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Utah Teen Tells of Surviving Attack; Kerry Speaks on Terror Attacks; Major Police Operations in Belgian Neighborhood Underway. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired March 25, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:06] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

We begin with breaking news out of Belgium. Two siblings living in New York are confirmed killed in Tuesday's terror attacks. The brother and sister are Dutch citizens, but were returning to the United States when they were killed.

Also new this morning, a huge development in the investigation. A U.S. official telling CNN they believe they know the identity of the surviving airport attacker. The man wearing a hat and light-colored jacket fled the airport without detonating the bomb.

Overnight police launched a series of raids across Belgium's capital. Six people detained including three outside of the federal prosecutor's office.

In France, sources telling CNN that a newly arrested suspect is linked to the mastermind of the Paris attacks and the French government says he was in the advanced stage of planning a new attack.

And then a CNN exclusive.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's for you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, son.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Love you, son.

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COSTELLO: The moment a Utah couple is reunited with their son injured in the airport attack. The 19-year-old has a chilling back story. He's cheated death before, close to the Boston marathon bombing explosions, and now the attacks in Paris. Actually the attacks in Paris and now the attacks in Belgium.

CNN correspondents are covering the many angles of this story as new developments continue to roll in, but we begin with Phil Black with more on the American victims.

Hi, Phil.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Yes. So when I met or spoke to Mason Wells in this hospital here, the 19-year- old from Utah, he told me that he's doing OK. Something of an understatement, really, when you think about the extent of his injuries, second and third-degree burns to his face, to his arms. Shrapnel in his legs, severe damage to his ankle as well. The good news is that he should, with time, make pretty much a full physical recovery from all of that.

What's really impressive is his story. It is extraordinary. He give a very detailed, clear, concise, vivid account of what happened. Those few minutes leading up to, during and after two bombs detonated in the departure zone of Brussels airport on Tuesday morning. Take a listen.

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MASON WELLS, SURVIVED TERROR ATTACK: Well, I was actually conscious for all of it. We tried to pull out my friends' tickets at a small little station. You know, my friends' tickets to go to the United States and the machine wasn't working actually. So after working with the attendant she took us to the back of the line, the check-in line. I'd actually pulled out my iPad to look at something. So it was part of my responsibilities in the mission, and I was starting to look that up. I was looking at my iPad when the first blast went off. It was really loud. It was really loud.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You had no warning? You had no warning this was about to happen?

WELLS: No. It really came out of nowhere. I wasn't expecting it at all. I was looking down and all of a sudden a huge blast came from my right. I believe my body was actually picked up off the ground for a moment, and my iPad that was in my hands, I don't know what happened. It just disappeared. I think it actually might have hit me in the head when it got blasted out of my hands.

So my watch on my left hand just disappeared. My left shoe just was blown off and a large part of the right side of my body got really hot and then really cold, and I was covered in -- a lot of -- a lot of fluids. A lot of blood, and a lot -- a lot of that blood wasn't mine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACK: It's remarkable, Carol, just how aware Mason Wells was throughout this experience. How quickly he responded and his first instinct was to get out. Take a listen to him describing those few moments.

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WELLS: It took my body about a second, half a second, to realize that it was a bomb that went off, and of course I'm sure my body was in complete physical shock. I knew that I'd been wounded. I didn't know how bad it was. I located an exit. I looked up, I located an exit and I started to run towards the doors that we'd came in through, and I took a couple of steps, about three seconds after the -- three or four seconds after the first blast, the second bomb went off and I actually felt the explosion on my right side.

[09:05:08] I could feel the blast but I don't believe I was hit by anything, any shrapnel or anything. And so that blast happened as I was running out the door. I ran over the top of this destroyed door, over a bunch of glass and I was turning around to look for my colleague. I had heard a lot of people running outside, and as I turned to look, I looked down and that's when I saw my ankle, it was bleeding very, very badly. It was -- covered in a pool of blood, and -- at that point, pain had started to hit me.

I had -- there were a couple of people, lots of people that made it outside at that point. There were people running and there was man who was less injured. He told me to sit down. So I sat down in a pool of my own blood. So I got blood all over my pants and I lifted my leg, and -- it was bleeding very badly. And, you know, I'm an Eagle Scout so I had taken some first aid, I have an idea -- I have an idea what my wounds were, and the multiple people tried to tie a tourniquet on my foot, but I wouldn't let them do it because I knew that, you know, if I turned the tourniquet that I'd lose my leg.

And -- at that point I just put my faith in the fact that I'd be able to keep my leg. The smell was really bad at that point.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACK: Mason Wells was so close to that first blast that he is very much coming to terms with the fact that he's still alive. I asked him what he's been thinking and feeling as he lies in his hospital bed now a few days after that attack and this is what he said.

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WELLS: I was so lucky, being how close I was. And I saw a lot of people that were injured worse. I heard a lot of people that were injured badly, and, you know, my only thoughts, my only feelings are just for the people that are out there, I hope that they're doing OK. I just wanted to pray for them. I've been praying for them since it happened. That's the only feeling I have is, I hope that they're OK because I'm very lucky and I know that there were maybe some that were not as lucky as I was, being so close.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACK: So it's not just Mason Wells that's feeling lucky. His parents are feeling incredibly fortunate, Chad and Kimberly.

You have to imagine what this was like, Carol. The moment they walked in to the hospital room and saw him there bandaged lying in bed so weak and so hurt. That is the first time they had seen their son in almost two years. That's how long he's been away as a missionary for the Mormon Church here in Europe. They describe it as an incredible powerful emotional moment but one that was ultimately tremendous relief to them because they'd got the news that he was hurt. They'd scrambled to get on the plane to travel to Europe and there he was. They're in the same room. They could touch him, they could talk to him, they could see that he was going to be OK. They were overwhelmed but they say actually he was the one during those few moments who was comforting them -- Carol.

COSTELLO: He's an amazing kid. It's just - -a couple of questions. First off, Mason kept his leg. Right?

BLACK: Yes. He has done -- shrapnel has been removed. His Achilles tendon in one of his ankles has been damaged, but it's believed that all of this, as I say, with time, with the right treatment, and so forth, that should be OK.

The burns, they're pretty significant to his face and his arms but the word from his plastic surgeon this morning is that there should be no significant scarring, which is pretty remarkable, really. So the good news for him is really incredibly good. He is very fortunate by his own admission, but he should make a full recovery, and as you heard there, his thoughts are really for all the other people who he saw that day who he knew were hurt far more seriously than he was.

COSTELLO: He's an amazing young man, Mason Wells.

Phil Black, thanks for sharing his story.

In just a few minutes, Secretary of State John Kerry will lay a wreath at the airport for a memorial before heading back to the United States. But a short time ago he sat down with CNN's Erin Burnett. She joins us now to tell us what he had to say.

Hi, Erin.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR, OUTFRONT: Hi there, Carol. And you know, when you hear that that incredible story, moving, that family not seeing their son in two years and then the victim of this horrific attack against innocent people going home to see their families, going on vacation. Going about their daily lives, you know, people are suffering here and, of course, there are now, we know, Americans who have not been as lucky as Mason Wells, who lost their lives in this terror attack. And I talked to the secretary about that and I asked him whether this was an attack on America. Here he is.

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[09:10:08] JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: I think it's an attack on America. It's an attack on Europe. It's an attack on civilized people in countries all around the world. It's an attack on people who weren't even here and who weren't killed because it is an attack on everybody's ability to move freely, to live without fear, and that's what the terrorists want. And that is precisely why we have to continue as we are to go after Daesh with full determination to destroy them, and I'm confident we are going to.

BURNETT: You've put out a warning about near-term attacks and the concern of that. We know here in Belgium they're worried about there's people on the run, they're worried about more cells, they're worries about more attacks. Do you have knowledge of what those attacks might be?

KERRY: I don't personally. I think there are strands of intelligence here and there which we wouldn't talk about publicly anyway at this point, but the point is, we know that there are foreign fighters who have returned from Syria over a span now of about five years, and they are in various places in the world. Loads of countries. America included, by the way. We've had some 500 Americans who have chosen to go to Syria and fight with Daesh over the course of the last years. And so that is the reason for people being vigilant and for being alert and that's the reason for travel advisories and restraints.

BURNETT: You talk about people going to Syria. I spoke to the brother of the bomb maker yesterday. He said the family had told the Belgians when he went to Syria in 2013, the Belgians did not follow-up with them. Spoke to a young man yesterday, he has 10 to 15 friends who are in Syria right now with ISIS. He said to me, I'll quote, "If I want to go tomorrow, I can go. You can call the police, they don't care."

Many of these young men's ultimate goal is to attack America. Could this kind of thing happen in the U.S.?

KERRY: Well, it did, in San Bernardino. I mean, we saw somebody come back radicalized, and go on a killing spree. So everybody understands that any of these foreign fighters who have come back still attached to Daesh. Now many people have left Daesh recognizing that it was a lie. That all the things they've been told were lies. And some of those people who tried to get away were executed. Others managed to get away and they've come back to tell the story of the lie.

So we don't know how many people precisely there are who have filtered their way back in, but I believe very deeply that as we put additional pressure on Daesh in Syria and Iraq, it is entirely possible that in some other part of the world people will lash out, out of desperation.

BURNETT: But are you concerned about attacks on American airports, American metro stations, attacks like the ones we've seen here, which intelligence is now saying are linked to ISIS headquarters?

KERRY: Erin, let me --

BURNETT: Which is a different profile than San Bernardino.

KERRY: Let me put it to you this way. Law enforcement and intelligence community, people have to get it right to prevent an attack every minute of every day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. If somebody wakes up one morning in their apartment, decides they want to go out and kill themselves and take some people with them, they can most likely find a place on a subway, on a bus, in a market, somewhere, to do it, unfortunately.

So it is a very -- you know, this is a difficult challenge, and frankly, it's quite remarkable that our law enforcement community, our intelligence community, our police have done as good a job as they have done of protecting us here, both in America as well as in other parts of the world. Now that doesn't excuse one single event, when it happens.

Everybody's focused on it, with the intensity that we see here in Belgium right now, but I am convinced that we are slowly and steadily deteriorating Daesh's ability to recruit, its ability to prosecute, its nihilistic, you know, ideology. And over time we are going to get back to a world where we feel that we can travel with impunity and feel safe.

BURNETT: So what about the young men here -- the young man I spoke to that say, they know so many people going to ISIS. And I said, why didn't you go? He said, well, I have a brain but I understand why they go. They're still going.

KERRY: There are some who have gone, but there are less going, and they're less able to go today, and as Daesh continues to get beaten, as its leadership continues to be decimated, I believe the attraction is going to be reduced.

[09:15:00] And I think you will see a lot fewer people believing that is a narrative both associating with or putting your life on the line for.

BURNETT: And will ISIS still be a threat when you leave?

KERRY: Well, I think - I think this, I think that we are going to put a huge dent in them in the course of this year, there's no question in my mind. But it is going to take a number of years, probably, to reduce the impact of the ideology of the -- of people who will continue to carry an anger or a willingness to engage in some kind of act individually as a lone entity.

And even though we destroyed the core of Al Qaeda, and we did, Al Qaeda disbursed, there are Al Qaeda operatives out there who continue to represent a threat, but they don't represent a complete shredding of the fabric of your life. And that's what we've been fighting with respect to Daesh, because if you left Daesh unattended to and you didn't go after them, the results would be absolutely devastating and I think people have come to that conclusion, which is why there isn't one single country anywhere that supports Daesh.

Daesh is isolated, and that's why I can say to you with such confidence we will destroy it, because every country in the region that surrounds it is opposed to Daesh. And the sooner we can deal with Assad and his presence in Syria, the sooner we will have an ability to go after Daesh and ultimately deliver on the promise I've just made.

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BURNETT: And, you know, Carol, I asked him point-blank, is this an attack against America? His answer -- when Americans are killed, of course. A very direct answer. And of course here meeting with the Belgium prime minister who, as you know, said in their joint press conference that Belgium is doing the best it can to fight terror, which has many scratching their heads, given that they knew the identities of some of these men before the attacks and of course failed to stop them or apprehend them even though they were wanted, for example, by Interpol, even though Turkey had warned them about one of them when they deported him and sent him back.

Also, I think, Carol, another important thing that he's saying here is he's standing by the administration's position that its strategy against ISIS is working and he said slowly and steadily deteriorating. Something surely GOP candidates may take issue with in terms of using the word slowly, but they have been standing by this, that a slow deterioration of ISIS is the right way to fight against this group.

And then he said, look, there will be a huge dent in this by the end of the year. We shall see if that happens by the time President Obama and Secretary Kerry leave office, if there will be a huge dent in ISIS or not. Back to you.

COSTELLO: All right, Erin Burnett reporting live from Brussels. You can catch Erin's show, "OUTFRONT", tonight 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

All right, we are getting more breaking news to pass along. According to French television, major police operations now under way in the neighborhood of Schaerbeek in Brussels. Special units of police are now there. We're also told an explosion could be heard at the beginning of the operation. Several witnesses say there was also gunfire. The area around the operation has now been evacuated.

Right now, there is no police evidence -- there is no evidence that police deployment is linked to the investigation of these Brussels attacks. Frederik Pleitgen is on the way to the scene. When he gets there, we'll have more for you.

I gotta take a -- we'll have much -- I gotta take a break. Much more, after.

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[09:22:33] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COSTELLO: All right, I want to get right to that breaking news and take you to Schaerbeek; that's a neighborhood right outside of Brussels where there's a huge police operation going down right now. We understand an explosion has been heard and also gunfire.

Frederik Pleitgen is on the scene. What can you tell us, Fred?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Yes, we're actually right at the police line. The police have sort of been pushing us back over the past couple of minutes. And as you can see, there's people sort of leaving this area right now.

The latest that we're getting is that the police is apparently evacuating the area around this square, which is I would say about 200 yards in that direction. If we look down there, there is a police truck of some sort that seems to be bringing specialized equipment to the area. Now you can see there's some police also moving back there. We've also heard that there was gunfire that was heard here.

Apparently there was an explosion that was heard as well. The police is now pushing us back again. They're telling us to move on to the pavement. There's a lot of police vehicles that are coming through here as well, so clearly a very large operation that's been going on, one that may have had some gunfire involved as well. They've really, really increased the security perimeter. They keep widening it out and keep pushing us back to make sure that they have enough room to operate. So clearly this is a very big operation that's going on. Again, gunfire appears to have been heard and the police right now is asking everybody to move here. You can tell they're telling us to sort of get out of the way so that they have room to operate here.

But, again, this is still very much an ongoing operation here by the Belgian police that we see these people coming through here right now.

COSTELLO: Frederik, a question for you. We know that a manhunt is now under way, especially for that third man in the airport, the one in the hat and the light coat that survived the bombing but left an explosive device behind. Could that be part of this?

PLEITGEN: It could very well be. At this point, it's not clear whether or not this is related to the Brussels attacks that, of course, happened three days ago. But, I mean, judging by the size of this operation, it could very well be. It's not clear whether they're targeting that specific individual, the one who got away, but clearly it is someone who they believe could be very dangerous, judging by the amount of police officers that we're seeing here. Also judging, quite frankly, by the kind of equipment that we've seen come in her, some very heavy police equipment. Also a bomb squad is here as well. And the last time I saw a bomb squad on the scene at one of these raids was actually the day of the attacks when they raided that apartment that turned out toe the bombmaking factory.

[09:25:06] So we'll have to wait and see whether any of that materializes or how it plays out, but it could very well be -- and certainly judging by the amount of cops we've seen on the street here, judging also, quite frankly, Carol, by the security perimeter that we're seeing here, and them asking people to keep moving out of this area, it certainly appears as though something very, very big is going on there.

But it's not clear whether or not it's related to that person that the U.S. says they believe they know the name of, or whether or not it might be that other person who could have been the other one who's being sought because of those attacks on the metro. But clearly, this is an operation the police are taking very, very seriously.

They've moved in also a lot of forces very quickly. They've actually cordoned off a lot of streets leading up to here, and one of streets that leads up to the square is one of the really main streets that has a lot of traffic on it, and yet the police has completely blocked that off, also stopped the tram service there as well as this very, very big police operation continues to unfold. And we can see them continue to set their perimeter. There comes a police tow truck through right now, Carol. COSTELLO: All right, Fred, I'm going to let you go so you can gather

some information. But we'll get right back to you if anything breaks.

Of course, all of this is coming on the heels of an overnight terror sweep -- actually an overnight huge terror sweep that included raids throughout Belgium, France and Germany. Police detained suspects and possibly gathered more evidence as they try to unravel Tuesday's terror attacks in Brussels.

CNN's Clarissa Ward is in Brussels with more on that. Hi, Clarissa.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. We were actually at the scene of one of those raids last night in the same neighborhood where Fred Pleitgen, my colleague, is right now, Schaerbeek. When we arrived on the scene, there was a heavy police presence. Essentially what we saw what were appeared to be forensic experts moving in to this house -- actually unclear if it was a house or three apartments. They appeared to be centering efforts on the third floor, going through, collecting evidence, possibly searching for DNA, for fingerprints, for more explosives. It's not clear yet.

What we do know is that six people were arrested during the course of various raids across Belgium last night. Three of them arrested outside the federal prosecutor's office as the manhunt is continuing here for those two men.

Now, meanwhile today we are hearing in Germany new information coming in about two separate arrests. These two men are both believed to be connected to Khalid Bakraoui. He is of course one of the two brothers who was involved in these vicious terror attacks. Apparently there were suspicious text messages that were found on the phones. One of these men who was arrested in Germany reportedly very well-known in the Salafi (ph) community, and we're hearing that it took a special commando unit who went in to make these two arrests. There does appear to be some connection of course to the Brussels attack through Khalid Bakraoui, but at this stage we don't have any more information as to what exactly that connection may have been. So definitely a situation that is changing quite rapidly and certainly it appears, Carol, some real momentum in these searches.

COSTELLO: We hope so. Clarissa Ward reporting live from Brussels, Belgium, this morning.

I want to bring in a counterterrorism analyst and former CIA counterterrorism official, Phil Mudd. Hi, Phil.

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Hey, good morning.

COSTELLO: What do you make of all this going down in Brussels this morning?

MUDD: Really the volume here is just remarkable. When you look back at the fight against al Qaeda back after 9/11, you're talking about maybe three or five major cases at once in the United States. You had an al Qaeda organization that was trying to operate secretly. Very small cells. And if you look at the volume here, Carol, we keep talking about

dozens of people in the course of just weeks. This was unimaginable 15 years ago. As a counterterrorism professional, I look at this and say there's only so long you can play defense. The real story has to be when can you eliminate safe haven for ISIS in Syria? Because no security service can stop all these people at once. It's not possible.

COSTELLO: Belgium officials this morning admitted they needed help from the United States in fighting terrorism at home. Do you suppose the United States has some involvement in what's going on today?

MUDD: Absolutely. There's a couple of things you're doing here. I can think of at least three. The first is collecting information realtime from the raids that are going on in Belgium and France. That is, when they're picking up things like hard drives, e-mail addresses, text addresses, when they're doing interrogations of detainees. That is a huge amount of data. The Americans and others will sort through that and say do we have leads that can help you?

The second thing any security service will ask, when you're giving us that information, does any of it lead back to the United States? Do we have a threat here?

And then the third and final piece, Carol, that we haven't talked much about is, while these raids are going on, you're trying to find information that pinpoints who the trainers are back in Syria so you can conduct operations there and eliminate the head of the snake. If you don't eliminate that snake in Syria, this is never going to stop.