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Explosions Rock Brussels; Terror Attack Eyewitness Shares Experience; Security Ramped Up in U.S. Cities Following Brussels Attack. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired March 22, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00] PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Belgian media have now agreed to basically not report any new information about this ongoing manhunt, this ongoing investigation because they want to give the Belgian security chances -- every chance to apprehend other suspects linked to these attackers believed to still be at large. So there's grave concern that there could be more attacks. That is a very fluid and dynamic situation in Brussels.

I think the working assumption --

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Well, let's hold on off our --

CRUICKSHANK: Yes.

COSTELLO: The media blackout because, you know, as an American citizen, that would freak me out. So I'm watching television trying to get any information I can about where this investigation is going and I can't get any information. That would scare me, probably.

CRUICKSHANK: It's an extraordinary step. It's voluntary. The Belgian media are not forced to do this. But a number of publications, the main publications, the networks have agreed to this for the time being just because it's such a dangerous situation right now in Brussels and they want to give authorities every chance to do their work and protect the city, prevent further loss of life.

The working assumption here is that this is the same network behind the Paris attacks. That network was based in Brussels. They have three safe houses there. They did all the organizing there. They congregated there in the weeks before the attacks, just in the last two days before the Paris attacks moving to Paris to launch those attacks. There are still a number of individuals who were part of that larger cell responsible for the Paris attacks, still at large despite the fact that Salah Abdeslam and an accomplice were captured last week.

COSTELLO: So let's talk -- let's talk about the cell itself, Michael. Was this planned? Like, was it ready, set, go and then Abdeslam was arrested and it was execute faster? Is that how it happened?

MICHAEL WEISS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think what we can say with certainty is that this was in the works. They had planned this. They had -- they had target scouted the airport, probably the metro as well. The question is, was the operation sped up as a result of Abdeslam's capture or possibly as a result of the killing of the chief coordinator of that cell, Mohammed Belkaid, who was killed in the raid that captured Abdeslam. You know, ISIS plans long-term, but there also is an improvisational or ad hoc component that this as needs must because they are evading a European wide counterterrorism dragnet all the time. So it can well have been the case that they said, it's going to be today instead of six weeks from now or two months from now.

COSTELLO: Why, Paul, why Belgium? Why do it in Belgium? Why not do it someplace else?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, that's where the cell was based. I mean this network is a Belgium, Brussels-based network. They've created a logistical support structure there. Mohammed Belkaid, who was one of the coordinators of the Paris attacks, as Michael was saying, was killed in that raid on their hiding place where Salah Abdeslam was hiding on Tuesday last week.

But there are also a number of other senior members of the conspiracy still at large, including Nagim Lasharawi (ph), who also went (INAUDIBLE) connected with ISIS there and who was coordinating the Paris attacks in real time from Belgium during the attacks, giving orders to Abdel Hamid Abaaoud and the Paris attack team.

Now his DNA was found at the bomb factory where they constructed the TATP suicide vests for the Paris attacks, suggesting that he may have been the bomb maker behind the Paris attacks. Somebody may be able to make these kind of suicide vests and if that is the case, it's possible that he was the guy that perhaps built the devices for these attacks. They're still trying to figure out who the bomb maker was.

COSTELLO: OK, just one last question. So Belgian authorities know all of this, right? Right? They knew a cell was probably operating within their country.

WEISS: Sure.

COSTELLO: And I know hindsight's 20/20. So why couldn't they stop a large scale attack like this in Belgium?

WEISS: It's a small country. You have, as Peter Bergen and others have been pointing out, these communities within the capital that are essentially ghettoized, you know, areas where radical preachers and, you know, self-radicalized jihadists are, you know, rife (ph). It's very difficult often to turn people into informants because ISIS operatives will have intimidated and harassed people into silence and submission. So the gathering of human intelligence is a very slow, grueling process.

There's another aspect to this, though, that I want to mention. After the Paris massacre, Dabic (ph), which is the propaganda organ of ISIS, put out essentially a -- you know, eulogies for all of their attacks but for Abdeslam, the guy who got away. The guy who didn't detonate his suicide belt either because it didn't work or he might have chickened out of the operation. What they were trying to telegraph to the world was, these were our boys. We trained them. We knew about this operation well in advance. Meaning the shura (ph) council, the chief decision making body of the ISIS HQ, was well aware that an attack was underway in Paris. And we are -- we are among you. We are -- we live in your communities. We are there already. You know, we don't have to come back from places. We are already there. We're planning these operations.

[09:35:16] And that -- the video that came along with that -- with that Dabic magazine, or actually preceded it by a few days, ended with a bull's eye or a rifle scope superimposed on David Cameron's face, suggesting that the next target was going to be London.

COSTELLO: OK. So -- so along those lines, I mean was this -- was this attack meant to symbolize a bigger attack? An attack, you know, an attack on the heart of Europe, in other words?

CRUICKSHANK: The metro station targeted is right underneath the European institutions. The European institution, the European Parliament, the European commission. So this was a very symbolic attack against those institutions and also the international airport and international target.

Belgium is involved in the anti-ISIS coalition. It's launching strikes against ISIS in Iraq. ISIS has repeatedly threatened Belgium with attacks. There's been a drum beat of terror plots and terror attacks in Belgium over the last couple of years. Let's not forget that in May of 2014 an ISIS gunman killed four people at a Jewish museum in Brussels. There was a major gun and bomb plot thwarted in January 2015. There was that high speed train where there was this gunman linked to ISIS who was going to try and launch an attack with a Kalashnikov. Three Americans saved the day. And there have been this steady drum beat of plots in Belgium.

When the police went in on Tuesday last week -- about exactly this time last week to Abdeslam's hiding place, they found an ISIS flag, a Kalashnikov, detonating explosives, ammunition, all suggesting that there was an active plot in the works. The working assumption is, this was the same group behind the Paris attack, Abdeslam's group, that carried out this attack. Did they accelerate their plans in some kind of way because Abdeslam was captured, they feared he might talk, he might give information up, which would thwart the plot? Perhaps. But that is the working assumption right now.

COSTELLO: All right, I have to leave it there. Paul Cruickshank, Michael Weiss, thank you very much.

And by the way, as you know, President Obama is in Cuba. He was meant to give a speech later today about Cuban relations. We know that -- we know that the subject matter of his speech has changed. President Obama will be talking on these attacks in Brussels in Cuba. We expect that to happen around 10:20 Eastern Time. We'll keep you posted. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:41:26] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: World officials on high alert as terror grips Brussels. Multiple deadly explosions targeting busy travel hubs this morning. Right now, at least 34 people are dead, more than 170 others injured. The terror beginning inside this airport. Two explosions. At least one at the hands of a suicide bomber. Investigates now looking into the possibility that the other bomb may have been in a suitcase. Travelers fleeing in chaos. At least 14 people killed here according to Belgian media.

An hour later, and a few miles away, another explosion, this inside a busy metro. This video taken moments after that blast. At least 20 people killed at this location. All public transportation in the city now paralyzed. Belgian police are now conducting raids, looking for anyone who may have been linked to the deadly explosions.

There's a lot to cover. Evan Lamos (ph) was aboard a train in the Brussels metro when a deadly explosion hit the system. Evan joins us now by phone.

Evan, first of all, how are you doing?

EVAN LAMOS (via telephone): I'm doing well, thanks.

COOPER: Where were you? What did you hear?

LAMOS: I was traveling to work. I was on one of the trains in the metro system. And apparently the one that had the explosions was the one that left just before mine. So I was one metro back. And we felt a kind of small blast of air and we heard some -- some thudding in the distance. The metro immediately stopped, power turned off, lights turned off and a message came over the intercom saying that there was a disturbance on the line and they were working to fix it as quickly as possible.

COOPER: And so were you in the middle of a tunnel?

LAMOS: We were in between metro stations. So we were in between the Arlawa (ph) metro station, on the way to the Maelbeek metro station in the tunnel between the two.

COOPER: And then did you evacuate the train there or did the train itself move back?

LAMOS: It took a couple of minutes until we evacuated and someone came from the front of the metro eventually and opened the door at the back of the metro, which is where I was. They installed a ladder so that we could climb down and we walked along the track back towards the Arlawa metro station and eventually went up to the street from there.

COOPER: Obviously there has been increased security throughout Brussels over the last several months. Can you give us a sense -- I mean I assume you lived there or are visiting there, obviously. What is security like? Did you see security on the platform this morning when you got to the train?

LAMOS: Sure. So I've been living in Brussels for the last four to five years and I've been here in Belgium for 15. For the last while we've had increased security measures throughout the city of Brussels as a reaction to the terrorist attacks in Paris. So it's become normal for us to see military guards in the main transport hubs, outside of government buildings and so on. And so I saw those -- some of those military guards as I was on my way to work this morning. Actually, I was reading the news and I heard about the explosion at the airport. So I was reading that on the metro on my way. The military guards were clearly on high alert. As I changed metros at the Arlawa metro station, I'm sure that they had heard already of course about the explosions at the airport. And so I think security was certainly heightened just ahead of the explosions.

COOPER: I mean obviously one of the attempts in all of this is to sow terror, to sow fear, to strike at places that people use every single day, a metro stop, train stations, airports.

[09:45:00] COOPER: What is the mood in the capital? What has it been over the last several weeks? Had things started to return to normal?

LAMOS: I think so. My own reaction after the Paris attack was that life has to continue on. I don't think we can stop doing what we do just because someone has decided to try to strike terror into people's hearts. So there were increased security measures, and then at a certain point you have to go back the a normal life and go on living the way you normally live.

So I think that was the mood to some degree here in Brussels. Certainly that's how I felt. And I think -- from what I could see of the immediate reaction, there wasn't mass panic. People weren't pushing other people to evacuate quicker. So I hope that we all kind of keep that same mentality. Interesting to see what the Belgian government reports and what measures they'll be taking but I hope that everyone has a measured reaction to this and doesn't give in to feelings of panic and terror.

COOPER: Well, Evan Lamos, I'm glad you're OK and, again, I appreciate you talking to us this morning.

The U.S. is on guard for any hint of a security threat following today's attacks in Brussels. CNN's Rene Marsh is covering that for us in Washington. Rene?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION AND GOVT. REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Anderson. I mean, if you are traveling through any of the nation's airports, what you will immediately notice is a stepped up police presence here in the nation's capital. I just got word that plans are under way for a major show of force. We're talking about bomb sniffing dogs as well as SWAT teams deployed here in the nation's capital.

But we're seeing a ramped up show of security presence in the airport's perimeter, at airports around the country but at -- in major cities anywhere from Los Angeles to Atlanta. We'll probably the same thing in Miami. All of this stemming from the images that you're seeing there, the attack that happened in this so-called soft part of the airport.

Soft target, I was just speaking with a police chief at one of the nation's major airports just last month and he told me one of the major things that keeps him up at night is this potential of an attack, a lone attack in this soft area of the airport, the ticket counters outside of the airport. That is his worst fear. Because when you think about it, it really is hard to guard against that sort of thing. I mean, it's virtually impossible to scan every single individual who shows up at the airport. So this vulnerability does exist and they are highly aware of that, Anderson.

COOPER: Rene Marsh. Rene, thank you very much for the reporting.

Today's terror attacks at the Brussels airport happened just inside the main terminal where passengers entered for departing flights, as Rene was saying.

CNN's political analyst Josh Rogin passed through the airport less than 24 hours ago. Josh joins us now. You were there. In terms of security when -- what, you flew out was it yesterday?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I flew to Belgium on last Wednesday and I flew back from Belgium yesterday. Passed through the airport on a flight with lot of U.S. officials and diplomats who were in Brussels to attend a conference there. There was visible security, uniformed men, armed, that most of the actual checks were between the airport terminal and the gate. There were increased checks, increased (INAUDIBLE), increased baggage inspections.

COOPER: So as you approach the airport in a vehicle, in a taxi, there's no stop, there's no inspection as you approach.

ROGIN: Exactly. Anyone could just pull right up to the airport. The airport located only 15 minutes from downtown Brussels, along a major transportation route. You pull up to the main terminal, you get out, you walk through. Nobody checks you. Nobody looks twice. There are some uniformed guards to provide a sense of security. That sense turned out to be false.

COOPER: And what's amazing is when you look at the map of the locations of all this, I mean, this is all happening in a pretty closed geographic area. I mean, Brussels is not an enormous city. Even the area where Abdeslam was apprehended just the other day is not far from the train station where the bomb went off and not far from the airport.

ROGIN: Well that's exactly right. We were actually in downtown Brussels on Friday night when Abdeslam was arrested. We could hear the sirens. We could hear -- we could see the police presence. There were men on the street shouting about the arrest. One man shouted, "They caught our brother in Molenbeek" to a group of onlookers. So the tension was palpable on the streets of Brussels.

The Belgian foreign minister spoke at the conference Sunday morning. He said that, unlike in other countries areas, the areas that are the center of counterterrorism operations in Brussels are downtown. That's a little bit different than in, say, Paris where some of the most sensitive areas are pushed out to the suburbs.

COOPER: And with officials you talked to, do they feel they have a handle on things? Or do they feel, frankly, overwhelmed? ROGIN: Well, it's interesting because people were celebrating the

recent arrest, but at the same time, the Belgian foreign minister was very clear.

[09:50:03] He said that the information that they had gotten from Abdeslam in custody revealed that he was planning more attacks, that he rebuilt his network since the four months when the Paris attacks had happened, that that network included at least 30 people, and that terrorists and criminal gangs were cooperating in a way that Belgian authorities had not seen before, sharing resources, apartments, weapons.

So he was very clear that the threat was real and that attacks were being planned. Unfortunately, that warning was not enough.

COOPER: And we should point out the bomb maker from the Paris attacks still unknown at this point and still potentially out there. Unknown whether that bomb maker had anything to do with today's attack, whether the network of Salah Abdeslam was part of was, was directly related to this as well. A lot to learn. Thanks you so much, Josh, for being with us.

ROGIN: Thank you.

COOPER: Let's go back to Carol Costello in New York.

COSTELLO: All right, thank you, Anderson.

I have Paul Cruickshank with me, our CNN terrorism analyst, and Jonathan Gilliam, CNN security analyst. Thanks to you both for sticking around.

Paul, there's new information coming out of the airport in Brussels. There was a certain type of gun found at the airport. What's the significance?

CRUICKSHANK: Carol, Belgian media now reporting that they -- the police recovered a Kalashnikov automatic weapon at the airport. There were reports earlier that this was a gun and bomb attack at the airport, that shots were fired by the perpetrator or perpetrators of the attack at the airport, and some more evidence of that now emerging.

The fact that a Kalashnikov, a very powerful weapon, the same weapon that was used in the Paris attacks was found at the airport, the same weapon, type of weapon as was found exactly a week ago in Salah Abdeslam's safe house where he was hiding out with two other ISIS terrorists, Carol.

COSTELLO: So, in short, this gun may tie the attack at the airport to Abdeslam and maybe a larger cell?

CRUICKSHANK: It would be consistent with this being the same network behind Paris, but obviously all kinds of networks could get hold of a Kalashnikov. That doesn't necessarily point, but it would be consistent with the working assumption that this is the Paris attack cell that carried out the attack today in Brussels.

COSTELLO: And of course, there's fear all across Europe because I just heard trains were shut down in Paris and there have been a number of -- you know, there's of course increased security in airports all throughout Europe and in the United States.

So how big will the investigation be and how concerned should people in other parts of Europe be?

CRUICKSHANK: Concerned. The ISIS threat is beyond the capacity of European security services to deal with right now. There are just too many European extremists that have gone to join ISIS in Syria and Iraq, and too many that have come back to Europe. European security services working around the clock to prevent attacks.

As ISIS loses territory in Syria and Iraq -- and it's lost about 20 percent of the territory over the last year or so -- it's been ratcheting up its international attack planning, lashing out against the countries involved in the coalition. Belgium has been launching air strikes against ISIS in Iraq. And from the ISIS point of view, they believe this caliphate that they've declared is divinely ordained, so they're throwing the kitchen sink at protecting it, at retaliating for what they see as a hostile intervention against them.

And their recruits and fighters are true believers. They think they're going to paradise, and they're coming back in increasing numbers to launch attacks. They're exploiting these extraordinarily large migrant flows coming through Greece and other parts of Southern Europe. Several of the Paris attackers posed as Syrian refugees to gain access to Europe.

And Belgium has become one of their main logistical hubs in Europe. This Paris attack style, not just the ten attackers, at least a 30- strong group. They have more than ten people in custody so far in Belgium with various links to the attacks, but also a number of key individuals including potentially the bomb maker still at large. The potential bomb maker in this plot, being an individual called Najim Laachraoui, who traveled to Syria from Belgium in 2013 and is believed to have played a key role in the Paris attacks, coordinating those attacks in real time from Brussels as the attacks progressed in Paris, still at large.

COSTELLO: So there's great fear in Europe. There's also security concerns in the United States, Jonathan. How worried should Americans be in cities like New York and Washington, D.C.? In Atlanta where they've all increased security at airports and train stations?

JONATHAN GILLIAM, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Carol, I do think it's time we stop being worried. I mean, we have to realize that these attacks, if they can get the logistics down, these attacks are going to happen. And what Paul was just pointing out about Belgium is that, logistically, it's centered within all of Europe. And it's --

[09:55:06] COSTELLO: Right, because people don't realize where Belgium is.

GILLIAM: Exactly.

COSTELLO: It's right between Germany and France, right?

GILLIAM: It's perfectly centered right in the middle everything, and not only that, but it's got a very dense Muslim population in this area where they have been able logistically to move fighters in and out and people can be trained easily and come back.

In the United States, we need to realize all these things and we need to understand that the more we can do to prevent an attack or disrupt these different groups, we need to do that. But one thing we were talking about earlier is that when an attack happens -- I see this time and time again, in the United States, overseas -- we have to pause what we're doing and the people have to say I'm just not going to work or companies need to say stay at home. And in this case what happened was they had an attack at the airport, a very substantial attack, and they did not shut down the subway system. And there you go.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Paul Cruickshank, Jonathan Gilliam, thanks so much.

More of our special coverage when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COOPER: Good morning. Thanks for joining us. I'm Anderson Cooper. Welcome to our viewers watching in the United States and around the world. We are moments away from President Obama speaking about the Brussels terror attacks from Havana, Cuba. Also he's going to talk about a major European capital as it grinds to a halt. Right now, Brussels, Bbelgium under lock down and reeling in horror.

Cell phone video captures the immediate moment after the terrorists first struck.

[10:00:02] Smoke fills the city's airport where one suicide bomber detonated explosives. And sources tell us the other bomb may have been hidden in a suitcase. That has not been independently confirmed.