terror attacks back on that Friday night in November of last fall has been captured alive. The man who broke that news for us, Paul Cruickshank, is back with me, CNN terrorism analyst and editor in chief of the "CTC Sentinel." Clarissa Ward, who covered it throughout in Paris, CNN senior international correspondent. Michael Weiss has just been seated, CNN contributor and co-author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror," senior editor at "The Daily Beast." Jim Sciutto is with us as well, our chief national security correspondent. He's been working his sources I know in France on this today. And Juliette Kayyam is with us as well, CNN national security analyst and Department of Homeland Security former assistant secretary.

So, let's begin with Paul Cruikshank again.

If - for people who are just now tuning in, again, the significance of this alive capture, all dating back to a raid from Tuesday night. He escapes, Abdeslam, escapes through the roof. Fast forward, what, 72 or so hours. They catch him. Now what?

CRUICKSHANK: They will want to interrogate him. They'll want to know, are there any other plans? Where are all the other co-conspirators. There are still some at large linked to the Paris attacks. The number one priority will be preventing further loss of life, preventing further bloodshed. The fact that they've got him is a large step in that direction because there's real concern that he could launch a follow-on attack.

He was in that safe house all those months with two other key members, it's believed, of the Paris conspiracy, including a senior member of the conspiracy who was providing orders to the Paris attackers, including providing orders to Abdel Hamid Abaaoud, the ringleader on the ground in Paris itself. But there was a more senior figure operating all that time over the phone, providing coordination from Brussels. He was killed in that operation on Tuesday afternoon by a Belgium police sniper. But he provided covering fire for two of his terrorist accomplices to get out over the roofs, away from that building. It's presumed at this point that those - one of those was indeed Salah Abdeslam because they found his fingerprints, his DNA, other evidence he'd been recently in that apartment. But they'll be trying to get other information from him.

Now, in Belgium, and across much of Europe, he doesn't have to talk. There is nothing that they can do to force him to talk. And, in fact, in previous arrests in Belgium, they've been very frustrated because the suspected ISIS operatives have essentially said absolutely nothing and that's been a real challenge for them. But with skilled interrogators, there is a chance to start getting some information.

Of course, eventually, they'll bring him to justice. There will be a trial either in France - probably in France, I would think the Paris attacks taking place in France. There's a European arrest warrant. He'll be an automatic extradition. He'll be tried there and there will be justice for those families. One hundred and thirty people killed in those attacks and hundreds and hundreds, up to 700 injured in those attacks, Brooke. BALDWIN: Hundreds and hundreds. The fact, though, that he remained in this community in Molenbeek for as many months as he did, we keep saying hiding in plain sight.

But, Jim Sciutto, I know you've been talking to your sources. You talked to a French counterterror official today saying he wasn't surprised that he would have stayed so close to home. Tell me why.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, because in effect he was telling me it's less risky. If you move, you have to cross borders. That's a place for police to spot you and you have to communicate, you have to speak on cell phones where you might be surveilled. So, oddly enough, almost counterintuitively, the safer thing to do is to hide in place. And keep in mind, in Belgium, there is such a network there of safe houses, et cetera, that he would have places to hide, Abdeslam, during this four month period.

As Paul has noted earlier in the broadcast, this is a manhunt that essentially, despite his proximity throughout this time, since the Paris attacks, that had essentially gone cold until this raid in the last 24 to 48 hours where they found his DNA in that apartment and then, in effect, they almost stumble upon him to some degree. So that's one point.

[14:20:09] I think the other point here, beyond the legal proceedings that he will face, Abdeslam, clearly be charged in these deadly attack, he will face the full force of the law. Keep in mind, the French authorities have enormous emergency powers right now to hold before they charge. And the priority during that time will be intelligence gathering. They want to find out what remains of the network that carried out these Paris attacks. What other cells may be out there that this cell had contact with to prevent other attacks going forward.

I met, last week, had dinner with the French interior minister who was visiting Washington to discuss the terror cooperation between these two countries and his warning was, we expect another successful terror attack in 2016. That is their footing. They are very nervous.

BALDWIN: That is frightening. Jim Sciutto, thank you for that.

Juliette Kayyam, you know, to Jim and also Paul's point on, you know, he has facing this European arrest warrant, but they may hold on charges until they get more information, more evidence. Walk us through exactly what that looks like and ultimately what he could face legally speaking and beyond.

JULIETTE KAYYAM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: OK, so he's just now well within the sort of legal framework that exists in both countries, as well as Europe. So there's no torture. There's no highly coercive interrogation. Now this is the sort of traditional interrogation that we understand in our - you know the typical fashion of law and order. But there are professionals who will try to get information out of him.

At the same time I would suspect right now France is seeking extradition. They probably actually already had a document in place to move him to the French judicial system, which, as Jim was saying, is much harsher than ours in the sense you can detain someone for a very long time, access to lawyers tends to be delayed. So there's going to be sort of a more aggressive law and order approach to him to see how much he talks.

And then you're going to have a typical - it's going to look different than the United States, but a case against him. They have specialized courts in France and, in fact, specialized judges who are actually protected, because you don't want the judges to be at risk. And so that's how it's going to proceed relatively sort of familiar.

What I do want to pick up on and just clear what Paul and Jim said, I think it's very unlikely that Abdeslam had anything - was planning anything in the future. What I think French authorities are probably worried about is that his arrest might trigger something that others have been planning. I think we have to assume that him being in a safe house meant that he did not have much access to information. He was keeping low. But the worry, both in the west, as well as the United States, will be, is this a trigger for something in the future.

BALDWIN: All right, Juliette Kayyam, thank you. Stand by.

I'm' just getting word, we have Chris Burns, CNN freelance journalist, who is on the ground in this community, Molenbeek, in Belgium.

And so all is far from quiet here, even on though we're reporting Salah Abdeslam has been captured alive. Explosion, shots are still being fired. Chris, tell me what you're seeing and hearing, please.

CHRIS BURNS, CNN FREELANCE JOURNALIST (via telephone): Yes, hello, Brooke.

Well, we did hear a couple of explosions in the last 15 minutes now. They were just about a half a minute apart. I've asked police here on the ground what they were about. They would not tell me. They've being very, very tight lipped, but they are in helmets and with shields. So they are ready for anything here. There are quite a few youths (ph) and they did run down the street there after some police dogs, sniffer dogs, went into one street that's blocked off. I think it's more a lot of curiosity by the locals trying to see what is going on.

A few hours ago, though, there were shots. And, of course, as you know, Salah Abdeslam was - was arrested in this shootout. And so there remains the push by authorities here to try to find other suspects linked to the Paris attacks. And we see just driven up about four or five police vehicles, large police vans, that just came from the direction of the street that is blocked off. It is not clear why they drove up, but there is still movement, there is still action here that we're watching on the ground here. Lots of locals. Lots of journalists. And just waiting to see what is happening.

But it's been a very intense situation the last few hours and - and now we're just waiting to see if there will be further - perhaps further arrests. Obviously, there is still - there is still action going on at this point, Brooke. BALDWIN: Understandable. Everyone there still in riot gear. They have

just, you know, apprehended really I think we could call him one of the most wanted men in the world. It's one thing, though, I think to watch it. And, Chris, thank you so much. Keep your eyes wide open for there in Belgium.

[14:25:06] Clarissa, I just want to turn to and we'll get to - I just want to remind everyone because you were there.

WARD: Right.

BALDWIN: I mean you were there in November during one of the police raids. What - how intense? What did you see? Remind us.

WARD: Well, I think, you know, we just hear Chris saying that there's still explosions -

BALDWIN: Yes.

WARD: There's been some gunfire. This is absolutely normal. The raid in Sanderne (ph), where we were, on the outskirts of Paris, that lasted six or seven hours, I believe. It went on and on. And it, you know, you imagine that it's a fairly rapid thing, that you blow down the door and try to get the bad guys, but it doesn't actually work like that.

BALDWIN: And then it's over. But it's not.

WARD: Often these men are carrying explosives or they're wearing suicide vests. There are a lot of considerations for authorities going in there in terms of their own security. And it's not surprising to hear that amount of explosions either. I mean we were surprised on the ground, my colleague, senior international correspondent Atika Shubert, who was there from 4:00 in the morning, was hearing blast after blast after blast. It's difficult in that situation to know, is this a controlled explosion, is this a stun grenade being used, is this a suicide bomber blowing himself up? However, it is absolutely normal for these raids to last hours and hours with a lot of heavy firepower being used as police try to, in the case of Saint-Denis, they were trying to capture Abdel Hamid Abaaoud.

BALDWIN: Let's remind everyone what that was like.

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WARD: Managed to get onto a rooftop here from which we can see the building behind me. I'm just going to duck out so that we can push in and take a look at that apartment building that was the focus of these raids. We can see forensic experts have been moving around inside those rooms. They've been taking photographs. And you can see the aftermath of those blasts that were heard. All the windows have been blown out. You can see the pock marks of heavy weaponry around those windows.

And we've spoken to a number of residents and eye witnesses who told us that it all started at about 4:30 a.m. They heard gunfire. They heard grenades. And then at about - we've managed to get onto a rooftop -

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BALDWIN: So that was Clarissa reporting at that massive raid in Saint- Denis in which he was killed, Abdel Hamid Abaaoud.

WARD: He blew himself up.

BALDWIN: He blew himself up. Who as the mastermind of the terror attacks in Paris.

We have so much still to go through here on CNN. Stay right here. More breaking news on the other side of the commercial break.

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