Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Belgium Remains at Highest Threat Level; Police Raid Home of Suicide Bomber; Dems, GOP Sound Off on Brussels Attacks. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired March 23, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:10] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Just minutes ago Belgium's federal prosecutor giving us brand new information on the Brussels terror investigation. Authorities are now telling us they only know who one man is in this picture. The man in the middle, they know who he is. His name is Ibrahim Bakraoui. And the man on the left were the suicide bombers. They died at the airport but they are not brothers as previously believed.

The third suspect, the man on the right, in the hat with the light colored jacket on, is still unidentified. Authorities say he is on the run and as you might expect, an intense manhunt now under way.

Khalid Bakraoui, Ibrahim's brother, is shown here on the left. He actually carried out the suicide bombing at the train station an hour later. Police say both brothers had ties to the Paris terror attacks.

Authorities updated the death toll last hour, too. It rises to 31 and the number of wounded jumps to 271.

Our correspondents and guests are covering all the angles from the investigation to the new concerns rippling across the world. Let's begin, though, with CNN's Nima Elbagir in Brussels.

That news conference was pretty surprising last hour.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was. It really broke down the detail in terms of what police now understand because, I mean, we're only just past the 24-hour mark. So there is a lot of information that we had been hearing earlier that now appears police had initially presumed -- authorities had initially presumed but has turned out to be incorrect.

So let's just break this down for everybody. 7:59 a.m., just before 8:00 a.m. yesterday police believe that's when the first detonation happened. When the first suicide bomber detonated. 37 seconds later the second bomb. Then the third man, the one they are currently seeking, he left a bomb to be remote detonated and that horrifyingly seems to have had the largest amount of explosive. This was the bomb that was intended to cause the most damage. Mercifully it didn't detonate. It was then detonated by authorities in a controlled explosion. While Ibrahim el-Bakraoui was detonating himself in the airport his

brother was clearly moving towards that Metro station. An hour later, that was when Khalid el-Bakraoui detonated himself in the Metro station. And Khalid is crucial, he's very key for authorities, identifying him has been key because he is the link now between what happened here and the Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam. It was that address in Forest last week that was raided where Salah Abdeslam -- his DNA was found and he was placed there by authorities as having been there post the Paris attack. Authorities believe that was rented by Khalid el-Bakraoui under an alias.

So you have these two brothers bringing together the networks that were in Paris and other networks that carried out this attack. Throughout this of course police are hunting for that third suspect. The man who left the bomb. The man whose picture we showed you the light color coat and hat. He's believed to be extremely dangerous.

And just to give you a sense of how much bigger this possibly could have been, police said when they raided the apartment in Schaerbeek yesterday, they found 15 kilos of explosive, nails, acetone. So much more that could have gone horribly wrong. They also found the last will of Ibrahim el-Bakraoui in a trash can not far from the address. In it he talks about feeling the need to hurry this operation, feeling unsafe.

And that is -- that really brings into play the horrifying foreshadowing of authorities on the Sunday after the capture of Salah Abdeslam when the Belgian foreign minister was speaking out, Carol, and saying that his worry was that this capture while crucial and of course so necessary could accelerate the networks that were plotting to strike here in Brussels -- Carol.

COSTELLO: So, Nima, that means this Abdeslam, the man who was arrested, who was responsible for the Paris attacks, he knew of a plot and police could not get the information from him in time? Is that what it seems like to you?

ELBAGIR: Well, the authorities only started speaking publicly about a plot after Salah Abdeslam had been captured. And they do say that he's been collaborating. So clearly the sense is that he's bringing together pieces of this puzzle and that is what the prosecutor said. But they also said at the time that this is far from over. We still don't have as they characterized it, the complete puzzle. And that is sadly what led to the unfolding of the circumstances, the tragic incidents that we saw here yesterday morning, Carol.

[09:05:01] COSTELLO: OK. So the Paris attacks and the Brussels attacks appear to be connected. That means there was this cell operating within both countries. How big do authorities think this cell is? How many more people are they looking for?

ELBAGIR: Well, authorities believe that there is an overlap between these networks as you see with Salah Abdeslam and the el-Bakraoui brothers. But they believe that they are larger because they are two networks and this is really what's been really startling to hear authorities talk about. Almost this lattice work of Islamist radical networks operating in Europe, in Brussels. And that Salah Abdeslam, while part of the Paris attack conspiracy, while he was on the run had also been part of this other network that had built up around him that they believe to be implicated in the Brussels attacks of yesterday morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: So other countries have been put on alert. So there's probably this massive manhunt in, I don't know, France? In Germany, too? Where? Where are they looking?

ELBAGIR: Well, authorities say that they are -- they are giving increased scrutiny across Europe. Of course they are not giving out any details of exactly where they are raiding because they have been so cautious post Paris about potentially putting that information out there that could allow any of these suspects to evade capture. But we do know that the French police have deployed an extra 1600 officers out onto the streets. We know that other countries are looking very careful at their borders.

There is just this state now of hyper, hyper vigilance here in Europe, Carol. But at the same time we should say here in Brussels we're actually overlooking just behind us here the memorial for those injured and those who lost their lives in the attack. People seem to be very consciously choosing to come out onto the streets in spite of the threat level. Some of those we've been speaking to just said we just want to try and snatch back some normalcy from those who did this to us because if we stay at home, if we stay afraid then we feel that they will have won.

COSTELLO: Just before I let you go, Nima, because one of the oddest turn of events this morning out that news conference was that one of the suicide bombers, one of the Bakraoui brothers, he left a will but it was like part will and part suicide note, wasn't it?

ELBAGIR: It definitely wasn't the kind of will that we've seen from militants before, especially ISIS has claimed responsibility for this. Authorities haven't confirmed that but with ISIS there will tend to be very flashy and very -- you know, this is why we did this and you will suffer. This seemed to be like -- you said, there seemed to be a tinge of regret. A fear, perhaps. Not regret. Fear probably is the right way of characterizing, saying that he did not want to end up in jail next to him.

Now he didn't specify who that him was. But the presumption of course reading that is that he didn't want to end up where Salah Abdeslam is. Authorities are combing through that computer trying to see what else there is in there. But it definitely gives you a real -- an insight into his thinking.

COSTELLO: All right. Nima Elbagir, thanks so much for your reporting. Live from Brussels this morning.

I want to bring in Frederik Pleitgen. He's just -- he's in Brussels as well. He's near the place where explosives were found earlier.

Frederik, what can you tell us? FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, yes.

Carol, where a lot of the things were found that were talked about in that press conference that just took place. This is the place, Schaerbeek, where the main raid took place yesterday.

I want to show you exactly where we are because we're in front of this residential building and sort of the top floor of that building, that's where most of the raids took place last night. You'll see up there, we were there yesterday and there was a lot of forensic work being done. And we were wondering why there was an explosive ordinance disposal crew there for a very, very long time. Several EOD trucks were in front of this place.

And now we find out from the authorities here that there were some 15 kilograms of explosives that they found inside that apartment. Also a lot of screws. They said yesterday they were talking about a nail bomb.

Also one of the other things that you just mentioned to Nima was that will that was found. Apparently it was found on a laptop computer in a garbage can right outside of this building. And turning around I can see there is actually a garbage can right outside the building where that computer may have been dumped. The authorities say that is where they found that will where apparently one of the two brothers there said that he felt that he was on the run, that he felt that things were getting close, and that he was afraid of going to jail.

So this certainly seems to be one of the focal points where at least most of the explosives for the terror attacks that happened here in Brussels yesterday were manufactured. Where the lab to manufacture them was and also of course where the screws were put in and also an ISIS flag was found at this location as well, Carol.

COSTELLO: As for the materials they used to make these bombs, where did they come from?

[09:10:10] PLEITGEN: Well, that is a very good question. A lot of the materials that they used appear to be stuff that you can basically buy in the pharmacy. You have to of course go probably to several different places. But it is essentially homemade explosives. And judging by the press conference that took place by the Belgian prosecutor just a couple of minutes ago, the definition for the explosive that was used, TATP, is the same kind of explosive that was also used in the Paris attack.

It's not necessarily something that is very easy to make but it is something that with the knowledge of how to me bombs is something that can be manufactured in somewhat of a homemade lab like this one was.

Now remember this is also the place where these people were picked up to then go to the airport to conduct the bombings there. And a taxi driver who picked them up said that first of all they had a lot of luggage with them. That at some of them had to stay behind here. That might explain why a nail bomb was found here at this location. But also that when they got to the airport the man that were there refused to allow the taxi driver to handle their luggable and that seems to indicate obviously that something very unstable was inside that luggage and that of course could explain the TATP would have been inside those pieces of luggage.

So a lot of the leads that we're hearing now. A lot of what the authorities are telling us seems to originate right here from this residential building in the Schaerbeek area of Brussels -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Frederik Pleitgen, reporting live from outside of Brussels.

And that TATP that Frederik mentioned is important and I'm going to get into that in just a second. We still don't know who exactly police have arrested in part. But I do want to talk now about Najim Laachraoui. I want to talk about Laachraoui for a moment. Najim Laachraoui. He's allegedly ISIS' chief bomb maker. He's one of the most wanted men in Belgium. Days ago he was named as the new suspect in the Paris attacks and naturally authorities are trying to figure out if he is also linked to the Brussels attacks.

We know that this man traveled to Syria in 2013. We don't know who he talked to. But we do know ISIS claimed responsibility for the Brussels bombings. It even relates to chilling statement which read in part, quote, "Islamic State fighters carried out a series of bombings with explosive belts and device on Tuesday, targeting an airport in the central Metro station in the center of the Belgian capital Brussels. A country participating in the international coalition against the Islamic State."

Now the big question -- one of the big questions this morning, I should say, is ISIS in Syria or Iraq directly orchestrating these kinds of terror attacks?

Let's talk about that side of the story. CNN terrorism analyst and co-author of "Agent Storm: My life Inside Al Qaeda," Paul Cruickshank is here. I'm also joined by CNN military analyst, Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling.

Welcome to both of you. Happy you're here.

Paul, I'll start with you. Some media has been reporting that the man in the hat in the airport, the man with a hand and the light coat, the third guy that got away and lived. They were reporting that he was the bomb maker but apparently he is not. Who do you suppose he is?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, they don't know at this point, Carol. He was suspected to be the third suicide bomber at the airport with a large amount of explosives, TAT explosives in his suitcase which he placed on the trolley. For some reason either it didn't work or he backed out. And according to CCTV footage he then runs away very quickly from the scene. The other two bombers blow up their device.

But the key new piece of information that we've just received in the last hour or so is that the Bakraoui brothers, who were two of the bombers, one of them at the Metro station, one of them in the airport, rented Salah Abdeslam's safe house where he hid after the Paris attacks. That definitively ties the Paris attack cell and the Brussels attack cell. They're part of the same network, the same ISIS cell carried out both of these attacks.

We are also learning from the federal prosecutor that one of the Bakraoui brothers left a last will and testament which was found near that residence in Schaerbeek which was searched yesterday, saying, I don't want to go to prison. We need to speed this thing up. Senior Belgian counterterrorism official tells me that Belgian Security Services believe that the cell accelerated their planning after Abdeslam's safe house was raided in Brussels last week after Salah Abdeslam was brought into custody. They accelerated their plans. They did not want to be arrested. And therefore they carried out this very large attack.

[09:15:02] Now this is very important. They do not have specific evidence yet that Salah Abdeslam was going to be part of this attack that played out yesterday in Brussels. But Salah Abdeslam, part of the same cell network as the attackers yesterday.

You were referring to Laachraoui, Najim Laachraoui, who was still at large. This is an individual who played a key role in the Paris attacks. He was on the phone in real time to the various Paris attack teams during the night of the attacks. Now his DNA was found at the Paris attacks bomb factory. But his DNA has not yet been matched to the Schaerbeek property which was raided yesterday which was the bomb factory for this attack.

The fact his DNA was recovered at this location suggested for the Paris attack suggested he might have been the bomb maker. We do not yet know that for sure. I think it's premature, Carol, to call him ISIS's chief bomb maker. We do not know that for sure. But certainly it is possible that he is a very skilled bomb maker and still at large. Belgium authorities very, very keen to arrest him. He may be the most dangerous man in Europe right now.

COSTELLO: OK. So all of these -- all of these people are apparently connected, though. And that is really the point. And I think that many Americans are wondering, General, I mean, is ISIS, in the form of al-Baghdadi, directly ordering these kind of attacks? Because we know this bomb maker went to Syria. We don't know who he talked to or anything but that's what many Americans fear.

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I think there is a command and control element to all of this, Carol. But in terms of directly ordering it as to the details of the plot, the timing, the place, the location, no. He is not doing any of that. What you were talking about with Nima before in these large networks throughout Europe that have smaller cells placed all over the countries in Europe, it's critically important to understand that there are some key and important people.

There are the leaders. There are the financers, there are the bomb makers. There are the communicators and then there are the pawns that carry out the attack. When it was reported that the man in the white trench coat, accompanying the two suicide bombers was the bomb maker yesterday, I shook my head and said no, that's not the case. They would never send someone as important as the bomb maker on an attack.

He is back considering ways to make new bombs and to execute more missions. So that's the kind of things you have to concern yourself with. The various cells that are part of this network acting on their own at many times. They may have general guidance from the cells in Syria or from the network in Syria. But they are doing this on their own. Hence the letter that says, hey, we've got to do this right away, because I don't want to spend time in jail with Abdeslam.

They wanted to execute these fast, as soon as he was executed, to make sure that they weren't caught up in this collection of individuals as the various police agencies in Europe were conducting their operations.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Paul Cruickshank, General Mark Hertling, thanks to both of you.

Coming up next in the NEWSROOM, the Brussels attack front and center in the 2016 presidential election. How the attack could shape the race for the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:22:35] COSTELLO: We will continue to bring you all the latest developments out of Brussels. But first, got to talk about American politics and election 2016. Hillary Clinton, she continues to pull away from Bernie Sanders. Even as the Vermont senator crushed his rival in the Idaho and Utah caucuses. But in the Arizona primary Clinton gained the upper hand big time.

As for Donald Trump, the road to the White House hit another hurdle as Senator Cruz wins big in Utah. Trump posted a big win of his own, though, in delegate rich Arizona. But Cruz says his victory has Trump running scared, citing this tweet from the GOP frontrunner, quote, "Lying Ted Cruz just used a picture of Melania from a GQ shoot in his ad. Be careful, Lying Ted, or I will spill the beans on your wife." Cruz responded with his own tweet, quote, "Pic of your wife? Not from us, Donald. If your try to attack Heidi you are a coward. You're more of a coward than I thought." Hashtag classless.

Cruz talked about the flap on CNN this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Last night Donald threatened my wife. He went directly after my wife. And I got to tell you that, number one, Heidi, my wife, she is the daughter of missionaries in Africa. She's my best friend in the world. And if Donald wants to get in a character fight he's better off sticking with me because Heidi is way out of his league.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. Joining me now to talk more about this and more, Mark Preston, CNN Politics executive editor. Good morning, Mark. MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Good morning, Carol.

We certainly have got into the gutter of American politics with Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. But let's talk a little bit about the numbers right now. The delegate totals at this point. As you said last night there was a split. Donald Trump picked up 58 delegates by winning the state of Arizona. Ted Cruz picked up 40 by winning the state of Utah. Overall now you need 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination. Right now Donald Trump has 741, he is in the lead. Ted Cruz has 461 delegates.

Now, Carol, another big bit of news for Ted Cruz just this morning. He received the endorsement of Jeb Bush, the former Florida governor, who was his one-time rival. Bush as you'll recall left the race about 30 days ago because his campaign was unable to pick up some traction. But this is what Jeb Bush had to say. He described Ted Cruz as a consistent principled conservative.

[09:25:05] But listen to this biting remark about Donald Trump. "For the sake of our party and country, we must move to overcome the divisiveness and vulgarity Donald Trump has brought into the political arena or we will certainly lose our chance to defeat the Democratic nominee and reverse President Obama's failed policies."

So, Carol, yet another establishment Republican lining up behind Ted Cruz as we move towards this Republican nomination.

COSTELLO: All right. Mark Preston, reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

The terror attacks in Brussels are very much in play in American politics. Trump, Cruz and Clinton all appeared on morning television shows as authorities comforted the wounded in search for suspects.

Here to talk about that, Larry Sabato. He's the director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.

Welcome, Larry. So much to talk about this morning.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Absolutely, Carol. Always too much to talk about.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: You're not kidding. So let's start with this. Politico's digital editorial director tweeted this, quote, "America may be one major terrorist attack away from Donald Trump as president."

Do you agree, Larry?

SABATO: No. I like Blake, but I think that's an oversimplification of what's likely to happen. Look, nobody knows whether there will be other terrorist strikes. It doesn't take a crystal ball to predict there probably will be more before the November election. But presidential elections don't run on one track. National security is one track. The economy is another. The popularity or unpopularity of the incumbent president. The comparison between the two party nominees. I can go on and on. You can't oversimplify something as big as the presidential election.

COSTELLO: But still, I mean, there was some strong rhetoric out there yesterday. Senator Cruz, for example, called for patrols of Muslim neighborhoods. Mr. Trump called for more torture. Mrs. Clinton called an all-out fight against ISIS. Who's message resonates?

SABATO: The truth is the message from each of those candidates resonates with their own constituency and their own partisans. And we are in the partisan, purely partisan phase of this presidential election. So Trump is scoring big as he did after the Paris attacks and after the San Bernardino attacks because at this point Republicans want to hear tough rhetoric. There is an authoritarian strain to this. They like the way Trump is going after both illegals and also terrorists.

On the Democratic side I think the fact that Hillary Clinton's a former secretary of state gives her a clear advantage over Bernie Sanders who has very little experience in foreign policy. So both Clinton and Trump are benefitting.

COSTELLO: OK. Let's move on to the Bush endorsement of Senator Ted Cruz. Will it matter?

SABATO: It may mean more in terms of money than in terms of votes. You know, with all due respect to Jeb Bush, he didn't have a whole lot of votes to transfer. And you know, his moment of greatest influence may have been prior to the Florida primary and he chose not to endorse at that time, probably for some good reasons but this is kind of late. It is for many of these people who all of a sudden are awakening and endorsing candidates. You know, we're well along in the process.

COSTELLO: Yes, we are. Although Senator Cruz says this all means -- actually he says Mr. Trump appears nervous and he can prove it. You know, it was because of that tweet where Mr. Trump went after Senator Cruz's wife.

I had to ask you, Larry. Do you buy it?

SABATO: Not really. Carol, I'd like to put a claim, be the first I hope to put a claim on the word "classless" as the title of a book for the entire 2016 election. If I could just have that one word I think it would be a best-seller because classless fits this campaign to a tee.

COSTELLO: I see a book in your future, Larry Sabato. Another one, right?

SABATO: Yes.

COSTELLO: Thanks, Larry, for stopping by. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a massive memorial grows in Belgium. If you are planning on visiting any time soon, well, the State Department has a warning for you. Don't.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)