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Massive Manhunt in Brussels; Military Hospital Works to Identify Victims of Brussels Attack; New Information on Bombs Used; Australian Debris Recovered in Mozambique Unlikely from MH370; Firsthand Look at Airport Devastation; Turkey Deported Terrorist to Netherlands with Warning; Presidential Candidates Respond to Brussels Attacks. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired March 24, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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

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[02:00:16] MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Max Foster. It's 7:00 a.m. in Brussels where a massive manhunt is under way for suspects linked to Tuesday's terror attacks. Authorities say the deeper they dig into the bombings, the more evidence they found of bigger and broader plans by ISIS. Counterterrorism officials say more attacks in Europe are imminent. And ISIS operatives may have picked out potential targets.

Meanwhile, authorities now believe the ISIS bombmaker was one of the two suicide bombers killed at the Brussels airport. The other is Ibrahim el Bakraoui. Prosecutors say his brother, Khalid, was the subway suicide bomber. And a massive manhunt is underway for the unidentified third man seen at the airport.

CNN correspondents are covering the angles of the story from several locations around Brussels for you. In a moment, we'll get to Atika Shubert's report on the military hospital working to identify victims of the attack. And we'll be speaking to others throughout the hour.

First, Fred Pleitgen, in Schaerbeek, the neighborhood a taxi driver led investigators to after he recognized the airport bombing suspects as passengers he picked up.

Fred has more on what police found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): According to authorities, an apartment in this building, in the district of Schaerbeek was used as the main bombmaking factories for the attacks on the one at the Brussels airport and the one on the metro, as well. The police say they have recovered 15 kilograms or 40 pounds of explosive TATP, as well as chemicals, screws, which are used to mix into explosive devices to make them more deadly, and an ISIS flag inside one of the apartments in that building.

We were able to speak to someone who lived on the same floor as the alleged attackers. And he says he barely saw them around.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) "I've never seen them, except once, I came across one that was skinny. I said hello. I greeted him, bonjour. But he didn't respond. And I never saw them again. And I feel scared."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: The raid here lasted several hours. It involved police officers and police helicopters, with what appeared to be police snipers, glancing through an open door of the helicopter and pointing the rifles. Forensics teams worked through the night. They recovered a lot of things from this apartment building. And they recovered something in the garbage can outside, a laptop that appeared to contain a will of one of the attackers. And he felt that the police were on to them. If they did not go through the plot quickly, they would go to jail.

Authorities fear the people in the Brussels attack and the Paris attack could be at large and could pose a threat to society here in Belgium and possibly in other places in Europe. They also hope some of the things they recovered from this apartment complex could help them track down some of the people and bring them to justice.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Brussels.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: "Politico's" senior political E.U. correspondent, Ryan Heath, joins me now.

So many questions are being asked of the security services, of the government, across Europe, not just in Belgium. They're not across this. They promised that they would try to prevent something like this after Paris. And that's not interlinked.

RYAN HEATH, SENIOR E.U. CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: Yes. Some of the knowledge of the networks was understood. But what wasn't understood is exactly how willing and prepared they were to act. If you have a suspect that could bomb somewhere, to keep on top of all forms of communications, even find all forms of communication, you might need 15, 20, even 25 experts to keep on top of all of that, for every individual suspect. Now, we know that about 540 Belgians went to Syria to train to be radicals. They think half of them have come back. But as we know, there hasn't been a lot of excellent tracking of those people. Up to 250 people could be on the list that need to be heavily monitored and you need to put 20 people on each of them, you're talking about hundreds of highly-trained agents that Belgium doesn't have.

FOSTER: They don't have the intelligence they need, do they? They don't have the relations to the communities.

[02:04:50] HEATH: And they've been underfunding the defenses. Until 2015, they did not have a specific unit that monitored online activity. Obviously, a lot of that planning happens through digital network and digital means now. They spent around 50 million Euros a year doing the intelligence operations. Obviously, it's not the same of the U.S. Belgium is a smaller country. But think of that sum. That's not the sum that a U.S., a U.K., a France, or even some other smaller countries around the world, would be dedicating to these resources. So, you have the smaller European countries who have been trying to develop in the case of eastern European countries or in countries like Belgium, who has been coasting a little bit, is a fair assessment. And they've been able to ride on the coat tails on the intelligence of other ones like the U.S. Until the issues have hit home, they haven't had to say, hang on. We need the ten-year plans. We need to double or triple what we're doing. Belgium has said that now. To make up for decades of underinvestment, you can't do that in three or four months. You can't rein 200 Arabic speakers out of the sky to help you with this. But the Belgians, having been not the most trustworthy partners, are struggling to mobilize this now.

FOSTER: The answer is to do what America did after 9/11, get the agencies to coordinate together. Europe is not the United States. There's separate jurisdictions. You're not going to open up your books for those from other country.

HEATH: But what E.U. has is that European Union. The obvious focus point is to do it through the European Union. We've seen it in other areas. I have cyber security, for example. There's seven or eight countries that do that really well. Those seven or eight, mostly the big ones that the viewers would think of off the top of the head, they don't like sharing information with the smaller countries. They're not going to hand over the secret information to Bulgaria. Yet, a country on the perimeter of Europe or underfunded country, like Belgium, they can be the weak link in the chain, someone who is going to breach some other piece of infrastructure like the airport in Brussels. The bigger countries have a fundamental choice to make. Pull the smaller ones up to speed, share more information, or do all of that and use a conduit like the European Union to stop them from happening in the future.

FOSTER: Big questions to answer.

Ryan, thank you very much, indeed.

Stories have been pouring in about the victims of the Brussels terror attacks. Leopold Hesse died in Maelbeek Station. Those that knew him described him as brilliant and kind. Olivier Deleprese (ph) died in the metro. He was on his commute to his government job.

And several people are missing, including these siblings, sashay and Alexander Pasalsky (ph). They were going to board a flight to New York. Their mother was on the phone with one of them when the line dropped. Just imagine. Their families haven't heard from them since.

CNN International correspondent, Atika Shubert, joins me from Brussels. She's been following the story of survivors.

But also, Atika, all of the people that are unidentified.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's difficult to identify the victims. And a number of hospitals, including the royal military hospItal, that we identified yesterday, is trying to identify many of those killed. Because of the power of the blast, many of the bodies are mutilated. The only way to identify them is by fingerprinted or a dental record.

FOSTER: In terms of how the hospitals are responding. There was an incredible response, in the immediate aftermath of this terror incident. If there's one thing that came out well, is how the response was handled, actually. They're still responding and struggling.

SHUBERT: You consider that hundreds of wounded. But more than 100 still remain in hospital. We're talking about injuries, like burns, that take a long time to treat, shrapnel wounds that can require multiple surgeries. And not just doctors are pressed into this. We met yesterday, a hotel manager, who actually turned his lobby into a triage center. The Red Cross came in and said, you're helping people but we're able to help more. And we're able to bring people in from the metro station and decide who to save first, essentially. It was incredible to see a hotel lobby completely transformed into this. So, everybody really tried to help in the best way they could. But it was especially tough for medics and hospitals, as well.

FOSTER: And in terms of those missing people, what sort of system --

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[02:10:08] SHUBERT (voice-over): -- shattered the Belgium city of Brussels. Hospitals are coping with the influx of victims.

(on camera): We're standing outside of the royal military hospital here. And this is where at least 80 of the victims from the blast were brought to, suffering from multiple burns and shrapnel wounds.

(voice-over): The entrance was transformed into an emergency ward designed for use in war or natural disasters. Many have been transferred to the specialized burns unit, though the hospital is working with investigators to identify the dead.

Yah Vaise (ph) was among the first medics at the airport.

(on camera): What was the first thing that you saw when you got to the scene?

YAN VAISE (ph), MEDIC: Gas. Dust. People shouting, crying. Help here. Over here. I've never seen it before. It was a war zone.

SHUBERT (voice-over): For 20 years, he has served as a military medic in places like Afghanistan. But he has never seen anything like this, a bomb that investigators believe was packed with nails and bolts.

VAISE (ph): I saw a lot of people with holes in their body. And the people that were hit by pieces of round. I saw children with wounds that penetrating wounds. It has to be some exPLOsion device. Things are flying around with a great power.

SHUBERT: Outside the hospital, soldiers stand guard. The Belgian flag flies at half-staff. (on camera): Do you have a picture of your girlfriend?

(voice-over): 25-year-old Jonathan Salamani (ph) is searching for his girlfriend. They have a 1-year-old son. What kind of a person is she?

JONATHAN SALAMANI (ph), SEARCHING FOR GIRLFRIEND: She's very shy. She's short. And she's strong.

SHUBERT: She's a strong person.

SALAMANI (ph): Yes.

SHUBERT (voice-over): Jonathan has set up a Facebook page for information. She was studying to be a botanist and on her way to school. Her last location was near the metro station.

(on camera): Do you worry she is injured and unconscious?

SALAMANI (ph): I don't think. I don't want to think about it.

SHUBERT (voice-over): At hospitals across Brussels, the heartbreaking search for answers continues.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SHUBERT: Just to show you how difficult this is, only three of the 31 have been identified. And there are four wounded that have not been identified because they're still in a coma. It is a painful search for family members, max.

FOSTER: Atika, thank you so much. We can try to find who those unidentified are. Horrific situation for the families waiting to hear.

British authorities say they have foiled a plot in London. Police say two university students were planning to kill soldiers, police officers and civilians, as well. The men were convicted of conspiring to commit terrorist murder in support of ISIS.

Next on CNN, a look at what the Brussels attackers may have left behind before the deadly rampage. Details on some surprising findings that we're getting from our investigations.

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[02:15:23] UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translation): When it happens in Paris, when it happens elsewhere, you tell yourself, it won't happen here. To see it happened 500 meters away from here, it's not good. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (through translation): As a citizen of

Brussels, it hurts to experience something like this. Terrorism is coming close in a scary way. And Brussels is a beautiful city. We're not going to let our lives be dictated by terrorists.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: You're watching CNN's special coverage of the terror attacks here in Brussels.

And police are searching for this man and possible accomplices, as well. A federal prosecutor says he placed a bomb at the airport and left. Officials are concerned Tuesday's attacks are part of a bigger plot. They've been collecting evidence and arresting people in anti- terror raids all over the city.

We're getting more information, as well, on the explosives that the attackers used in Brussels. In a police raid, police found 15 kilograms or 33 pounds of explosive TATP, supposedly belonging to the bombers.

And Nick Paton Walsh has more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Exclusive new video just moments after the explosions. Mass devastation. Children screaming.

(SHOUTING)

PATON WALSH: This is the aftermath. Officials found 15 kilograms where the alleged bombmaker was hiding out. It's a homemade explosive with the nickname Mother of Satan. Coined by terrorists because its heat is volatile and can cause extensive damage. Experts say it's also cheap with ingredients that are easy to come by.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 90 percent of the stuff we have here, you don't need a license to buy. I can go in a truck and half an hour and come home with 90 percent of this.

PATON WALSH: Brussels is not the first time TATP has been traced to terrorist attacks. Last November, Ibrahim Abdeslam detonated his suicide vest in the Paris massacre. Richard Reid is arrested after he tried to blow up a plane with a device in his show, one component, TATP. In 2005, bombs explode throughout London, 52 dead, 700 injured. Investigators discover the homemade bombs contained TATP. September 2009, this man is arrested for plotting to bomb a subway using TATP. He gets the ingredients he needs at a Colorado beauty store, a Lowe's and a Walmart.

SETH JONES, COUNTERTERRORISM SPECIALIST, RAND CORPORATION: You're not going to get these people by monitoring what they purchase.

[02:20:07] Seth Jones specializes in counterterrorism at the Rand Corporation. He says TATP ingredients are so available, buying the items may not raise suspicions. That's why intel is key.

JONES: Assazi (ph), was identified in 2009 was involved in boiling TATP in his hotel room in Aurora. He was not identified for the ingredients he was purchasing. He was identified by good intelligence in monitoring e-mail accounts when he came up.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: That was Nick Paton Walsh reporting.

I want to talk about TATP and its roll in terrorism.

Let's bring in Steve Moore, CNN law enforcement contributor. He's a retired supervisory agent with the FBI. Steve is live in Los Angeles.

How much have the law enforcement community been dealing with this type of explosive in recent times?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: I don't think it was seen until the 1980s. We're playing catch-up, in learning what this stuff is. How easy it is to synthesize or how difficult it is. It actually is almost -- it's dangerous to even the terrorists, thank goodness.

FOSTER: Why is it so attractive to is?

MOORE: It's attractive because you can get this stuff, the precursors, without having licenses, things like that. The problem they have is that the hydrogen peroxide they need and the acetone, while they can get it, the hydrogen peroxide is not concentrated enough. That's what the boiling was about, the reporter was talking about. The boiling is to condense the hydrogen peroxide to more weapons concentration.

FOSTER: When you look at the aftermath of what happened here in Brussels, do you think that was an effective bombmaking kit?

MOORE: Yes. This is the thing about TATP, if you don't know how to make it correctly, it will kill you on one end of the spectrum or it won't go off high order on the other end of the spectrum. If you heat it up a little bit, it will be a low-order explosive. If you heat it up a lot, it will kill you. This is what you're dealing with. When you see somebody make TATP go off, this high order, they knew what they were doing. They didn't pick this up off the Internet and say I'll try it. This person was trained.

FOSTER: In terms of trying to cut off that knowledge or that supply, of the ingredients of this explosive, how do law enforcement deal with this? As you say, it doesn't necessarily raise alarm bells when you buy the raw ingredients.

MOORE: No. That's the thing. You can go to any hardware store and pick up acetone by the gallon. I happened to do that two weeks ago for a painting project. You can get hydrogen peroxide anytime you need it. You have to work on condensing the hydrogen peroxide. The thing about this is, however, when you start synthesizing the materials to make the TATP, you find there's going to be massive odors, massive smells. What we have to look for is not the precursors, but signs that the precursors are being manipulated to make the substance.

FOSTER: Such a big challenge, on so many levels.

Steve Moore, thank you very much, indeed.

We'll have more on the terror attacks in Brussels in a moment. For now, we turn it back to Errol Barnett, at CNN Center -- Errol?

ERROL BARNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, there, Max. Good morning to you.

Hello, everyone.

Fascinating to hear about the explosives connected to this attack and how readily available they are.

We'll get you back to Brussels in a moment. First, we want to bring you new details, first, on another developing story at this hour. Australia says two pieces of plane debris are likely to be wreckage from Malaysia Airlines 370.

Let's bring in Matt Rivers who is watching this from Beijing.

Matt, this is another promising lead. There was debris found on Reunion Island in Madagascar. But it is another sad reminder for relatives of victims. What do we know?

MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The pieces were found on Mozambique last month. The analysis has been completed. We hear from Australian officials today saying they are highly sure of the fact those two pieces of debris are from the plane.

We heard from the Malaysian transport minister. He spoke to reporters not long ago. Let's listen to a few more details he gave.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[02:25:14] LIOW TIONG LAI, MALAYSIAN TRANSPORT MINISTER: Two pieces of debris belong to Boeing 777 parts. Secondly, from the ping and the stencil of these two pieces, it is similar to the mass airlines paint. And also, that we conclude that most certain belong to MH370.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIVERS: Further confirmation to the families onboard, this is another step in this investigation that has been going on for so long. We did reach out to some family members here in China about -- for their reaction to this news. One person spoke to us. His brother was onboard the plane. He told us that finding the plane debris does not equal to finding the loved ones. If they can find debris away as Africa, the authorities should reassess their searching area and hypothesis. He's not sure about this debris.

But authorities do say that according to their models, it's highly plausible that debris from the missing airline could have drifted that far in the ocean. But some doubt among family members here in China. A very difficult situation overall -- Errol?

BARNETT: Yeah. Your heart goes out for all of them. They've waited more than two years just to get this far. And still, we don't know where the fuselage ended up there in the southern Indian Ocean.

Matt Rivers live for us in Beijing. 2:26 in the afternoon there. Matt, thank you.

Coming up next, we have more special coverage for you in Brussels, as we follow the massive manhunt for a suspect in Tuesday's terror attacks.

Stay with us.

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[02:30:20] FOSTER: I'm Max Foster in Brussels. This is CNN's special coverage of the terror attacks here.

Belgian authorities are on a massive manhunt for this suspect in Tuesday's airport bombings. They say he left an explosive at the airport and he's on the run. He may have been a guide to make sure the others carried out the bombings. Officials are being conducting raids. Meanwhile, across Brussels looking for terrorists and evidence. They're concerned these attacks may be part of a wider plot.

Investigators believe Najim Laachroui was a suicide bomber at the airport. They suspect he is an ISIS bombmaker involved in November's terror attacks in Paris.

Tim Lister has more on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TIM LISTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This man had become the most-wanted in Europe, Najim Laachroui. Belgium and French officials say he was the second bomber killed at Brussels airport. Also wanted for the Paris attacks. Laachroui had been caught on surveillance video in Brussels back in November. He and another man sent money to the cousin of Abdelhamid Abaaoud. The days before they were killed in a raid where they were hiding and planning another attack. But then, he was named as Kael (ph), an alias he used. Belgium prosecutors say Laachroui's DNA was found at an apartment in the Schaerbeek district of Brussels, where bombmaking materials were found and others in a Belgian town that he rented in October. Investigators say Laachroui was a key figure in the Paris attacks, not only as the likely bombmaker, but coordinating the attacks in November.

(on camera): Laachroui was brought up in Belgium. He studied electronic engineering in Brussels. He went to Syria in 2013. That's where his skills may have been put to bombmaking.

(voice-over): It's not clear when Laachroui came back to Europe. But he traveled through Hungary last year, with Salah Abdeslam, one of the attackers arrested in the Belgian capitol last Friday.

Most troubling, Laachroui managed to re-enter Belgium undetected, even though there was an international arrest warrant for him. And began plotting the attacks that have shaken Europe.

Tim Lister, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will travel to Brussels on Friday. A spokesman says he will express condolences for the victims of Tuesday's attacks. He will reiterate U.S. support for counterterrorism efforts.

Meanwhile, U.S. Defense Secretary Ash Carter says Europe needs to work harder at defeating ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASH CARTER, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: The Brussels event is going to further signify to Europeans is that they -- as we have been accelerating our campaign to defeat ISIL in Syria and Iraq and elsewhere, they need to accelerate their efforts and join us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: Carter said it's not enough to defeat ISIS in the Middle East. Europeans need to focus on security in their own nations.

We're getting a firsthand look at the devastation in the airport. A taxi driver shot the video as he ran inside to find his son. He found him safe.

John Berman has more.

We must warn you that the images are disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SHOUTING)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The first thing you hear are the screams --

(SHOUTING)

BERMAN: -- presumably the wounded crying for help.

(SHOUTING)

BERMAN: Debris is everywhere, making it hard for rescue workers to get around.

(SHOUTING)

BERMAN: Fires still burning from the blast. Bodies buried under the rubble. And this.

(CRYING)

[02:35:10] BERMAN: A baby in the middle of the wreckage, on the floor, next to his mother, who appeared to be dead.

(SHOUTING)

BERMAN: The horror doesn't end here.

(SHOUTING)

BERMAN: Frightened bystanders try to make it out of the building.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.

(CROSSTALK)

(SHOUTING)

BERMAN: The taxi driver, who shot this video, reaches the food stand where his son worked, only to find it deserted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

BERMAN: Outside the terminal, survivors wait for help. Those that are able lend comfort to the wounded, though many inside did not survive.

Amid the wreckage and debris, a single flower, perhaps a welcome home for an arriving passenger, now buried among the shattered remains of this terror attack.

John Berman, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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[02:40:48] FOSTER: I'm Max Foster in Brussels. Counterterrorism officials are even more concerned about more attacks in Europe. And ISIS operatives have picked up potential targets.

Authorities have identified blew himself up at the metro station. His brother, Ibrahim, was one of the several of the bombers in the attacks. The other is believed to be Najim Laachroui, a suspected ISIS bombmaker. And police are searching for the third man, seen on surveillance video at the airport.

Turkey says it deported one of the airport attackers last year. Recep Tayyip Erdogan Ibrahim el Bakraoui was detained near the Syrian border and deported to the Netherlands. Mr. Erdogan says Belgium ignored Ankara's warning that he was a militant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, TURKISH PRESIDENT (through translation): One of Brussels' attackers was detained. We reported it to Belgium authorities with a deportation notice. Despite our warning he was a foreign terrorist fighter Belgian authorities could not find a link to terrorism.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Erin Burnett spoke with the mayor of the neighborhood where Ibrahim el Bakraoui returned after being deported. The mayor says she wasn't advice when he came back to Brussels.

FRANCOISE SCHEPMAN, MAYOR OF MOLLENBEEK: You had the local level and the federal level. And there's no collaboration.

(CROSSTALK)

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: They're not talking to you?

SCHEPMAN: They're not -- they don't have to talk to me about their investigation. What I have to do as a mayor, is to be careful about what's happened on the street, for the safety of the people. We have a police operation. We have raids. You see, concerning those people, who became terrorists, I didn't have any information about them. We didn't know that they had become radicalists.

BURNETT: You didn't know they became radicalists. And when they came home, people in the community didn't tell anyone. They lived amongst them. Many people in the community knew. No one said anything. That has to be a really hard thing as a mayor to know that some of the people are living in what people call plain sight.

SCHEPMAN: I think that most of the people here didn't know they were preparing attacks. I'm sure about that. But maybe we don't have the enough careful about what is going on in the streets or in some places in our district.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Let's bring in Peter VAN for his perspective on the Brussels attacks. He's a historian and an independent researcher on Jihadism.

Thanks for joining us from Belgium.

What seems really shocking in the aftermath of this horrific attack is that the authorities don't seem to have any awareness about what's going on in particular communities with particular parts of Brussels. What's going on here? What's the disconnect?

PETER VAN CALAYAN (ph), HISTORIAN & INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATOR: I think the authorities are trying whatever they can, to cope with this problem. I do believe that some of the things that might have gone wrong is the fact that it seems that the authorities always lag behind on crucial parts of the information. I do believe that some of the information from within those communities doesn't reach to the Belgian authorities in time.

FOSTER: Which is why they're pretty smart. They managed to stay under the wire. We have enough awareness from the incidents we had, Paris and Brussels, to work out how they did it. How they stayed under the wire and how to tap into the networks and the future.

[02:45:23] CALAYAN (ph): Seems a crucial element, indeed. You want to dig in, that works. And you want to get some decent human intelligence on it, you need people capable of doing that. So, we need people, trusty people, who can speak Arab and Arab dialects. And those aren't really -- well, they're not really defined here in Belgium.

FOSTER: The security services in Belgium don't have Arab speakers they can send in and be part of the community? What's the issue?

CALAYAN (ph): They do have them, but not enough. I'm pretty sure when they have more resources, capable of speaking Arabic and capable of understanding Islam, it would be easier for the government to get into the network. Right now, it seems like these guys are always two steps in front of us. So, we're actually lagging behind and trying to cope with the information we get out of the networks. It always seems a bit too late.

FOSTER: What are you looking at as the next step in terms of strategy? There's a great deal of concern now that we've crossed borders. Crossing the Belgian borders, they've become an international network and threat. In terms of the networks that carry out attacks. Are you seeing the networks spread across Europe because there's a concern there could be coordinated attacks across countries next.

CALAYAN (ph): It's not a question of if there will be more attacks, but when and where, in France, Belgium, any other neighboring country. We have to be prepared for more of this. This is not going to end with the Paris attacks and the Brussels attacks.

FOSTER: Peter Van Calayn, thank you very much for bringing it home.

We're going to go back to Errol Barnett in Atlanta for more of the day's news as we digest what happened 48 hours ago -- Errol?

ERROL BARNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, Max, an ominous note.

We will get back to Max Foster at the top of the hour.

There's a knock-on effect. The Brussels attacks are triggering reactions from the people running for president in the U.S. The politics of fear after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [02:50:06] BARNETT: As investigators in Europe are looking for the terrorist attacks, the U.S. presidential candidates are dealing with it in their own way.

Here's CNN's Suzanne Malveaux.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SHOUTING)

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Brussels terror attacks, sending shock waves through the race for president.

GOP front runner, Donald Trump, saying he will leave all options on the table when it comes to fighting ISIS, including the use of nuclear weapons.

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: I'm never going to rule anything out. I wouldn't want to tell them that.

MALVEAUX: And doubling down on his support for harsh interrogation techniques, such as waterboarding.

TRUMP (voice-over): The eggheads that came up with this international law should turn on their television. I'm willing to bet, when I see all of the bodies laying all over the floor, including young beautiful children laying dead on the floor, if they watch that, maybe they will approve waterboarding and other things.

(APPLAUSE)

MALVEAUX: Democratic front runner, Hillary Clinton, countering that such methods run counter to U.S. values.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: I'm proud to be part of the administration that banned torture, after too many years that we had lost our way. If I'm president, the United States will not condone or practice torture anywhere in the world.

MALVEAUX: Clinton also calling out Ted Cruz by name, for proposing that law enforcement step up their policing of Muslim neighborhoods.

CLINTON: So, when candidates like Ted Cruz call for treating American-Muslims like criminals and for racially profiling predominantly Muslim neighborhoods, it's wrong, it's counterproductive. It's dangerous.

MALVEAUX: President Obama echoing Clinton's comments, on a visit to Cuba and then to Argentina.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: 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 no sense.

MALVEAUX: Cruz returning fire, charging that Democrats are misguided in their strategy for combating terrorists threats.

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R), TEXAS & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's an example of where Democrats are more concerned about political correctness than keeping us safe. That's why people are so fed up. We need a commander-in-chief whose priority is keeping the American people safe. That's what I will do.

MALVEAUX (on camera): As Democrat and Republican candidates intensify their efforts to seal the nomination, they are doubling down for their arguments on what makes them the strongest commander-in-chief. Republicans are painting President Obama as weak, soft and stupid in dealing with ISIS, and by extension, painting his former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, that way. While Obama and Clinton are in lockstep, portraying Trump and Cruz as reckless, inexperienced and out of touch. In a thinly-veiled reference to Trump, Clinton said "loose canons tend to misfire."

Suzanne Malveaux, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[02:55:17] BARNETT: You are watching CNN. I'm Errol Barnett.

Our special coverage of the attacks in Brussels continues after this short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:59:39] FOSTER: This is CNN's special coverage of the terror attacks in Brussels. I'm Max Foster, reporting live from the Belgian capitol.

Daylight in Brussels is bringing concerns about future attacks, not just in Belgium, but across the continent. Counterterrorism officials say more attacks in Europe could be imminent and ISIS operatives may have picked out potential targets.

Right now, a massive manhunt is under way for the man in white, seen in the airport surveillance photo from Tuesday. Authorities say they're not sure who he is or how many others may have been involved in planning the attack.