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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Brussels Terrorist Manhunt; Europe Travel Warning; President In Argentina; Brussels Forensic Analysis. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired March 23, 2016 - 12:00   ET

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


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[12:00:16] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. And welcome to LEGAL VIEW.

We're going to begin this hour with a trove of new information in that trio of bombings in Brussels, and a warning, quite a strange warning, from the United States State Department and it's directed at you, Americans, who may be traveling, quote, "to and throughout Europe." You heard right, the entire continent of Europe. I'll have much more on that in just a moment.

But in the meantime, a city in mourning, not just a city, but a major European capital. The de facto capital of Europe, is also the scene of intense grief, but also manhunts, primarily for the man now known as the man in the light jacket, the big hat, the one on the right of your screen. Authorities do not know his name yet, but he's one of three men who carried bombs into the main Brussels airport yesterday morning. The one on the right, however, was the one that got away. The two on the left set off their bombs in a departure hall in a suicide attack. The wanted man left or abandoned his bomb, which was the biggest of the bombs, but it did not explode until after security forces arrived and apparently were able to detonate it. So no one was hurt or killed by that third bomb.

The man seen here in the middle identified as Ibrahim el-Bakraoui. He's the older brother of the man who blew himself up an hour later on a subway car at a subway station near the headquarters of the European Union. His name, the other brother, Khalid el-Bakraoui. And authorities say he was identified through fingerprint in that train car. Khalid is said to have rented the Brussels safe house that was used by the terror suspect from the Paris attacks, Salah Abdeslam, who you will remember was arrested just days later the - or just days later, actually, before this had happened. Just several days before this actual attack and four months after the Paris attacks.

Thirty-one people are now reported dead in the twin attacks in Brussels, 270 people have been injured. And some of those people, sadly to report, are not expected to survive their injuries.

Believe it or not, we have barely just skimmed the surface of this sprawling investigation. Senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward joins me now with all of the latest details in Brussels. And she's also joined by global affairs correspondent Elise Labott, who's following the details of the investigation in Washington, and CNN contributor and senior editor of "The Daily Beast," Michael Weiss, is with us, who's also been discovering various aspects of what's developed in Europe. And we're joined by CIA director and former ambassador and current head of the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, James Woolsey. Michael Weiss is the author of the "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror." We're going to talk a lot about the significance of ISIS' claim that it was behind these attacks.

And, Clarissa, I'm going to start with you, if I can. I'd like you to sort of get me up to speed on this very latest information of the definite connection that's been made between Salah Abdeslam, the one who was arrested last week, on Friday, in a raid, and these two people that we know now to have been part of these suicide attacks.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ashleigh, what we know is that those two brothers, the Bakraoui brothers, who were involved in these attacks, one of them who blew himself up at the airport, the other who blew himself up on the metro, that the brothers had actually rented the safe house that Salah Abdeslam was, in fact, staying in. And one of them actually left a will on a computer that was found on a trash can. And in his will he says something to the effect of, I don't want to end up in jail like him. "Him" possibly a reference to Salah Abdeslam.

Now, there are a lot of moving parts here, Ashleigh. And what was noticeable about this press conference from the Belgium prosecutor is that while we learned a lot more information, we also learned how much they still don't know and how many people are still at large and still on the run. As you said, the man on the right in that white jacket with the cap and glasses, still very much at large. And the authorities did warn there is a number of people, potentially very dangerous, part of this network, who have not yet been apprehended.

What is noticeable, Ashleigh, is that there has been a real lockdown in terms of disseminating information. Belgian authorities here are keeping incredibly tight lipped. They asked the media yesterday not to sort of obsessively cover these raids and searches that have been going on in various suburbs and that's because there is some concern perhaps that that information, the media putting that information out there, could tip off others in this network. But at this stage, this city is still very much in heightened alert, Ashleigh.

[12:05:22] BANFIELD: Heightened alert. So much so, Clarissa, that the United States is issuing a travel warning for Americans who may be headed to Europe or who may already be there. And for that I want to get Elise Labott into this conversation.

I don't recall hearing a warning like this in the past about all of Europe, Elise. This is odd.

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ashleigh, you remember in 2010 when there was a - some planning in Europe going on, there was a similar warning. This, though, I have to say, in all my years covering the State Department, it's pretty extraordinary for the U.S. to put out a warning to Americans essentially warning about risking travel to Europe, saying that terrorists continue to plan what they called near-term attacks throughout Europe, which would indicate that they're in the final stages of planning.

Now, basically warning Americans to kind of hunker down if they're in Europe. Don't go to public places, public squares where people are congregating, sporting events, concerts, even to avoid public transportation. And I think it does reflect concerns by the United States that terrorists are planning attacks and Americans could be involved.

I spoke to a senior State Department official about the warning, and this official said to me, look, we know that ISIS is on the loose planning attacks and we need to make sure that Americans are taking the necessary precautions if they're going to travel to Europe.

BANFIELD: Elise, I just want to break in for a moment, if I can. I want to go immediately to Argentina, if I can, where the president is on the second stop of a foreign trip, Cuba, now Argentina, and he's speaking live.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States will continue to offer any assist that we can to help investigate these attacks and bring attackers to justice. We will also continue to go after ISIL, aggressively, until it is removed from Syria and removed from Iraq and is finally destroyed. The world has to be united against terrorism and we can and we will defeat those who threaten the safety and security not only of our own people, but of people all around the world. So that's a top priority of ours and I know that President Macri shares those beliefs.

That's one of the reasons why President Macri and I agreed to work together to disrupt terrorism, to do more to choke off the terrorists' financing mechanisms that are in place, and to keep our people safe when they travel. U.S. federal agencies will lend their support to Argentina's counter terrorism efforts. And we're also supportive of President Macri's intention to return to Argentina's traditional role as a significant contributor to peacekeeping missions, including by supporting U.N. efforts to protect venerable populations. And the United States is very proud to support this effort through training and equipment.

President Macri has also committed Argentina to helped address the Syrian refugee crisis and I hope that inspires other nations to do the same. And I'm very encouraged by his efforts to combat drug trafficking, reduce organized crime, and to make Argentina's streets safer. These are all areas where I think we can be very effective partners.

The United States and Argentina also share a commitment to protecting this planet for our children and our grandchildren and our great grandchildren. President Macri showed me pictures of his wonderful children, including the little one, who I understand was a Facebook sensation. And I can see why. So we want to make sure that she, just like my daughters, and future grandchildren, that they've got a - the beauty of an Argentina or a United States that has not been irreversibly impacted by climate change. President Macri's support for the Paris agreement was critical to its success. His commitment to sign the agreement and pursue its ratification this year will be critical to bringing it into force.

Argentina has set impressive targets for producing clean energy and they plan ambitious targets for reducing carbon emissions. And because we have experience, since I came into office tripling the amount of energy we get from wind and increasing the amount of energy that we get from solar power 20 times, and the work that we've done on shell oil and glass, we are confident that we can be effective partners and I pledged to President Macri that we would provide any technical assistance that he thought would be useful in developing the incredible resources and clean energy strategies that he's interested in pursuing here in Argentina.

[12:10:03] We also share a commitment to global health security. We've agreed to work together on our response to the Zika virus, which is obviously affecting so many in this hemisphere. We agreed to support the broader global health security agenda, including working together to improve capacity for venerable nations because in a world that's interconnected, if there are diseases that are developing even in remote villages in Africa or Asia, because of global travel, ultimately they could be a significant threat to our populations. We can't pretend that somehow it's just their problem. It is our problem as well. And we're going to work together to improve our capacity to detect and respond to and ultimately prevent the threat of new diseases.

It's also gratifying to see Argentina champion our shared commitment to human rights. I hope we'll work together to strengthen the organization of American states and the inner American human rights system to promote civil liberties, independent judiciaries, government transparency and accountability throughout the hemisphere. I know this has been an area of great emphasis for President Macri. And, finally, after I leave Casa Rosada today, I'll visit the Metropolitan Cathedral to lay a wreath at the tomb of Jose de San Martin and to visit the -

BANFIELD: I expect that the president unlikely was aware that this kind of news event would happen overseas in Brussels in the midst of a very important foreign trip that would take him to Cuba and to Argentina. And much of what he has been doing on the road has been overshadowed by the reporting of the terror attacks in Europe.

Our Michelle Kosinski is traveling with the president and she joins me live now.

Michelle, there's been so much criticism, some of it unwarranted, frankly, of the president being on the road as this terror attack has unfolded in another country, on another continent, I should add.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right.

BANFIELD: But some of it, you know, people say it's founded criticism given that this is a global war on terror and the Americans are intricately involved. He has to have known that when he was preparing these address - these - this speech for today's address.

KOSINSKI: Definitely. And it's interesting because it seems like lately, in the last two years, every time he goes on one of these foreign trips, something else happens somewhere in the world that ends up overshadowing the trip. And that really becomes the story. That's what we end up talking about, how what he's trying to do in whatever parts of the world is then overshadowed by something. Lately, it's terror.

So then you have to look at the how the White House views its own optics, frankly. How it changes its schedule or not changes its schedule. And, remember, when the president was traveling in Asia, he took the same kind of criticism for not then traveling to Paris along with other world leaders at the same time that they did. And that was something that the White House eventually said, which is kind of unexpected, that they admitted it was a mistake. I mean that's not something that you often hear the White House say about its own decision making. But they admitted that that was something that maybe, you know, in hindsight, the president should have done, and he then traveled to Paris afterwards.

Well, in this case, you know, circumstances are always different per the situation. But here he is in Cuba on his absolutely historic trip two days ago. He has a tight schedule. He wants to show the people this opening, and he wants to really connect with the people of Cuba. When you think about it, that's really the point here. Not necessarily to connect so much with Raul Castro. So the question was, should he have gone to that baseball game? And I think, you know, it depends on whom you talk to how to view this. But the president did make a point to defend going - going to that game. Remember, he had this interview with ESPN when, of course, he was asked directly about that. And his response was, well, you know, the point of terrorism is to disrupt people's everyday lives and make them scared. And he really hammered home the point that terrorism shouldn't do that. Of course, that doesn't cut down on the criticism out there, that, you know, it was a baseball game and doing the wave really the right thing to do when so many people in Europe were suffering, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: I think you hit the nail on the head with that, Michelle. The notion that trying not to have things disrupted and that idea of having a Castro beside the president with that kind of joviality, maybe that's acceptable and maybe the wave is not. That's where so many of those critics and non-critics weighed in.

Michelle, thank you for that.

We are also going to go back live into that if the president begins to take questions in this press conference and if he's asked about those terror attacks because before the smoke has even cleared, the investigators were on the scene at that airport and in that subway station. The forensics are rich and valuable and they are gathering all those clues, hoping that they'll lead them directly to the terrorists and those who support them.

And we are learning more and more by the minute of what sorting through the forensics is leading to facts and ultimately might lead to cuffing those responsible.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [12:18:57] BANFIELD: Breaking news this hour, that painstaking search by forensic investigators is continuing at the Brussels airport. And also right now, crews are digging through brand new evidence found during a raid in northeast Brussels. It's there that police discovered explosive known as TATP. They also discovered a number of nails and screws and also an ISIS flag.

And then there's this, new images showing investigators are wearing hazmat suits while carrying several items out of that apartment. Those items were discovered at the site of another raid earlier today.

Let's get more insight from our CNN contributor, Larry Kobilinsky, who's also a forensic scientist at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

First and foremost, that airport remains closed. And there's a very good reason. They said they have to - they literally have to comb through everything there with a fine-tooth comb. And the damage is extensive. So it's a forensic project that has kept that airport closed. What exactly do you think the mission is? How are they tackling this crime scene, this massive crime scene, and what are they looking for?

[12:20:05] LARRY KOBILINSKY, FORENSIC SCIENTIST: Well, it's one of several crime scenes and it's large, as you said. You actually go to that crime scene, you look at the seat of the explosion and work your way out. There's sort of a grid search. I would - I would guess that they would diagram the scene as a - like a pie, and break it into sectors and go through each sector one at a time. And the idea is to collect everything and everything that could be evidence.

There are components of the bomb, the suitcase that it was in. There are sometimes fingerprints and other trace items that they're looking for. There could be documents. We don't know what was in that suitcase.

BANFIELD: You think you can get a fingerprint off a suitcase that was at ground zero of an explosion?

KOBILINSKY: It's sometimes possible, like in pipe bombs, for example.

BANFIELD: Yes.

KOBILINSKY: You can have surprises like that, that could reveal the clue that you need to solve the case. I mean this is a complex case where there are probable dozens of people involved that we don't know about yet.

BANFIELD: Yes. Can I ask you something? They found an unexploded suitcase at the airport and they blew it up at the - in a controlled explosion. Would they have done any processing of it before blowing it up or is that just too dangerous? They found another suitcase at the apartment. Same question.

KOBILINSKY: See, the problem is - that's a good question. TATP is relatively unstable. You handle it the wrong way, you shock it, it's liable to go off. It's a high explosive.

By the way, the reason that these terrorists use this stuff is because the ingredients are easy to get, hydrogen peroxide and acetone.

BANFIELD: Sure.

KOBILINSKY: Sulfuric acid. Easy to get these things. Very cheap. And the big part is it can't be detected because these things don't have nitrogen. And what we look for is nitrogen.

BANFIELD: So I'm going to interrupt you for only a moment to go back to Argentina -

KOBILINSKY: Sure.

BANFIELD: Where President Obama is speaking. He's fielding a question on the Islamic State. I want to go live to this.

QUESTION: More attacks as being inevitable. And what would you say that it says about the state of our debate on this when you have a major presidential candidate calling for surveillance of Muslim- American communities? And, President Macri, if I may, you both noted that the U.S. has agreed to release more documents about the dirty war. What do you expect that those documents will reveal about America's role in this painful chapter in your country's history?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Josh, I think it is important to recognize that 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. And we see high-profile attacks in Europe. But they're also killing Muslims throughout the Middle East. People who are innocent. People who are guilty only of worshipping Islam in a different way than this organization. They are poisoning the minds of young people everywhere, not just in Europe, but in the United States and undoubtedly in Argentina. People are looking on these websites. So there's no more important item on my agenda than going after them and defeating them.

The issue is, how do we do it in an intelligent way. And our approach has been continuously to adjust to see what works and what doesn't. What has been working is the air strikes that we're taking on their leadership, on their infrastructure, on their financial systems. What has been working is special operators, partnering with Iraqi security forces, and going after leadership networks and couriers and disrupting the connection between their bases in Raqqa and their bases in Mosul. We've recovered, taken away from ISIL, about 40 percent of their territory and ISIL's leadership has been hunkered down. And we are going to continue to press on them unless we are - we have driven them out of their strongholds and until they're destroyed.

While we are doing that, we're also extraordinarily vigilant about preventing attacks in our homeland and working with our allies to prevent attacks in places like Europe. But as I've said before, this is difficult work. It's not because we don't have the best and the brightest working on it. It's not because we are not taking the threat seriously. It is because it's challenging to find, identify, very small groups of people who are willing to die themselves and can walk into a crowd and detonate a bomb.

[12:25:26] And my charge to my team is to find every strategy possible to successfully reduce the risk of such terrorist attacks, even as we go after their beating heart in places like Iraq and Syria. And as our strategy evolves, and we see additional opportunities, we will go after it. But what we don't do and what we should not do is take approaches that are going to be counterproductive. So when I hear somebody saying we should carpet bomb Iraq or Syria, not only is that inhumane, not only is that contrary to our values, but that would likely be an extraordinary mechanism for ISIL to recruit more people willing to die and explode bombs in an airport or in a metro station. That's not a smart strategy.

As far as what some candidates have said, I think I've been very clear on this. One of the great strengths of the United States and part of the reason why we have not seen more attacks in the United States is we have an extraordinarily successful, patriotic, integrated Muslim- American community. They do not feel ghettoized. They do not feel isolated. Their children are our children's friends, going to the same schools. They are our colleagues in our workplaces. They are our men and women in uniform, fighting for our freedom. And so any approach that would single them out or target them for discrimination is not only wrong and un-American, but it also would be counterproductive because it would reduce the strength, the antibodies that we have to resist terrorism.

As far as the notion of having surveillance of neighborhoods where Muslims are present, I just left a country that engages in that kind of neighborhood surveillance, which, by the way, the father of Senator Cruz escaped for America, the land of the free. The notion that we would start down that slippery slope makes absolutely no sense. It's contrary to who we are. And it's not going to help us defeat ISIL.

The last point I'll make on this, I understand, when we see the sight of these kinds of attacks, our hearts bleed because we know that could be our children, that could be our family members or our friends or our co-workers who travel to a place like Brussels. And it scares the American people. And it horrifies me. I've got two young daughters who are growing up a little too fast and I want them to have the freedom to move and to travel around the world without the possibility that they be killed. So I understand why this is the top priority of the American people, and I want them to understand this is my top priority as well. It is the top priority of my national security team. It is the top priority of our military. It is the top priority of our intelligence officers. It is the top priority of our diplomats.

But we are approaching this in a way that has a chance of working, and it will work. And we're not going to do things that are counterproductive simply because it's political season. We're going to be steady. We're going to be resolute. And, ultimately, we're going to be successful.

[12:29:55] BANFIELD: I'll just jump in here. The president raising an issue that is of critical import at this time, as we still are on the hunt for the last of those responsible for this twin bombing in Belgium. He said the strength of the United States, in reference to what happened overseas, is that we