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Terror Cell Still At Large; Clinton Terror Speech. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired March 23, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Eastern in "The Situation Room." In the meantime, the news continues right now right here on CNN.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Here we go. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you so much for being with me. You're watching CNN's special live coverage of the frantic manhunt for the bombing suspect and a terror cell truly at large here.

Right now, here's what we know. Belgium - and really let's just - the international community mourning the victims of the deadliest terrorist attack in Belgium's history. The country is also on its highest alert as police are hunting for, quote/unquote, a number of suspects who still may be in the country by the way.

We know that Belgian authorities are now searching for this man. They have not identified him. This was the man in the surveillance video on the far right hand. The lighter jacket. I don't know if he was just trying to disguise himself or not, but wearing the hat and the glasses. But today the federal prosecutor said that this suspect dropped a bag filled with explosives. It was the heaviest bomb of the three at the airport. So apparently he dropped the bomb, and then he ran.

The two men on the left side of your screen in the black, those were the suicide bombers. So they blew themselves up as they were detonating those bombs. One blast there at the airport coming just 37 seconds after the other.

Now, the man on the left has not been identified, but we now know the identification of the person in the middle of your screen. He is the brother of the suicide bomber in the subway attack that happened just 60 minutes later.

Also today, we learned police found the will of that airport suicide bomber, one of those brothers. It was discovered on a laptop, chucked in a trash can, during a search in Brussels. In that will, apparently this bomber wrote, quote, he "no longer feels safe," "needs to rush," and if he takes too much time, he would end up, quote, "next to him in prison." The who, the him he's referring to, Belgian investigators believe it to be Salah Abdeslam, that eighth Paris attacker, the man captured Friday in Brussels and the sole survivor of the core group of militants behind the ISIS-directed Paris terror attacks last November.

Also moments ago, President Obama said that now even more than ever the world is united in its fight against ISIS. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is my number one priority. I've got a lot of things on my plate, but my top priority is to defeat ISIL and to eliminate the scourge of this barbaric terrorism that's been taking place around the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's take you now to Brussels, to my colleague Erin Burnett, who's standing by.

And, Erin, you're there. What more are you learning at this hour?

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Brooke, you know, right now we are standing at the Plaza de la Bourse. It is sort of an impromptu memorial that has become much, much more than that and grown during the day.

I'm here with our CNN International anchor Michael Holmes, our CNN international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh.

You've been here throughout the day. Before we talk about the investigation, the manhunt, which is going on in this city right now, this is something you have seen grow and grow as people have come in solidarity today.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: You know, it's been a mixture of defiance and I've got to say, levity at times. When we were down here they had - at midday they had the moment of silence. And it went from about 250 people to nearly 2,000 in probably 20 minutes. And everyone hanging down their head, the moment of silence. At the end, sustained applause that went on for probably two minutes. It was incredibly moving. But on a security standpoint, if you were looking for a target, right here is a target. And so that - that speaks to that defiance. People are here being resilient, getting out here and saying, you're not going to defeat us.

BURNETT: And when you talk about targets, Nick Paton Walsh, that's what we're seeing right now, an ongoing manhunt, right? There are at least two. There's certainly more, but at least two. The man in the airport is missing. The suspected bomb maker for the bombs involved in this attack and also in the Paris attacks where we all were just a few months ago, and yet the city very much seems to be business as normal. (INAUDIBLE) all these reports, oh, it's going to be shutdown, there's a manhunt going on. What is the latest on this? Are they - we don't see it on the streets.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: (INAUDIBLE) Ibrahim el-Bakraoui, who was the man in the airport who blew himself up, was in fact calling to President Erdogan of Turkey, was in fact deported from Turkey in June, 2015. And they say that, in fact, he - they passed information about him to the Belgian authorities. Now, they have often long been grumblings from Turkish intelligence officials that they intercept people traveling into Syria to join ISIS from the very long, porous, southern Turkish border - BURNETT: Right.

WALSH: They pass it on and then nothing happens. But, too, frankly, Turkey's not entirely blameless in all of this. Back in November 2013, we were at an airport in south Turkey. We saw people clearly going to Syria for some sort of - perhaps a religious or ideological reason, pouring across and that wasn't stopped. So this is part of a lengthy debate about what Turkey has done and could do more of in the fight against global jihadism.

[14:05:14] BURNETT: And also, I mean people around the world, Michael, they look at this and they say, how could this happen again? Again, you have people who have police records who are involved in this, who are in these communities that are known for having ISIS fighters. You know, I spoke to the brother of Salah Abdeslam a few months ago, Salah, of course, at the heart of his, right? His arrest, alive, what they believe could have sparked these attacks happening so quickly. They take people that come home from Turkey or people that they're questioning in this country. They cannot hold them for long.

HOLMES: Yes.

BURNETT: They hold them for a few hours a day. They have to release them. And then they can't actually have surveillance on them.

HOLMES: Well, the interesting thing about these two brothers, and we've seen it with other so-called jihadis as well, is that they - they were criminals. They were - they were crooks. They were armed robbers.

BURNETT: Yes.

HOLMES: They were not ideologues and yet they end up doing this, being suicide bombers. Yet again we see that transition from criminal to suicide bomber. And I was talking to an imam today and he was saying to me how many of these guys, even though they are - they are Islamic jihadist, they don't know religion very well. A lot of these guys don't know their Islam.

BURNETT: No, no, certainly recent converts, I know we saw that with - with the Abdeslam brothers, Nick, right, that they were anything but jihadists and then became converts right here in the city where so many people, even in the Molenbeek neighborhood, they say they all - they all know people who have gone to Syria and trained with ISIS and come home. And the key here is, no one tells the authorities. They live in plain sight with protection.

WALSH: (INAUDIBLE) increased focus on communities and the job they can do in trying to root out those who will do harm in their midst. I mean we have an issue here too with the investigation into some of the (INAUDIBLE) do make suggestions of association to terrorism for one of those brothers. And I think that will increase the focus on exactly what the authorities know, what they didn't share, what could they have talked about earlier and, frankly, how big a task do they face. It's almost impossible with hundreds of people coming through, all with the potential to do some kind of (INAUDIBLE). BURNETT: Almost impossible and yet there's a race against time at this

very moment.

HOLMES: Yes.

BURNETT: You have a man who dropped the biggest bomb at the Brussels airport on the run right now and they believe he is in Brussels.

HOLMES: Well, one of the problem they have here too with the community, the Muslim community, is law enforcement in this country, which is, you know, to use a business term, silo (ph). There are varying levels of police and security apparatus here that don't talk to each other, let alone countries talking to each other. There are departments of the security forces here that doesn't interact well and so -

WALSH: I was going to say actually something staggering. I was driving just now from Paris to Brussels -

BURNETT: Yes.

WALSH: There isn't a border.

HOLMES: Right.

BURNETT: No.

WALSH: And I know you know that. This is E.U. (INAUDIBLE) agreement.

BURNETT: They say welcome to Belgium as you speed by.

WALSH: But it is quite staggering. Your mobile phone provider changes networks and for people who think maybe after the Paris attacks, Bataclan, there will be a change in posture. It's just an open road.

One (INAUDIBLE) in the heart of Europe and the idea of that dream everybody had in the E.U.

HOLMES: Yes.

WALSH: As a Britain myself, but staggering, frankly, at this level of security and a level four, that drive is wide open.

HOLMES: And you don't see much security around here to be honest.

BURNETT: But also, you know, I mean I was in Boston for the Boston bombings and they shut down that city because they were looking for someone.

HOLMES: Yes.

BURNETT: They shut the city down, in the United States of America. They have not shut this city down and yet they are looking for a bomb maker and someone who tried to drop a bomb off yesterday. In a sense, that is very shocking. WALSH: I hate to say it. I was at (INAUDIBLE) yesterday and it's

chaos, to be honest. There wasn't that sense of lockdown. There wasn't that sense of we are also bracing ourselves because these people are still out there. It was lax (INAUDIBLE). But where I was, you didn't feel that sense of lockdown (INAUDIBLE).

HOLMES: Yes, they have put 1,600 more officers on the street in Paris as a result of what happened here as well because, you know, Paris and Brussels - Paris and Belgium, they're one in the same when it comes to the connections between these guys.

BURNETT: Oh, absolutely.

HOLMES: Yes.

BURNETT: The Paris attacks planned right here, linked to this very same cell that pulled this attack off the other day.

And, of course, Brooke, they are so much - they're worried about these - whether there are going to be more attacks. You know, perhaps Salah Abdeslam they - was going to talk in prison and that led them to go ahead and go ahead with this attack. Could there be more? That is the big fear here. But the city certainly far from shut down right now, Brooke.

BALDWIN: That's what we're hearing from intel officials, that because of the Abdeslam arrest, it accelerated these plots that were already in the works and they anticipate follow on attacks.

Thank you so much to all three of you. Erin, we'll see you in just a little bit.

Meantime, let's have a bigger discuss this CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem, Detective Kevin Berry, former lead investigator of the New York Police Bomb Squad, and CNN law enforcement analyst Art Rodrick.

So, Juliette, to you first, I think on this notion that we're hearing from this - the taxi cab driver -

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes.

BALDWIN: That apparently took these three to the airport, wouldn't let the driver touch the suitcases, obviously containing the bombs. Couldn't bring all of them, which makes me wonder, were they expecting someone else to come along and that someone is now sitting in a jail cell? We just don't know. But to Erin's point about follow up attacks -

[14:10:05] KAYYEM: Yes.

BALDWIN: How worried are you about that?

KAYYEM: Oh, I think we should anticipate them for a variety of reasons. The first is the Abdeslam arrest, which has clearly started these guys being nervous about being caught - BALDWIN: Triggers -

KAYYEM: And that he was disclosing information. Now, for all we know, he hasn't said a word. But the notion or the fear that the terrorist organization has that he was speaking and disclosing who his network was made them go out on Monday. And that will continue until they're able to disrupt whoever knew about what.

The taxicab issue in particular suggests to me instead that they were so - they needed to do this so fast. Remember, they're suicide bombers, so they're willing to die. They just don't want to get disrupted. So they didn't have a chance to do a trial run. They did not - they did not realize not all the stuff would fit into the taxicab, so they then just leave some stuff behind. Normally -

BALDWIN: But what about the third man, because the man who they're looking for, who they haven't I.D.ed, in the white jacket -

KAYYEM: I think he -

BALDWIN: Left the biggest bomb of all.

KAYYEM: He got scared. I think he got scared. I mean I think that - there's no reason why you would send two to commit suicide and one to run off who knows too much. I think - this happens. It happened to Abdeslam. It happened with him.

BALDWIN: Kevin, to you, on - you know, you're really asking, what have they found in these raids? What do we know about the bomb blasts, the signatures, to put two and two together? A lot of talk about TATP, it's this sort of chemical. And you can do a much better job explaining what it is than I can. We just talked a lot about it in the wake of the Paris attacks. What is it, and what will they do - why will it - why will it be significant if it was TATP they used at the airport?

KEVIN BARRY, DETECTIVE FIRST GRADE, NEW YORK POLICE BOMB SQUAD (RET.): TATP is triacetone triperoxide. It's referred to as HME, a homemade explosive. The military dealt with it back in the '50s. It's very unstable. It is so unstable that they didn't want the taxicab driver to touch it. It's made more than likely in the bathtub of the apartment and they mix the chemicals together. Then they have to dry. And the drying process, if they're disturbed, they can self-initiate and explode. Any type of shock friction static discharge can cause this to explode because it's a primary explosive. It's not a secondary explosive like commercially manufactured dynamite or the plastic explosive or pentalight (ph) booster or cast explosives. It is a primary. Primaries are normally used only in detonators because they are so sensitive.

BALDWIN: Sophistication level?

BARRY: Basic. It - the availability of information about TATP and HMTD, which are the two main favorites of terrorist groups, are on the Internet, in ISIS manuals, in "Inspire" magazine. It's available everywhere. Children can go to local libraries in the United States and get the information and make it at home.

BALDWIN: So then, Art, knowing that on the bombs and we know we - they haven't definitely said it was TATP at the subway or at the airport but that very well could be the next development that we hear. My other question is, this theme of brothers, you know, and we talk about TATP, that was what was used on Boylston Street, correct, in the Boston Marathon bombing -

ART RODERICK, FORMER ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, U.S. MARSHALS OFFICE: Right.

BALDWIN: But also the Tsarnaev brothers there. Then you had the brothers involved in those Paris attacks. Brothers involved here in Brussels. I mean maybe there's nothing to it, but I am wondering why.

RODERICK: Yes, I do think there's something to it. I mean, you know, Brooke, the last 11 years of my federal law enforcement career, I spent the majority of my time involved in international law enforcement capacity building. And what we see here, and I think the two previous speakers with Erin had mentioned it, that we've got criminals being radicalized. And I think when that occurs, they don't know the Islamic religion and they become very easily radicalized, especially in these particular enclaves in these neighborhoods.

BALDWIN: It's ignorance.

RODERICK: And I think the - I think the problem we have here is that you go back to "Charlie Hebdo." We're talking about the same neighborhoods in Brussels that we heard during "Charlie Hebdo," that were heard during the Paris attacks, now that we hear during the Belgium attacks. And what have the police been doing in a proactive capability to do something since the "Charlie Hebdo" attacks of January of last year? And it seems at this point they really haven't made any headway whatsoever in communicating with these communities at all.

BALDWIN: He's absolutely right, Juliette. I mean even the - the weapons used in that kosher market attack in the - after "Charlie Hebdo," the weapons came from these very same neighborhoods in Brussels.

KAYYEM: Yes.

BALDWIN: When you look at the sheer numbers, I mean I had Ali Sufan (ph) on yesterday and so many people, including Ali, have pointed out the number of people who have left Belgium to go to Syria to be radicalized is - it's a tough number the wrap your head around, but is it really all Belgium or are there other countries as well? There -

[14:15:00] KAYYEM: Belgium has the biggest problem. We need to separate out Belgium -

BALDWIN: We do?

KAYYEM: And for a variety of reasons. One is the experience of immigrant groups in Belgium is clearly, at least from the way that we need to perceive what they're doing, is not as assimilating as in other countries. And, look, the rest of Europe doesn't have the greatest track record in this regard, but at least in terms of the British and French, Belgium is having - has had a very hard time in terms of assimilating the other, these new groups.

The other issue that has come up is that for a period of time, the Belgium officials were more than happy to have these guys leave because they're all criminals and go somewhere else. Well, that somewhere else was Syria. And I don't - you know, what are you thinking they're planning there? They're not there on vacation. So then they come back a year later and that's why we're seeing a lot of this activity now. So Belgium is a focus. It's not like every other country. Europe has other problems. But -

BALDWIN: We could talk a lot about neighborhoods in - I mean outside of Paris as well.

KAYYEM: It - it is true, there's a radicalization going on. And this is why people like me in counterterrorism and others really push back on the notion that the American Muslim community is similar, because it's just not. It is an assimilated community that does not have the radicalization problem that exists in Europe.

BALDWIN: We have still seen ISIS-inspired attacks, including what we saw in San Bernardino a couple of months ago.

KAYYEM: Yes.

BALDWIN: But a lot of people saying this is not at all the same.

Let me ask all of you to stand by. Just ahead, a young American woman, her boyfriend right now is missing. She hasn't heard from him since the morning of the attacks. She will join me live from Georgia on her emotional search.

Also ahead, moments from now, Hillary Clinton giving a speech on terror. We are told she will call out Donald Trump within that speech. Stand by for that. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN's special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Welcome back to our special live coverage. I'm Erin Burnett, along with Brooke Baldwin. And I'm here in Brussels tonight here, this afternoon in New York. And as you can see, this impromptu memorial behind me, people chanting in solidarity from Brussels. On the way from Paris today, on the highway, we stand with Brussels was the sign. All this as there is a desperate manhunt going on for at least two people. Fear of additional attacks coming as they are on the run from police. And a painstaking process going on to try to get every little piece of information that they can from these horrific bomb sites.

Crews are digging through new evidence that they have been finding in raids today across the city, specifically an apartment in northeast Brussels. It's near where police discovered bomb making materials, 15 kilograms of TATP, chemicals, nails and screws and an ISIS flag. We also have new video in. They're actually wearing hazmat suits as they go in to some of these raid locations, carrying out items that they discovered. And this video is from yet a different raid to give you a sense of how many of these raids have been going on. Brussels, a city not only with this massive manhunt, a city in mourning, just a day after the attacks at its highest threat level.

And now the United States, this just in, I want to read it to you, the State Department cautioning Americans about travel not just he here in Brussels but to and throughout Europe. And I wanting to go straight to Chris Burns. He's with me here in Brussels but he's over at the Maelbeek metro station, the scene of that horrific attack. Those images so horrible to see with the mangled metal of that subway car.

Chris, what have you be seeing happening there today as they are searching for every little piece of information they can find about the materials of these bombers?

CHRIS BURNS, CNN REPORTING: Yes, Erin, a very eerie situation there. A main boulevard shut off as tents are there and forensics experts are there as - posted right outside of the subway station as they go inside to get more evidence. And we walked around and we saw a very eerie situation. Some of the blood spattered entrances and broken glass and flowers and candles there by people leaving tearfully from the scene. A horrible sight, really, and very frightening to see.

This investigation goes on. They continue to pick through that - what is remains of those blasts to try to find more clues. They - there was one more arrest today, in addition to the two arrests yesterday. One of those persons that was arrested yesterday was freed. So two remain in custody. But they're still looking for more. And they - police are not identifying the suspects that they have arrested. They don't want to give that up, give that away, because they say it could compromise the investigation.

Erin.

BURNETT: All right, Chris, thank you very much, reporting from the Maelbeek metro station, the scene of that second horrific attack.

And, Brooke, you know, they are very much on the hunt for these people. They have already, though, you know, as Chris mentioned, taken some in for questioning and then had to release them. That's the way things are here. If you don't have immediate information or any reason to charge, you have to release. And then if you get more information, you have to go find them again and take them back into custody. And it can make things incredibly difficult.

BALDWIN: Well, Erin, thank you so much. Can't even imagine the task at hand, though a lot of frustration on behalf of a lot of counterterrorism folks saying, you know, we'll - how was it that Abdeslam was hiding in plain sight a block from where he grew up, how was he not caught in four months' worth of raids.

The manhunt is on not only for one of the men seen pictured in that airport just before those two bombs went off in Brussels yesterday morning. The manhunt is on trying to figure out how massive this network, this terror cell could possibly be. All of this happening - new information coming our way from Belgium and beyond. You're watching CNN's special live coverage. We're back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:28:58] BALDWIN: All right. We're back. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN.

Obviously we are all over this story here. A manhunt is deep underway in Belgium and potentially beyond in the wake of those fatal terrorist attacks. Let's call them what they were, terrorist attacks in both the Brussels airport - those two bombs that went off - and the bomb that went off in the metro station not too far from the E.U.

So that stayed, we are also watching and waiting for the Democratic frontrunner in this presidential race, Hillary Clinton, to speak, speaking specifically about counterterrorism and her own strategies, at Stanford University. We're watching and waiting for her. My colleague, Brianna Keilar, is there at Stanford.

Brianna, give us an idea of what we're about to hear.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's really a moment like this, Brooke, that provides a candidate a bit of a test to show Americans what kind of commander in chief they would be. And this is a speech here at Stanford University that we're expecting Hillary Clinton to deliver shortly and really try to demonstrate that.

[14:29:55] We're getting some information about what we expect her to say. In part of it - in part she's expected to talk about how these attacks in Brussels are a reminder that these terrorists the U.S. is up against are an adversary that knows no borders and that are constantly adapting. And what we're really expecting as well is for her to take sharp aim at Ted Cruz and specifically Donald