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Foiled Terror Plot; Police Operation Underway in Belgium; Europe's Open-Border Policy Under Scrutiny; Cruz Tells Trump to Leave His Wife Alone. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired March 25, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00] PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: If you don't eliminate that snake in Syria, this is never going to stop.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, so -- so you think that perhaps Belgian officials are communicating with those who are fighting the battles in the Middle East, in Iraq and Syria, and that may help them better target who they need to there?

MUDD: I think one of the reasons you have international cooperation in this case is the Belgians are not going to have the capability to conduct operations at anywhere near the level we can, that is the Americans can, in Syria. If you want to eliminate that Syrian/ISIS component that's providing training, for example, to these bomb makers who are making this explosive material called TATP, that's the American's in-box. That is, the Americans can collate the data from these raids and determine how, for example, people are acquiring documents to go into Syria, how they're potentially communicating in secret with Syria to see if you can pinpoint locations or, better yet, the individuals in Syria who are responsible and then put a drone out or air strikes on those locations so that training for people who are coming back and conducting these bombings ceases. This is going to keep going until we shut down Syria.

COSTELLO: All right, Phil Mudd, thanks for your insight, as usual.

MUDD: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: We appreciate it. And I do appreciate it.

And, of course, there's that -- there's some massive police presence in a neighborhood right outside of Brussels. They're looking for something. There is a bomb squad on the scene. People heard explosions and gunfire. We don't know exactly what's going down there, but we know that a big manhunt is now underway for more people responsible for those terrible terrorism attacks within Brussels.

We also know that the secretary of state, John Kerry, will soon go to the Brussels airport and he will lay a wreath there to remember those who died inside the Brussels airport.

And still to come in the NEWSROOM, too, does passport-free travel put Europeans as risk? I'll talk to one British official who says the E.U.'s open border policy is a major threat.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:36:08] COSTELLO: All right, I want to take you out to the Brussels airport. You see the secretary of state there, the American secretary of state, John Kerry, greeting officials at the airport. And we're expecting that the Belgium prime minister will soon arrive at the Brussels airport as well. Both men will go inside the airport in short time to lay a wreath where so many died inside that airport just a few days ago.

It's just been an active day in Belgium in the past few days. There's a huge police operation going down probably just about 40 minutes from the airport in Brussels in a suburban neighborhood. Frederik Pleitgen is there.

We know that neighbors heard an explosion and gunfire. We don't know exactly what police are looking for there, but there is a huge police presence.

I want to take you back out to Schaerbeek, this neighborhood about 25 miles outside of Brussels, and check back in with Frederik Pleitgen to see if he found out any more information.

Hi, Fred.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

Yes, I -- I am finding out more information about the raid that's going on here. And the gentleman who's with me, (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

PLEITGEN: You have a son who has a shop there who said that someone was shot there. Tell me what he told you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. He saw was a young man coming out of the driveway, the driveway was underground. And he had a (INAUDIBLE), a big gun.

PLEITGEN: A big gun, a rifle.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A gun, a rifle, yes, and maybe some people call the police and a lot of people he says coming and shoot this man. But he -- just shoot him in the legs, and he's -- but he's on the street.

PLEITGEN: So they -- a man came out and he had a rifle with him in the metro underground?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the metro underground. But he was not -- not more in the -- in metro underground, up -- up -- out of the metro underground. I didn't know if they were (INAUDIBLE) something in the metro underground. He came out. There is a big -- big escalator (ph).

PLEITGEN: An escalator.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no --

PLEITGEN: The stairs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have the stairs to (INAUDIBLE).

PLEITGEN: Yes, stairs, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And he was there. He came out. And he had some -- some -- some rifle with him and he was be -- he's been shot by police. The police did -- maybe may know that he was coming out there.

PLEITGEN: And do you know if anybody else was hurt except this man?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, I don't know anything. I just -- I don't know of anything. I can phone if you want. I can take -- (INAUDIBLE) the phone to my son to know because he's just there.

PLEITGEN: He's still there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) as -- as everything is happening.

PLEITGEN: And do you know, the police, whether they -- when they shot him. You say that they shot him but they did not kill him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, they did not kill him, no. They shot him in the legs. He was not very -- he was just on the ground, but he was stable and not that -- there was nothing very -- very -- it was not kill him. They didn't kill him, no, no, no.

PLEITGEN: Does he say anything about what this man looked like?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He looks like a lot of people who are not -- who are Muslim and that was -- that's really -- he looked like a Muslim, yes.

PLEITGEN: So someone who could be from --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) a Muslim (INAUDIBLE) a Muslim in France -- a (INAUDIBLE) French Muslim (INAUDIBLE) Muslim.

PLEITGEN: And has your -- has your son told you anything about what's going on there right now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

PLEITGEN: We've heard that there might have been explosions or something?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. The shop is closed. Nobody may come in. Nobody may come out. Everything is closed there.

PLEITGEN: So the police have closed off the entire area?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They closed the area -- the entire area. (INAUDIBLE) the runway (ph) doesn't go -- the terminal (ph) is stopped. Everything is stopped. Everything is closed because that thing up there is people, important people, there on the corner of the avenue (INAUDIBLE). PLEITGEN: They think there might be more people?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They think there might -- may be more people. And they thought that there were people (INAUDIBLE) -- because last Saturday, normally is a big carnival in this area.

PLEITGEN: Yes. OK. OK. All right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And carnival didn't take place because they already know that there was a danger.

PLEITGEN: OK. Well, thank you very much, sir. Thank you for speaking to us.

So as you can see, Carol what we're hearing from these witnesses is that apparently one person was shot there, Carol.

[09:40:00] COSTELLO: All right, Frederik Pleitgen, thanks so much.

I want to bring our viewers back to the Brussels airport for just a minute. You see the secretary of state there laying that wreath outside of the Brussels airport where folks died. Let's just pause for a moment.

All right, Secretary of State John Kerry congratulating -- not congratulating, but thanking the first responders for their hard work that terrible day. As you know, more than 31 people killed in Brussels, more than 270 injured in these terrible attack. And you can see the shattered windows of the airport. And, of course, the secretary couldn't go inside because it's an active crime scene.

The twin bombings in Brussels have reignited the debate over Europe's open-border policy. In the hours after the attack, the spokesman for the U.K. independence party slammed the arrangement as a, quote, "threat to British security."

I'm joined by Mike Hookem, who made that statement. He's the U.K. independence party spokesman for defense.

Welcome, Mr. Hookem.

MIKE HOOKEM, SPOKESMAN FOR DEFENSE, U.K. INDEPENDENCE PARTY: Thank you very much.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being with me. You say Europe's open-border policy, a policy that allowed Europeans to travel without passports from country to country within Europe, puts its citizens at risk. Why?

HOOKEM: Well, I mean, it's something that I've been warning about for a year now. This open-border policy, this (INAUDIBLE) agreement, allows these terrorists free movement across Europe. And we know these people have -- the ones that have been arrested, the ones that are involved in all of this, have traveled to Syria on numerous occasions, on false passports, been allowed back in, coming back in through the migrant routes, you know, and allowed across -- across Europe, you know, bringing weapons in and explosives in. And it has to stop. It cannot go on.

COSTELLO: When Americans look at the terror investigations underway in Belgium, they see a lot of negligence. They see it putting the western world at risk. Help us understand why that's happening in Belgium.

HOOKEM: Well, it's -- again, I've been -- I've been flagging (ph) this up and the European parliament are in denial on this. They will not -- you know, they will not accept that the -- an open borders policy is creating this and helping this. And there are seven members states now who have had enough and they're reinstated borders and they've said, enough is enough and they're checking people again. And, you know, we -- we really are now in a serious situation where we have to start bringing back the borders and bringing back border control.

COSTELLO: So what do you suppose that the British parliament will do?

HOOKEM: Well, it's not the British parliament. It's the European parliament. We're -- because we're not in the (INAUDIBLE) agreement, we still have some border control, although they have been cut back severely by -- by the (INAUDIBLE) government that we have at the moment. They've been cutting back on manpower and investment. So we have some border control.

But only this week, 50 immigrants was found in Kent (ph) on the back of a vehicle. So, you know, these people are getting in. We have a porous border in the U.K. Small ports, such as where I'm sitting at the moment. I'm from Hohl (ph), which is -- which is a port, and people are getting in because of lax border control.

[09:45:08] COSTELLO: Two of the Brussels attackers were Belgian-born. The Paris attackers were not Syrian refugees; they were French and Belgium citizens. Something is happening within those countries that are -- that are creating these terrorists. What do you think it is? And what's the answer to that?

HOOKEM: Well, you know, this is dissatisfaction of the areas that they're living in. A lot of these areas are Muslim (INAUDIBLE) areas. I've been to Molenbeek, and that -- to some areas there, the police are not allowed to go into. So, really, we have to look at what is turning these people into radicals.

COSTELLO: Do you think that the European Union and NATO is helping the United States enough to fight ISIS?

HOOKEM: Well, certainly, not the European Union. Again, worryingly, a German defense minister said that nearly 50 percent of member states are not sharing intelligence. And this guy that they're looking for at the moment, which is now one of the most sought-after terrorists in Europe, and it was the Americans that give up information that said that he was on one of their terror watches. But the Belgians didn't even know he was in the city.

COSTELLO: Is there something that the United States can do to help more in Europe's fight against these home-grown terrorists?

HOOKEM: Well, I think all of the Western world, Europe and America, have got to come together, start sharing intelligence, and fight against ISIS and Daesh that's threatening the people of Europe.

COSTELLO: All right, I have to leave it there. Mike Hookem, thank you so much for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.

And as I've been telling you, we're following breaking news out of Brussels. In a neighborhood called Schaerbeek there's a major operation going down. An eyewitness just telling CNN one man was shot near a metro station. We'll have much more information on the other side of this break. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:51:43] COSTELLO: The war of words over wives is escalating for Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Trump continuing to launch his jabs via Twitter, prompting Ted Cruz to step before the cameras with this scathing response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald, you're a sniveling coward, and leave Heidi the hell alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Joining me now from Washington with more, CNN's Sara Murray. Good morning.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Good morning, Carol. It was pretty amazing to see Ted Cruz react to this. Remember, it all started with Donald Trump retweeting this sort of unflattering image of Heidi Cruz in a split screen with Melania Trump. And apparently this was just too far for Ted Cruz in a campaign that's had a lot of low blows. This one was even too low in his opinion for Donald Trump.

Take a listen to how he reacted yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: Donald does seem to have an issue with women. Donald doesn't like strong women. Strong women scare Donald. Now, Donald is scared a lot these days. Donald is scared to debate. He ran away from the last debate that was scheduled because he was scared of Megyn Kelly.

Let me be absolutely clear -- our spouses and our children are all bounds. It is not acceptable for a big, loud, New York bully to attack my wife. It is not acceptable for him to make insults, to send nasty tweets late at night. And I don't know when what he does late at night, but he tends to do these about 11:30 at night. I assume when his fear is at the highest point.

Real men don't try to bully women. That's not an action of strength; that's an action of weakness. It's an action of fear. It's an action of a small and petty man who is intimidated by strong women. Real men don't do that. And Donald is indicating the fear that keeps him up at night when he lashes out with anger. Heidi is my best friend in the whole world. She is the love of my life. And Donald should stick with attacking me because Heidi is way out of Donald Trump's league.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now, Carol, in addition to defending his wife there, you heard Cruz lobbing a charge that many Democrats have lobbed at Donald Trump, which is this idea that he has a problem with strong women. And this is one of the worrisome things for Republicans, is Donald Trump seems to be on the cusp of clinching this Republican nomination. You know, if you look at the polling, our CNN/ORC poll shows that 74 percent of women across both parties have this unfavorable view of Donald Trump. And they worry about how that would bear out in a general election, especially against Hillary Clinton, if he is the nominee, Carol.

COSTELLO: But you do wonder, Sara, why Donald Trump can't stop himself from starting these -- why can't he stop himself from saying disparaging things about women?

MURRAY: It's kind of amazing. I think we've seen the anti-Trump super PAC ad that's running against him that has some of his less savory comments from Howard Stern interviews, things he's said in the past. And, you know, when I've asked him about this before, he's essentially said some of the things were all in good fun.

[09:55:02] The Howard Stern show, you know, it's kind of a joke and he was sort of playing along.

But, you know, when you look at things like this tweet, it does sort of feel like an unforced error, unnecessary to put that out. But the campaign says that, you know, they're just responding to this ad that ran. It was a Facebook ad with a nude photo of Melania Trump, and they're pinning that on the Cruz campaign. But of cours the Cruz campaign has pointed out that they had nothing to do with the ad. That also came from an anti-Trump super PAC.

So, you know, every time you think that we've reached sort of the bottom of this campaign, it seems like politics gets a little bit dirtier this cycle. Carol.

COSTELLO: I think you're right, Sara Murray. Thanks so much.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.

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