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Deadly Explosions Rock Brussels Airport and Metro Station; President Obama Delivers Remarks From Havana, Cuba. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 22, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Phone video captures the immediate moment after the terrorists first struck. 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 at this point. Then just an hour later and a few miles away attackers targeted a subway station in the heart of the city.

Between the two sites Belgian media reports more than 170 are wounded and at least 34 people are killed. Again this is early hours. Those numbers could change. Most of the dead at the Metro station as it bustled with morning commuters. Terrified passengers as you see forced to evacuate their subway cars, stumbling out of the doors into the dark tunnels that rapidly filled with smoke. At the airport, smoke billowed out of shattered windows. Passenger poured out of the building and broke into a run.

Brussels is on its highest alert level and cities across the world and here in the United States are scrambling to bolster their own security of course.

Our correspondents are covering all the angles from the scene to the world capitals now going on guard against the possibility of more attacks. We want to begin with our Jim Acosta as we stand by for President Obama. Jim Acosta with a look ahead at the president's remarks.

Jim, if you can hear me, what are we expecting President Obama to say and when is he expected to come out?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Anderson. Yes, that's right. At about 10:10 this morning, we expect President Obama to talk about the Brussels attacks at the very top of his remarks. This was a speech that was originally designed to be an address to the Cuban people to talk about human rights and all of the advancement that have been made in the relations between the U.S. and Cuba as the president is reopening ties with this island nation, but obviously things have changed. Instead of talking about human rights solely here on the island, he's going to be talking about obviously the human right not to be terrorized by violence all around the world.

You'll recall, Anderson, that after the Paris attacks last year, the president was criticized in some quarters for not being forceful enough in responding to those attacks. My suspicion is that we will hear the president be very forceful about these attacks that took place in Brussels earlier today.

Now he is expected to give this speech here in just a few moments and then attend a baseball game later on in the day and head to Argentina. We're given no any kind of guidance at this point, Anderson, that those plans are changing, the president might not go to Argentina and go back to Washington. At this point the president's travel plans appear to be the same at this point. But in just a few moments yes, we will hear the president talk about what happened in Brussels. He's been briefed on the situation. He's talking to officials and the White House says U.S. officials are in contact with their counterparts in Europe right now as this investigation moves forward -- Anderson.

COOPER: All right, Jim Acosta. Jim, thanks very much.

And again, as we await President Obama's remarks, let's bring in Nima Elbagir who's outside the airport in Brussels. Also joining us is Nic Robertson from London.

Nima, if you can, just bring us up to date. Two explosions at the airport. One explosion at the Metro station about an hour apart. Talk about what happened at the airport first.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, from what we understand from eyewitnesses, there was an exchange of gunfire. Some reports that words were shouted in Arabic, and then they report hearing this explosion. Very soon after, a second explosion.

U.S. officials at CNN have been speaking to those who have had access to some of the preliminary evidence say that the working theory at the moment is that the bomb was located in a suitcase. About an hour later as authorities were rushing to deal with the scene here, in fact, as we were making our way here, we saw a line of police cars going in the opposite direction from the airport. That's when we heard that there had been another blast at the Maelbeek train station. Just around the corner really, almost on top of it is the European Commission.

One eyewitness inside the commission reported to us that he felt that detonation. He felt that explosion inside there. And it is that explosion there at the train station that seems to be resulting in the higher numbers of casualties. The Brussels mayor has said that 20 so far have died from either the initial blast or from injuries sustained. A number of people of the 55 wounded are believed to be in a critical condition.

Here at the airport the death toll is at 14. But even just within the last hour that we've been speaking, Anderson, that number has been rising. It went from 10 to 11. There's a real worry about the potential that that death toll will continue to rise.

Authorities immediately cordoned off the area around the airport. And very quickly they brought the transit system, the train system to stop and shut off some of those underpasses through the central area of Brussels. They closed the schools. Then the prime minister announced that the threat level had been raised to level three which means potentially now that they are -- well, we know what it means.

[10:05:08] We know it means that they are deploying on the streets because we've seen military helicopters going back and forth from this airport. Soldiers will now be on the streets of Brussels, and the prime minister has announced that the city, Anderson, is now in lockdown.

COOPER: And we saw that occur in the days after the Paris terror attacks as well. The big question, of course, this morning is, are the same people involved, the masterminds, the organizers, the coordinators behind the Paris terror attacks, are they actually the ones behind this? Is it perhaps even the same bomb maker? If in fact it is, that would be an extraordinary development that an operation like this could occur months after the Paris terror attacks with all the security, with all the investigations, with all the raids, more than 100 raids that have taken place in Belgium since those deadly attacks in Paris. The bomb maker from Paris still believed to be on the loose, although his identity not known at this point.

In terms of the situation at the airport, there was also, we understand, Nima, a controlled detonation of what was believed to have been another explosive device. Do you know anything about that?

ELBAGIR: Well, all we know is that the Interior Ministry warned people that this would be occurring. We don't know yet whether they just suspected that it was an explosive device. We have no sense yet what they found when they detonated that device. We do know forensics teams are on the site and they're trying to really get as much evidence, as much usable evidence because this is also an ongoing operation.

We understand that there are raids. There are sweeps. They've asked members of the public not to go on social media and give any signal where these sweeps are happening. But we have heard from eyewitnesses that they have seen evidence that these raids are ongoing. So this is an operation to try and grab whoever else is still out there while trying to contain, potentially, what else could still have been lying in wait for them here.

And that was when we were speaking to those eyewitnesses who evacuated from inside the train, that was really the specter that was on all of them, the first responders who bravely went in there to evacuate people, they didn't know what they were going to find down there in the dark as they walked people out, and you saw that in the faces of people as they emerged from the station in the images that we've been seeing. Just the shock. One woman was crying saying there are still bodies down there.

This is a government that's having to deal with a nation that is reeling while at the same time making sure that they are trying desperately to get ahead of what else potentially could be out there, Anderson.

COOPER: And Nic Robertson in London, as we await President Obama, you saw him a second ago entering the building where he's going to be giving a speech. We're going to bring that speech to you live of course.

But, Nic Robertson, this of course comes just days after Salah Abdeslam, the tenth terrorist involved in the terror attacks on -- in Paris several months ago, was apprehended, was shot while being apprehended. But he is now in custody after what had been a massive months long manhunt. So that was a real victory for Belgian authorities, but it raised a very real concern that there was another operation underway, because what else they found and who else they found Salah Abdeslam with.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: They found him with a neutralized somebody who was one of the prime suspects in helping coordinate the Paris attacks. They found in the house that they disrupted this time last week in a raid in Brussels, detonating equipment for explosive devices.

The Paris prosecutor has detailed some of the things that Salah Abdeslam was involved in, in the lead-up to the Paris attack. He made those details public this weekend saying that Salah Abdeslam was involved in buying chemicals and equipment that could be used in detonators.

So you piece all that together and you begin to realize that Salah Abdeslam was at the core, not just in the planning and preparation, but potentially close to those making the explosives, at least buying parts of those explosives. So when the police in Brussels last week disrupt a building where there are the components for making explosives, this perhaps leads us to understand better why they said it's a major blow that they captured Salah Abdeslam. But they also said that this isn't the end of the fight.

His lawyer, Salah Abdeslam's lawyer said that he was cooperating with police. If that is not a direct or coded message for his cohorts to step forward with any attacks because he might be about to hand over vital information to the police or just a coded warning, that has to be one of the ways intelligence authorities are looking at it.

As we look at the attack in the airport in Brussels, this is a classic terrorist attack. You have not just the suicide vest, not just the gunshots, but a few minutes later, a secondary device detonating.

[10:10:08] Typically we've seen that all across the world where a secondary device is designed to catch first responders as they attend the scene. It's not clear that was the case this time, but again it has the hallmarks. This will be the analysis counterterrorism authorities are looking at.

We've had David Cameron meeting with his internal high security cabinet, the French president doing the same today. All of them stepping up their security measures. The Irish are doing it today. The Swiss, the Russians, the Italians, the Spanish, the Greeks have all offered their condolences and all are looking in the light of this attack what can they learn and what can they do to improve security in their capitals and major cities, Anderson. COOPER: And Nic, while we're talking, I just want to point out on the

left side of your screen, that is the scene in Havana, Cuba where we're awaiting President Obama. We don't have control over those cameras. Obviously the audience is gathering. Dignitaries and the like -- people from Havana and on the right, obviously, the scenes out of Brussels.

What had been a talk by President Obama about relations with Cuba, obviously now is going to be, we understand at least, in part, focused on the terror attacks in Brussels and what we have witnessed, the carnage we have witnessed.

Nic Robertson, so much more is now known about the Paris terror attacks. And I keep bringing you back to that because of the apprehension of Salah Abdeslam. One of the men killed in the apprehension of Salah Abdeslam by, I believe a sniper, by a Belgian authorities, is actually believed to have been kind of over Salah Abdeslam and Abaaoud in the Paris terror attacks, the coordinator. He was the person who was actually called by the various teams, phone calls were traced from the attackers in Paris to a number in Belgium that's believed to have been this man who was killed in the apprehension of -- or in the initial attempt to apprehend Abdeslam.

ROBERTSON: Yes, Mohamed Belkaid. He was killed, but there was also another operative that was also believed to have been involved in phone calls to -- from Brussels to the teams on the ground. And it's him that was formally known by his pseudonym as Soufiane Kayal. He is now on the run. Authorities have named him.

He is the suspect that they are looking for because he played that same leadership role that was helping coordinate the Paris attacks by phone, talking to the attackers on the ground before they perpetrated those attacks even at times immediately before they were activating cell phones that hadn't been used prior to that attack just for that role of coordination. Downloading maps of the Bataclan -- Bataclan nightclub. That was another thing that was done with one of those cell phones, and all of this was coming back to these two men. One now dead, one on the most wanted list.

Of course Belgian authorities now, we understand, are continuing their very, very active investigations. They don't want details getting out about that because they believe that could compromise their investigations ongoing on the ground, and as we have seen and witnessed over the past week, those confrontations can turn to gun battles that can be dangerous for the public, can be dangerous for the police as well.

COOPER: Sure.

ROBERTSON: So this is -- this is a very, very dynamic situation even though those attacks in the morning are now over the police are continuing with actions -- Anderson.

COOPER: We understand three American missionaries have been injured in the attacks this morning in Brussels. We're just starting to get more information about those who have been killed, those who have been injured.

I want to bring in our Pamela Brown who is working her sources.

Pamela, one of the questions, of course, about this attack is, was it put on an accelerated schedule? It's obviously something that required a great deal of planning. Was it accelerated because of the apprehension of Salah Abdeslam just several days ago? What have you learned?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is the main working theory just from talking to counterterrorism officials here in the United States that have been tracking what's going on in Belgium. The belief is that this was a plot that was already in the works, and then after Salah Abdeslam was arrested last Friday that the plan was accelerated rather than just, you know, a few people hastily throwing something together after his arrest.

Officials say that is unlikely, but that they think this was something they were intending to do. They had already scoped out their targets, probably did surveillance. As we saw in the Paris attacks as well. And then decided after Salah Abdeslam's arrest that then they would launch it.

And officials I've been speaking to say it is clear that the attacks were timed for maximum impact. At a very busy time at the Metro station as well as the airport terminals.

I've been speaking to officials about the types of bombs that were likely used, and what officials are looking at is whether military grade explosive was used particularly at the airport just given the damage there.

[10:15:03] One of the reasons they believe there was a bomb in a suitcase is because of the types of injuries that we're seeing. A lot of leg injuries. Officials I've been speaking with say that that would indicate there was some -- a bomb on the ground that exploded to cause those leg injuries and a lot of fragmentation.

Also you see the structure is damaged as well. That would indicate there was something more than just one suicide bomber. But at this stage, everything is under investigation. Very early on they're trying to collect the evidence as we speak.

One thing to point out here, Anderson, is that every single counterterrorism official I've spoken with say this is not a surprise. The only thing that's surprising here is that this didn't happen sooner.

COOPER: We also understand, Pam, that the Belgian nuclear power plant has now been evacuated. That may just be a precaution. We don't have any more information about that. But it may just be a decision made out of an abundance of caution.

We're awaiting President Obama speaking from Havana, Cuba. That's the scene on the left-hand side of your screen. And obviously the scene on the right-hand side of your screen, some of the carnage from the airport this morning.

Pam, I mean, obviously the target of the airport, we don't know exactly which part of the airport, what counters were struck at. There was an American Airlines plane on the ground in Brussels. There was a morning flight out. There were a number of obviously other carriers as well. But this is a very -- you know, past terror attack at airports, it is often in the area where passengers first arrive. It's the area that's the least secure of anywhere because nobody has gone through screening.

Sometimes there will be prescreening at some airports around the world. Cars checked, but that's a very difficult thing to do.

BROWN: Absolutely. I mean, this is what you would call a soft target. An area where passengers are congregating before they board their flight and before anyone really has to go through security. So in terms of that, it's not surprising.

I can tell you, Anderson, that officials are looking at some new technology right now to identify potential suicide bombers or bombs before, you know, they get to the airport, but the question is, I mean, how far out do you push your perimeter of security? Because there's inevitably going to be a group no matter -- or a large congregation of people no matter what you do. So this has been quandary for officials looking at security and the reality that ISIS -- the threat that ISIS presents, that they're going after these so- called soft targets where a lot of people are gathering, and we saw it play out there today in Belgium -- Anderson.

COOPER: We are told President Obama will be speaking momentarily in Havana, Cuba. These remarks obviously will be different than they would have been just a few hours ago. We believe he will address the attacks in Brussels. There has been no indication, according to our Jim Acosta, who is in Havana as well, that the president is going to change his schedule in any way. He was supposed to attend a baseball game later today then go onto Argentina, to Buenos Aires. That plan, supposedly, we're told, is still in place. No indication that he was going to be returning to Washington. Here is President Obama. Let's listen in.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Thank you. Muchos gracias. Thank you very much. Please. Thank you very much.

To President Castro, the people of Cuba, thank you so much for the warm welcome that I have received, that my family have received and that our delegation has received. It is an extraordinary honor to be here today.

Before I begin, please indulge me. I want to comment on the terrorist attacks that have taken place in Brussels. The thoughts and the prayers of the American people are with the people of Belgium, and we stand in solidarity with them in condemning these outrageous attacks against innocent people.

OBAMA: We will do whatever is necessary to support our friend and ally, Belgium in bringing to justice those who are responsible. And this is yet another reminder that the world must unite. We must be together, regardless of nationality or race or faith in fighting against the scourge of terrorism.

We can and we will defeat those who threaten the safety and security of people all around the world.

To the government and the people of Cuba, I want to thank you for the kindness that you've shown to me, and Michelle, Malia, Sasha, my mother-in-law, Marion. (SPEAKING SPANISH).

(APPLAUSE)

In his most famous poem, Jose Marti made this offering of friendship and peace to both his friend and his enemy.

Today, as the president of the United States of America, I offer the Cuban people -- (SPEAKING SPANISH).

(APPLAUSE)

Havana is only 90 miles from Florida, but to get here, we had to travel a great distance, over barriers of history and ideology, barriers of pain and separation.

The blue waters beneath Air Force One once carried American battle ships to this island to liberate but also to exert control over Cuba. Those waters also carried generations of Cuban revolutionaries to the United States, where they built support for their cause.

And that short distance has been crossed by hundreds of thousands of Cuban exiles on planes and makeshift rafts, who came to America in pursuit of freedom and opportunity, sometimes leaving behind everything they owned and every person that they loved.

Like so many people in both of our countries, my lifetime has spanned a time of isolation between us. The Cuban Revolution took place the same year that my father came to the United States from Kenya. The Bay of Pigs took place the year that I was born.

The next year, the entire world held its breath watching our two countries as humanity came as close as we ever have to the horror of nuclear war. As the decades rolled by, our governments settled into a seemingly endless confrontation, fighting battles through proxies. In a world that remade itself time and again, one constant was the conflict between the United States and Cuba.

I have come here to bury the last remnant of the Cold War in the Americas.

(APPLAUSE)

I have come here to extend the hand of friendship to the Cuban people.

(APPLAUSE) Now, I want to be clear. The differences between our governments over these many years are real, and they are important. I'm sure President Castro would say the same thing. I know, because I've heard him address those differences at length.

OBAMA: But before I discuss those issues, we also need to recognize how much we share. Because in many ways, the United States and Cuba are like two brothers that have been estranged for many years, even as we share the same blood. We both live in a new world, colonized by Europeans.

Cuba, like the United States, was built in part by slaves brought here from Africa. Like the United States, the Cuban people can trace their heritage to both slaves and slave owners. We've welcomed both immigrants who came a great distance to start new lives in the Americas.

Over the years, our cultures have blended together. Dr. Carlos Finlay worked in Cuba, paved the way for generations of doctors, including Walter Reed, who drew on Dr. Finlay's work to help combat yellow fever. Just as Marti wrote some of his famous words in New York, Earnest

Hemmingway made a home in Cuba and found inspiration in the waters of these shores.

We share a national past time, la pelotero, and later today our players will compete on the same Havana field that Jackie Robinson played on before he made his major league debut.

(APPLAUSE)

And it is said that our greatest boxer, Muhammad Ali, once paid tribute to a Cuban that he could never fight, saying that he would only be able to reach a draw with the great Cuban, Teofilo Stevenson.

(APPLAUSE)

So even our governments became adversaries, our people continued to share these common passion. Particularly as so many Cubans came to America. In Miami or have Havana, you can find places to dance the cha-cha-cha or the salsa and eat rohabiera (ph) foods. People in both of our countries have sung along with Celia Cruz or Gloria Estefan and now listen to Reggaeton or Pit Bull.

Million of our people share a common religion, a faith that I paid tribute to at the Shrine of our Lady of Charity in Miami, a peace that Cubans find in la Cachita. For all of our differences, the Cuban and American people share common values in their own lives, a sense of patriotism and a sense of pride, a lot of pride. A profound love of family, a passion for our children. A commitment to their education. And that's why I believe our grandchildren will look back on this period of isolation as an aberration, as just one chapter in a longer story of family and of friendship.

OBAMA: But we cannot and should not ignore the very real differences that we have about how we organize our governments, our economies, and our societies. Cuba has a one-party system. The United States is a multi-party democracy. Cuba has a socialist economic model. The United States is an open market. Cuba has emphasized the role and rights of the state, the United States is founded upon the rights of the individual.

Despite these differences, on December 17th, 2014, President Castro and I announced that the United States and Cuba would begin a process to normalize relations between our countries.

(APPLAUSE)

Since then, we've established diplomatic relations and opened embassies. We've begun initiatives to cooperate on health and agriculture, education and law enforcement. We've reached agreements to restore direct flights and mail service. We've expanded commercial sites and increased the capacity of Americans to travel and do business in Cuba.

And these changes have been welcomed, even though there are still opponents to the policies.

Still, many people on both sides of this debate have asked why now? Why now?

There's one simple answer. What the United States was doing was not working. We have to have the courage to acknowledge that truth. A policy of isolation designed for the Cold War made little sense in the 21st Semitism. The embargo was only hurting the Cuban people, instead of helping them.

And I always believed in what Martin Luther King, Jr. called the fierce urgency of now. We should not fear change, we should embrace it.

(APPLAUSE)

That leaves me to a bigger and more important reason for these changes. (SPEAKING SPANISH).

(APPLAUSE)

I believe in the Cuban people. This is not just a policy of normalizing relations with the Cuban

government. The United States of America is normalizing relations with the Cuban people.

(APPLAUSE)

And today I want to share with you my vision of what our future can be.

[10:29:54] I want the Cuban people, especially the young people, to understand why I believe that you should look to the future with hope, not the false promise which insists that things are better than they really are, or the blind optimism that says all your problems can go away tomorrow.