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Police Suspect Syrian Man in Brussels, Paris Attacks; Belgium Admits Intel Failure over Suicide Bomber; Cruz and Trump at War over Their Wives; Paris Attack Victims Offer Condolences to Belgians. Aired 3-3:30a ET

Aired March 26, 2016 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): New clues in the Brussels terror investigation and a new person of interest police want to pinpoint. We'll go live to Brussels.

They're at it again. How a tabloid article has become the latest bone of contention between Trump and Cruz.

And --

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ALLEN (voice-over): A rock revolution in Cuba, thanks to the Rolling Stones.

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ALLEN: It's all ahead here on CNN NEWSROOM. We're live in Atlanta. Thanks for joining us. I'm Natalie Allen.

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ALLEN: We now know what one of Europe's most wanted men looks like.

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ALLEN (voice-over): This police bulletin shows 28-year-old Syrian Naim Al Hamed. He is thought to be at the heart of the ISIS attacks in Brussels and Paris. Investigators are unsure of his whereabouts during the bombings Tuesday at the Brussels airport and metro station.

Police though reportedly found his DNA inside the apartment the three airport attackers used. This comes as we're learning what Paris suspect, Salah Abdeslam ,has been telling Belgian police since they caught him last week. French media say he claims he only had a minor role in the attacks.

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ALLEN: For more on that, let's go to Saima Mohsin. She's live for us in Brussels.

And, Saima, we are getting more information about what Abdeslam is saying.

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Natalie. Yes, apparently Salah Abdeslam saying that he had a very minor role involved in the Paris attacks last November. He claims, according to transcripts that our affiliate here in Europe BFM-TV (ph) have found and gone through themselves -- according to those transcripts from police, he is saying that he rented cars and hotel rooms for the attackers.

He's also saying that all money and finances came from his elder brother, Brahim Abdeslam, and that that was his only involvement. He's obviously trying to diminish his role.

Nevertheless, he was certainly involved in the Paris attacks of course. His older brother, Brahim Abdeslam, ended his life by killing so many others along with him in the Cointreau Voltaire (ph) cafe in November last year.

Salah Abdeslam, I'll remind everyone, was found here in Brussels in a raid last week, hiding out all this time in plain sight. And that is what is really worrying people here in Brussels, Natalie. People are wondering how these men managed to hide all this time amidst them in their community and then targeted their community.

Of course, one of the locations for these attacks where the majority of people were killed and injured was Maelbeek metro station. I spent the day there yesterday.

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MOHSIN (voice-over): Reaching out for reassurance in the center of the city, a quiet moment for just two people of so many who have been touched by this tragedy. Local residents who use this station every day, tears in their eyes, struggling to absorb why they're under attack.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is our city and we didn't ask for nothing. We are just -- we are struck by that but it's not our business. We are not -- we don't have anything to do with that. If they go and fight a war, I understand and we respect that. But not in our city.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are very, very sad that all these things are happening all over the world, not only in Brussels.

MOHSIN (voice-over): Workmen opened the shutters to reveal the empty ticket hall, seen here through smashed glass.

In an exclusive look, these are the first pictures of the scene underground since the attack. Reminders of the violence and carnage remain. A gutted-out station, once the very artery of life in this city.

MOHSIN: This makeshift monument at the entrance to the metro. People have been leaving flowers. Some people coming, like these ladies, to light candles and a number of messages and prayers left as well. Children, too.

I want to show you this. A lot of them writing tributes, messages of peace.

"Everybody together," this says in French.

And this letter really, really struck me. It's a young girl who lives nearby and she says that, "I normally take the metro all the time. But that particular day --

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MOHSIN (voice-over): -- "I didn't. And I keep thinking," it says, "what would have happened to me if I was on board that metro train? I'm really scared to take the metro."

These children are from a nearby school. Only five of them from the entire class came to school for the first few days after the attacks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today we are 21 of 30 in the class. The rest of them is not -- didn't dare to come or was afraid to come.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A lot of our children, they live where the terror and the terrorists came from. They live in the streets are like that. So for Schaerbeek or Molenbeek. It's very important to see like we are Muslim but that's -- we are not the same, you know.

MOHSIN (voice-over): A community trying hard to stay united in the face of fear and terror. For now, though, there's only confusion and emptiness.

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MOHSIN: And as we heard from one of the women at the top there, Brussels really trying to absorb now that it is very much a part, alongside so many other cities around the world -- Ankara, Ivory Coast, places, Baghdad just the other day as well -- that are now being attacked where innocent civilians are under attack.

And when I saw those children coming to lay flowers there, you often think, Natalie, that children might be oblivious to what's happening but they're really not. It really struck me what those teachers had to say about the Muslim children from the community who are now really struggling to find their place here in Brussels -- back to you, Natalie.

ALLEN: Thank you, Saima Mohsin. We certainly can see the agony and fear that people are now living with, as of this week. Saima Mohsin for us there in Brussels, thanks.

We are learning that the two brothers that carried out suicide bombings in Brussels Tuesday were on a U.S. counterterrorism watch list. Turkey, meantime, says it raised a red flag about one of the brothers

when it deported him last year from near the border with Syria. Now Belgian authorities are trying to figure out how they missed critical information. CNN's Arwa Damon is in Turkey for us.

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ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is here in Gaziantep, a city very close to the Syrian border, where Turkish authorities say they took Ibrahim El Bakraoui into custody. He was not on any sort of watchlist; he initially came into the country and spent a bit of time at a resort town, seemingly trying to pose as a tourist and perhaps fly under the radar.

Something in his activities when he got to Gaziantep raised the suspicions of Turkish authorities. They say that they then decided to deport him and went on to notify the Netherlands, the country that he was to be deported to, as well as Belgium.

They notified them of the decision to deport El Bakraoui but also the Turks say on more than one occasion, emphasized that they firmly believed that El Bakraoui had come to Turkey to try to cross into Syria and join ISIS as a foreign fighter.

The Netherlands is saying that they were informed of the deportation but not of the reasons why. The Belgians, at this stage, are acknowledging an intelligence failure on their part but are also speculating as to whether or not Turkey could have been more emphatic with their own warnings.

The Turks are bristling at this and they have been feeling for quite some time now as if Europe has been scapegoating them. Turkey has come under some very harsh criticism for its inability to fully crack down on its heavily porous border and because of the ongoing flow of foreign fighters back and forth, a threat that now we know all too well has also reached Europe's shores.

Turkey wants to see Europe, however, taking the intelligence that it is providing more seriously because this is not the first time that the Turks say their intelligence has not been acted upon.

There have been at least two other instances. One of them to include a man who was involved in the Paris attacks, where the Turks say they warned respective European nations about an individual's potential ties to terrorism and that information was not acted upon.

Turkey's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, trying to perhaps reach out to Europe to emphasize the point that Turkey and Europe really need to cooperate further and Turkish authorities are hoping that, after this horrific attack in Brussels, Europe will, on the one hand, take their intelligence more seriously.

There will be more intelligence cooperation but also that perhaps Europe will empathize more with Turkey's own war on terror -- Arwa Damon, CNN, Gaziantep, Turkey.

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ALLEN: That is the issue from the Turkey side of this. Let's talk about Brussels now.

Serge Stroobants is the Brussels' representative for the Institute of Economics and Peace. He joins us now from the Belgian capital.

Thank you for joining us. And you have said that Belgium needs to invest more in its justice, security and social service departments to help prevent these attacks. We just heard --

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ALLEN: -- our reporter talking about where there might have been miscommunication with Turkey. This is obviously a complex issue to deal with on many fronts.

Where do you think the country should start as far as security goes?

SERGE STROOBANTS, BRUSSELS REPRESENTATIVE, INSTITUTE OF ECONOMICS AND PEACE: Well, I would say at the exchange of information, the exchange of intelligence is something that has been unanswered in the last years, and especially after the attacks in Paris in January and November last year, within the European Union.

As we all know, Turkey is not a member of this European Union, so you have a special cooperation project that is set up with Turkey.

What we have seen now in the case of the perpetrator of the attack coming back, is the fact that the communication, the written communication, was done really in a poor way. So there was no clear indication of the fact that those people coming back were terrorists.

ALLEN: And what about the government there in Belgium?

We've heard people say this week that it has layers of departments, of kind of disconnected government entities.

Is that a contributor?

STROOBANTS: I would say that of course. But as in every government, you have different sections and, in interpersonal relations, communication is always a problem and is always a system in which you lose a part of the message.

But apart from that, I would like to say that, in the past years, after all the attacks that have occurred in other cities in Europe and throughout the world, there's always been lessons identified, a process in which you kind of develop a system of best practice.

So even in Belgium, we have seen that National Security Council has been created, something united at the federal level, in which all the ministers and all the security services just sit together and decide, for example, on the threat level.

We have also seen that in the past 10, 15, up to 20 years, police that was in stovepipes before, different services, have united in one centralized police system. So there is an enhancement of this system, the security system.

ALLEN: And as far, Serge, as this society and the community, is this -- what happened this week, is this going to further alienate Muslims from the general population there in Brussels?

Or do you think somehow it will bring them together?

STROOBANTS: I think this is the mistake not to produce. Of course, the victims, the direct victims of the attacks, are, I would say, in the hearts and in the minds of every Belgian or every citizen of this country.

But I also think that, next to those direct victims, the first community that is victim of those attacks is, in fact, the Muslim community here in Brussels and in Belgium.

And we need to realize that the perpetrator of those attacks are in fact just a bunch of criminals and do not represent neither their religion nor their community. So we should not amalgamate. This is a mistake we should not do.

And we should continue to concentrate on the dialogue and on the cooperation within all the communities of this country. The solution lies within the communities of this country.

ALLEN: U.S. Secretary John Kerry is there in Brussels and he says he believes safety will return as ISIS is knocked down. But another guest last hour there in Brussels, who works on the issue of radicalization, said it would likely take a generation before this draw of these radicalization will diminish.

What do you think?

STROOBANTS: I think that what you have just depicted, showing us, in fact, the consequences and the causes of one major global problem. Terrorism is only the consequence of a complete process of radicalization.

What is radicalization?

This is just like young men, young people, young women here in Brussels and all over the world that do not fit within society have a sense of frustration and emptiness.

Then you have those recruiters coming in, instrumentizing (ph) the religion and taking in the hearts of those young men and really radicalizing them and bringing them to violent extremism and eventually to terrorism.

So there are basic causes within our societies. But there's also external causes that is, in fact, fueling this feeling of discontent. And this is what is called, I would say, Western aggression in the Arab world, in the Muslim world. And really those young people here feel frustrations from inside the society and from outside the society. So the foreign policy of the Europeans, Americans and --

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STROOBANTS: -- Westerners in general. You need to target those, both courses, change something within your society and within your international relations to make sure that this feeling of alienation is going to disappear. But this will take, as you have said, an enormous amount of time.

ALLEN: We thank you so much for joining us, Serge Stroobants, with the Institute for Economics and Peace. Thank you for the work that you do. Thanks.

To Belgium with love: how France is helping its northern neighbor recover from Tuesday's attacks months after suffering its own tragedies. That's ahead here.

Also we'll turn to the U.S. election, the feud between Republican rivals Ted Cruz and Donald Trump growing even more personal. What Republican voters think about that ahead here.

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ALLEN: The verbal battle between U.S. Republican candidates Ted Cruz and Donald Trump growing more heated. Now Cruz is furious after a salacious tabloid article was published about his family. He's accusing Trump of planting the story.

Trump says he had nothing to do with it. The war of words began earlier this week during a back-and-forth attack over the candidates' wives. Our Gary Tuchman went to a Ted Cruz rally in Wisconsin to ask some of his supporters what they think about the Republican feud.

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GARY TUCHMAN, CNN HOST (voice-over): Escaping a springtime snow shower in Janesville, Wisconsin, hundreds of people walk indoors and line up, looking forward to not only seeing Ted Cruz in person, but also his wife, Heidi, who has gotten recent attention she hasn't sought.

TUCHMAN: Have you read what Donald Trump is tweeted about Ted Cruz's wife?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

TUCHMAN: How do you feel about it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unprofessional.

TUCHMAN: Who's angry, as a woman, who is angry about this? What is it? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well I think every woman could be angry about that. It is a distraction. And not only that, when it comes to the general election, if he is the candidate, Hillary is going to beat up on him because the way he comes against women.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Ted Cruz made reference to the tweets.

CRUZ: Heidi has been in the news the past couple of days. And let me just say, although the views of some might differ, I think Heidi Cruz is the most beautiful, extraordinary, generous, loving, amazing, fantastic woman on the face of the planet.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Wisconsin resident Lexi Gianitsos says it's not amused about Heidi Cruz being in the news. She is leaning towards Ted Cruz still mulling over John Kasich but not considering the man who tweeted about Ted Cruz's wife.

LEXIE GIANITSOS, REPUBLICAN VOTER: I think that something that you don't do in a six grade presidential campaign. They don't let you put that stuff on the walls. This is the national stage.

TUCHMAN: Whether you are --

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TUCHMAN: -- against Donald Trump or for Donald Trump there's little surprise these days when he goes on one of his Twitter tirades. While the Cruz supporters here don't very much like Trump calling their candidate "lying Ted," they say that outrage doesn't compare to this outrage.

Ann and Joshua Marie brought their children so the could all see Ted and Heidi Cruz in person. Their support for Ted Cruz only solidified by Donald Trump's tweets.

JOSHUA MARIE, REPUBLICAN VOTER: I think him attacking women has gone to a major low for him. And I understand Donald can say a lot of things and not get in trouble for it but I think going after women and going after Ted Cruz's wife is totally, you know, unacceptable.

TUCHMAN: So a couple of days ago you were considering Donald Trump?

MEREDITH KONKOL, REPUBLICAN VOTER: Yes.

TUCHMAN: And you are not anymore?

KONKOL: I don't think so.

TUCHMAN: And are these tweets a factor?

KONKOL: I think the tweets play a part in it. Yes.

TUCHMAN: Because?

KONKOL: I Because I just don't think it's appropriate to be attacking each other's wives. TUCHMAN: There were quite a few undecided voters we talk to here. The tweets, at least at this rally, did not bode well for Trump getting any of those votes.

CAMERON PICKENING, REPUBLICAN VOTER: His views on women, he doesn't treat women the way that, I mean, as humans. So objectifying us and objectifying Ted Cruz's wife was really immature.

TUCHMAN (voice-over): Heidi Cruz, part of the conversation of this unusual campaign -- Gary Tuchman, CNN, Janesville, Wisconsin.

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ALLEN: On the other side of the race, there are three Democratic contests Saturday out west in Alaska, Hawaii and the state of Washington. Be sure to tune in for CNN's full coverage of the Democratic caucuses.

A legendary rock band capped off a historic week in Cuba.

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ALLEN (voice-over): They look familiar?

For the first time in decades, Cubans got to hear music once banned in their country. The Rolling Stones took the stage on Friday for a free concert.

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ALLEN: From Paris to Brussels, there are mutual feelings of sorrow and defiance. People who survived last November's attacks in Paris know well what victims of Tuesday's bombings are going through. Erin McLaughlin spoke with a man now reliving the horror.

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EMMANUEL DOMENACH, BATACLAN SURVIVOR: Nothing has changed.

ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Emmanuel Domenach survived the attack at the Bataclan theater. He remembers the night in vivid detail, the confusion, the gunfire, the sound of the terrorists' voices, how he pretended to be dead to stay alive.

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DOMENACH: I put my blood on my head and my arm and I was then dead, like this maybe.

MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): Four months later, he's reliving that horror. He sees the attacks in Brussels as a second November 13th. His message to the victims in Belgium.

DOMENACH: They have to continue and fight and show to the terrorists that we are not weak and even we don't have weapon, even we don't have a bomb, we are citizen. We are democrats and we are better than them.

MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): Message of strength from one of the hundreds whose life will never be the same.

In France, the Association for the Victims of Terrorism is now helping those traumatized in Belgium. The head of the association tells me it's important to let victims know they are not alone but recovery is not easy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to be able to accept that your former life is dead, that you are starting a new life. You're going to be still a victim all your life but you're not going to feel yourself as a victim but as a survivor. But it's not immediate. It has to be done by steps.

MCLAUGHLIN (voice-over): Steps that John Luc Perez says he's taking. He was closing his hair salon on that fateful Friday in November when the terrorists arrived, changing his normal forever. They killed 18 people at the cafe across the street.

The attack caught on camera, published by dailymail.com. Bullets flying. Innocent people fleeing the onslaught, seeking cover wherever they could.

He says the militants opened fire as he stood in his salon, paralyzed with fear. He remembers trying to save the lives of the cafe's patrons, his friends.

His message to the victims in Belgium, "Stay strong. Don't give up," he says. "Continue to live. Appreciate life. Don't let the bad guys win." -- Erin McLaughlin, CNN, Paris.

ALLEN: There are many ways you can help the victims of the Brussels attacks. You can go online to cnn.com/impactyourworld to find out more about what you can do.

It is only rock 'n' roll but no doubt the Cuban fans liked it.

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ALLEN (voice-over): The Rolling Stones gave a free show in Havana with Mick Jagger strutting across stage, as Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Ronnie Wood rocked on.

The Stones are the first major international band to play the nation since the Cuban revolution almost 50 years ago. They played their biggest hits, ending with the appropriate encore, "Satisfaction."

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ALLEN: What a treat that must have been.

Thanks for watching. I'll be right back with our top stories.

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