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Details of Terror Attacks in Brussels. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired March 22, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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

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[15:34:25] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: We are just past the bottom of the hour. You are watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

We are all over this breaking news here as a nail bomb, chemicals and an ISIS flag have now just been found in the hunt for these terrorists behind today's deadly attacks at the airport and at the tube station. Right now, a search under way for perhaps the most wanted man in Europe. He is a suspect here on the right side of your screen, wearing the beige, the khaki jacket there, next to the two suspected suicide attackers in black who prosecutors say were behind today's terror strikes against this city really known as the sort of symbolic capital of Europe, being Brussels. We think of the headquarters of EU, NATO. This is Brussels.

At least 30 people have been killed, 230 others wounded. Among those seriously injured are at least four Americans. The first is former Oakland University basketball player Sed Bolin. Three American Mormon missionaries were also hurt. ISIS has claimed responsibility for these attacks. One blast at the Maalbeek (ph) subway station near the EU. You can see just the damage caused by the blasts, these explosions there. Two other explosions happening just an hour before at the huge international Brussels airport.

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[15:35:52] BALDWIN: Ceiling tiles and debris rained down on those passengers there. A number of them ended up just walking out of the airport. As all transit shut down and the city immediately went on lockdown.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard an explosion. And all the ceiling just going down. And then I just go under the sink. And then the second explosion went. And then everything is black. And I see -- when I go out, I see a lot of people with blood. And I just go, just run out of the airport. All the building there is like chaos there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE REPORTER: What was your feeling at that moment?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm so scared. I feel like it's the end of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: Among some of the survivors of today's attacks, NBA legend Dikembe Mutombo. He happened to be en route from visiting his hospital in Congo through Brussels back to his home in the U.S. when he heard the explosions. I talked to him just a little while ago.

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BALDWIN: You were coming back from the Congo where you have the Dikembe foundation has a hospital. And so, you went personally to visit your hospital. You were coming home to the U.S. via Belgium. And you were sitting in the airport lounge when this happened. Can you just share what you will what happened, what you heard and saw?

DIKEMBE MUTOMBO, BRUSSELS SURVIVOR (on the phone): I was in the lounge. And based from I heard people start screaming and everyone start running. Then because I was napping and I was, like, what's going on. I thought it was such a joke. And the lady said everybody out. We have to go. We have to go. A lot of people are bleeding downstairs. A lot of people are hurt. And then (INAUDIBLE) from there. And I grabbed my bag and I started running as well.

BALDWIN: You were running through the Brussels airport. Where did you go?

MUTOMBO: And through the terminal. Through the terminal where the things happened.

BALDWIN: And then where did they take you?

MUTOMBO: We could not see because we were running through the concourse to the end the terminal where we was asked to go to the tarmac, everyone to the tarmac. The bad thing was they asked everybody to leave their luggage. I was very upset about it. I was forced to leave all my luggage behind.

BALDWIN: Because they're likely searching everyone's luggage, trying to figure out where this came from. You may never see your luggage again. But at least you're OK.

You know, what would you want to tell us back home, Americans who are watching in horror that this has happened? We saw what happened in Paris in the fall. Now we're watching this unfold in Belgium. Our hearts weep with the Europeans. What's your message to us back home?

MUTOMBO: I just feel bad for the family of the loved ones that lost their lives. (INAUDIBLE). They couldn't run and they couldn't move. They were struggling with -- a mom with a children. It was very crazy. I feel very bad. So many moms were trying to push their two kids. You have thousands, thousand people, everybody running. It was very sad.

BALDWIN: It is so sad. I'm glad you're OK. Safe travels back home to Georgia. Dikembe Mutombo. Thank you so much for the time.

MUTOMBO: Thank you.

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BALDWIN: And when we come back, we will take you back live to Brussels, Belgium. The manhunt, these raids under way. Right now we have crews on the ground. Quick break. Back after this.

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[15:45:01] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't explain. It looked like war. It's unbelievable. It's really hard. I'm an old firefighter. I have almost 45 years of service. And it's the first time I see something so terrible. I saw many injuries. I saw people dead. I saw everything broken. It's just terrible.

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BALDWIN: Just so many people absolutely devastated by today's terror attacks in Brussels, Belgium.

Joining me now former CIA counterterrorism analyst Buck Sexton. Also with us, national security investigations editor for "Reuters" David Rohde and retired ATF explosive expert Anthony May.

So Buck, to you first. Let's throw up the picture. Here it is. It is smaller on the screen. These three people, this is freeze frame from surveillance video taken inside the airport this morning. The two in the black, according to law enforcement there, the suspected did suicide bombers. The one on the lighter color jacket is the wanted suspect. This is the person they are looking for. When you analyze, former CIA, you know, put that hat on for me, what are you seeing here?

BUCK SEXTON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, you see, first off, of course, the gloves the individuals are wearing are likely to hide the detonators for the bombs that they were setting off. That's the belief right now is what they were doing. It looks like the individual to the right is essentially the handler of these two. He is making sure that they deploy. They deploy to the American airlines counter. I don't think that is in anyway an accident. That quite obviously has some real symbolism. And what you see here is the sort of complex terrorist cell structure that you can expect when you start introducing hardened fighters from the Syrian jihadist theater into Europe. What they can do is bring back the skills, the trade craft, the sorts of abilities that allow them to pull off these sort of mass casualty attacks.

This is the huge difference. This is why ISIS as a launch pad for attacks around the world in Syria is such a threat to Europe and to us here at the homeland because you're not talking about lone Wolfs who just try to figure out on their own, on the Internet. They can get training. They can even have individuals with battlefield experience or with specifically terrorist attack training, to show them how to do this, to build the devices for them. We know that chemicals were found. Many cases we are talking the chemicals that you can just buy. It's not very difficult if you know what you're doing to make a suicide vest that's essentially an improvised explosive device with a whole lot of shrapnel tied around it. So these jihadists returning to Europe from that theater in Syria are terrorist force multiplier. They make these attacks much deadlier, much higher casualty counts. And by the way, they're not just limited to Belgium as we know. We are going to see more of these in other places.

BALDWIN: Let me follow up on that point just a second here. We have been talking about how so many people have left Belgium to go to Syria and then return.

David, to you. You know, you were making the point earlier, I think you would agree with Buck that these individuals, this is sophisticated, what they were able to pull off. These are not amateurs whatsoever.

DAVID ROHDE, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yes. I mean, for four months, you know, the Belgium police have been looking for the --

BALDWIN: Four months since Paris.

ROHDE: Yes. So Paris happened, they have been looking for that one logistics coordinator. They finally get him --.

BALDWIN: On Friday.

ROHDE: So, how were they able to build these three bombs, move around, recruit the two suicide bombers, without any detection by Belgian law enforcement? There's been criticism of the Belgium but it's not just a problem in Belgium. You know, this is a sort of disciplined operation. Just like in Paris, there was no, you know, we missed them. There was no traffic, cell phone traffic, other indications electronically. That means they either went black, sort of old-fashioned trade craft where they don't use anything electronic, you know, or they used encryption. You know, there was some use of that in the Paris attack.

So that's troubling as well. It's both, you know, discipline and effectiveness. They built bombed that worked. They planned it out without anyone seeing it coming. When there was all this attention, you know, on Brussels, on that specific part of the city. So it is very troubling.

BALDWIN: It was a raid seven days ago. We were talking to Paul Cruickshank. He has broken so much of this for us, terrorism expert. And you know, he was saying it was the raids seven days ago that ultimately led to the capture of Abdeslam, Paris attacker, only because the person he then called was under surveillance, hit the trip wire and, boom, they were able to find him, to capture him alive.

Anthony May, to you here, if we can analyze just even further, when we talk about these different blasts, both at the airport and the subway station, and the sophistication of these blasts. We were talking I think about blast seats and blast signatures. What are these investigators looking for here?

ANTHONY MAY, RETIRED ATF EXPLOSIVES ENFORCEMENT OFFICER: Well, the -- at the airport, it was reported there was a smaller explosion followed by much larger explosion. The smaller explosion most likely could have been the suicide bomber. That blast seat or blast signature is going to be completely different from what we see from the larger or what we even seen in the subway because as the explosives are worn high on the body, above the ground, you're not going to have a typical blast seed. It's splatter from the walls.

The subway is interesting in the fact that there's not a lot of information coming out of that yet, other than the massive amount of damage that has been caused. Whether that -- I doubt that was most likely a suicide bomber. That was probably some kind of a large bomb in a suitcase.

[15:50:30] BALDWIN: Following up, Buck, on your point about this, you know, this isn't contained to just Belgium. We know that ISIS has said go after the west, go after the west. How do we prevent that from happening? There there's no answer to that question, really, other than these sorts of efforts you are seeing, counterterrorism services across Europe and the United States and around the world engaged in, but they only have to be right once, everyone knows or get it right once. We have to get it right all the time.

SEXTON: I think one of the big concern now is the recognition with these migrant flows, however somebody feels about the politics about what the migrant falls into Europe, even if it had not been ISIS' idea in the first place to use that for the infiltration.

BALDWIN: Some of the refugees coming on.

SEXTON: Refugees from Syria and elsewhere from the Muslim world and elsewhere too, even if had not been initial impulse it has been recently. They recognize that there is nothing but gain for them to use the refugee flow to drive a larger wedge between Muslim world and west by even having just a handful of terrorist attacks like this that occur. It means now that everyone has to put additional scrutiny on those flows. You create tremendous political problems. And as for the security services, we were just talking about this before. I would not want to be right now part of the German domestic intelligence service. I would not want that job. This is going to be very difficult trying to make sure that we are seeing in Belgium does not happen elsewhere across Europe because, unfortunately, it is likely there will be more of these kinds of attacks and not just in Belgium. It's just right now Belgium is a place where we've seen the most active cell and most recent attacks.

BALDWIN: Let's hope you're wrong.

SEXTON: I hope so.

BALDWIN: Buck Sexton, thank you. David Rohde, thank you. Anthony May, thank you.

Meantime, U.S. presidential candidates quickly condemning these attacks this morning Brussels, offering their ideas in what they think can be done to stop these terrorists. You will hear from them next.

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[15:54:43] BALDWIN: All right. So, I believe we have some sound from some of these different men who would like to be the next president of the United States coming forward condemning what happened in Brussels. Their thoughts on how they can stop the terrorists.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Brussels is an armed camp, and I'm not talking about today. You go down into Brussels now, it's an armed camp. If you went into Brussels 20 years ago, it was like a magical city. We have to be very careful in the United States. We have to be very, very vigilant who we allow into this country.

[15:55:14] SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Once again we are seeing the barbaric organization ISIS on raging a cowardly attack and killing dozens of innocent people in Brussels and wounding many, many more. It is clear to me, and I think the entire civilized world, that is must be destroyed.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We do have to defeat ISIS where they hold territory in Syria and Iraq. We're making progress but we have a lot to do. We he to shut off the flow of foreign fighters, foreign funds, foreign weapons. And we have to take them on the Internet. You know, you can put walls around your country, but you don't keep out the Internet and that's a major tool for radicalizing recruiting, propagandizing that ISIS is quite sophisticated at using.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to put all of our focus on this. Because if we do not put all of our focus and attention on these kinds of matters, ultimately we're going to see even more activity in the United States, even though it should be made clear that when people die and bleed in Europe, we die and bleed a little bit right here in the United States of America.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's long pastime that we had a president who will acknowledge this evil, will call it by its name, and utilize the full force and fury of the United States to defeat radical Islamic terrorism, to defeat ISIS.

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BALDWIN: They are the candidates reacting to what happened there in Brussels.

Let me bring in CNN political director, David Chalian.

And David, before we even go through sort of the politics of terror in here and how this is, you know, front and center for these candidates, let me just play some sound. President Obama, as we all well know, on this historic visit down in Cuba. He has been criticized for the fact what happened in Brussels that he hasn't, a, come home, and b attended a baseball game today. Here's the president responding to that criticism.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's always a challenge when you have a terrorist attack anywhere in the world, particularly in this age of 24/7 news coverage. You want to be respectful and understand the gravity of the situation.

But the whole premise of terrorism is to try to disrupt people's ordinary lives, and you know one of my most powerful memories and one of my most proudest memories as president is watching Boston respond after the marathon. And when Ortiz went out and said probably the only time that America didn't have a problem with somebody cursing on live TV was when he talked about Boston, how strong it was, that it was not going to be intimidated. And that is the kind of resilience and the kind of strength that we have to continually show in the face of these terrorists.

They cannot defeat America. They -- they don't produce anything. They don't have a message that appeals to the vast majority of Muslims or the vast majority of people around the world. What they can do is scare and make people afraid, and disrupt our daily lives and divide us. And as long as we don't allow that to happen, we're going to be OK.

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BALDWIN: David Chalian, doesn't the president have a point? What did you make of his response there?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, clearly, he is trying to frame this the best way that he can, that you don't give in to the terrorist desire to disrupt life as you planned it. John Kasich, the Republican presidential candidate, clearly he was president today, he would be on a plane back to Cuba and he would not at a baseball game. So, clearly there is some political debate about the president's activities.

But also, Brooke, there is just a clear contrast in all of that sound you played of all of the presidential candidates and how they respond to a moment like this in real-time. This is not a test you study for, right? This is a real moment as a presidential candidate with a real live circumstance, a real live 3:00 a.m. phone call, if you will. And each one responded somewhat differently, allowing the voters to sort assess how they would react if they were in the big chair in the oval office.

BALDWIN: I'm sure we'll be hearing much more from these different men and woman who would all like to be next commander in-chief.

As, you know, we heard from them before, a lot of our own CNN debates how they would take on terrorists to your point. This is real life terrorism. This is the phone call at 3:00 in the morning. I'm sure we'll be hearing from all of them much more on the trail and especially in the wake of today a big day for a couple of states around the country.

David Chalian, thank you so much. And thank you so much for being with me here. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Keep it right here. Continuous breaking coverage with Anderson Cooper starts right now.