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Belgian Police Nab Terror Suspect; Brutal Murder of Blogger in Bangladesh; Democratic Candidates Battle for New York; John Kerry's Surprise Visit to Afghanistan; Russian Museum to Help Restore Syria's Ancient Treasures; Canadian Delegation in North Korea; Marijuana Producing Profits in Argentina. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired April 09, 2016 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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GEORGE HOWELL, CNN HOST: Belgian police nab one of Europe's most wanted. A suspect who could be the mysterious man in the hat seen here at the Brussels Airport bombing.
Plus the brutal murder of another blogger in Bangladesh. Al Qaeda now claiming responsibility.
And a Russian museum is ready to help restore some of Syria's most ancient treasures, antiquities destroyed by ISIS.
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HOWELL: Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta. Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm George Howell. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
A good day to you. We begin this hour in Europe with a possible breakthrough in the Brussels terror investigations.
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HOWELL: Authorities there believe they may have found the mysterious man in the hat seen in airport surveillance video during the bombings. Mohamed Abrini was arrested in one of several raids by Belgian officials Friday.
He has known connections to last November's attacks in Paris and one of its suspected master minds, Salah Abdeslam. Police are holding another man as well. They suspect that he was there for the bombing at the Molenbeek Metro Station.
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HOWELL: Here's what we know at this point about Mohamed Abrini. He is 31 years old.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HOWELL: A Belgian national, originally from Morocco. He is believed to have been seen in video at a gas station with Salah Abdeslam, another attacker, just two days before that Paris attack.
Abrini and the Abdeslam brothers were all childhood friends from Brussels. Abrini had a criminal record for violent theft; he also had a younger brother who was killed fighting for ISIS back in 2014.
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HOWELL: And the bigger question now is about the extent of the terror network. How widespread might that web be across Europe. Kelly Morgan joins us now this hour following it all from Brussels.
It's good to have you Kelly. So what could these new arrests bring to investigators when it comes to intelligence?
KELLY MORGAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, George. Well they certainly consolidate don't they, those links between the Brussels attacks and the Paris attacks. You've just mentioned there the links that Albrini had to the Paris attacks. In terms of what happened in Brussels prosecutors allege that it was his DNA that was found in that Scarbek apartment, the so-called bomb making factory that was used by the Brussels attackers.
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MORGAN: Now he's spent his first night in custody after that dramatic arrest on the streets of Brussels yesterday. . He was walking around in plain sight in the Albrecht area, another greasy neighborhood here in Brussels, when he was pounced on by undercover operatives and taken into custody.
Now after that there were further searches were conducted in that area. There was concentration in one particular property. Forensic police were seen leaving that property carrying bags of evidence. And we will wait to learn more about exactly what was recovered in that property.
But authorities will want to work very quickly to find out what this man knows and if indeed he is the third airport bomber, which has been widely speculated by the Belgian media. And also if the second suspect who was arrested yesterday, the man by the name of Osama Krayem if he was the second metro bomber. Well, that's something isn't it because we're talking about two men who walked away from those Brussels attacks.
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MORGAN: Now the question is where they supposed to be suicide bombers and did they basically back out? Or the bigger concern is was that the plan? Are they in some way coordinators of these plots and did they walk away, survive because there are other plots in the planning. And that is what police will be working very hard to try to establish George. HOWELL: And you know that brings me to the other question that I'd like to ask just about the possibility Kelly of sleeper cells there. The possibility of a much deeper extended network across Europe. Are investigators getting closer to discovering anything more about what could be there in Europe?
MORGAN: Well you'd expect that with these two arrests, these were two big fish. But we knew right after the Brussels attack that there were at least eight suspects that police were hunting. Names were put on a European security bulletin and that's just at least eight. But we know of -- that this is a cell, a network that has tentacles stretching across Europe.
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MORGAN: We've had arrests in Germany, in the Netherlands, in Paris, in Brussels, right around Europe in the wake of these Brussels attacks. It is absolutely crucial that police work together across the borders but also between local and federal authorities within countries to try and establish who is part of this network. But yes, quite clearly has tentacles across Europe George.
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HOWELL: And you know just talking about what could be there in Europe and talking about the idea of hiding in plain sight. Abdeslam was discovered in a neighborhood where he was known to spend time. Obviously we'll continue to follow this investigation. Kelly Morgan, live in Brussels. Kelly, thank you.
Let's get more now on Mohamed Abrini and Salah Abdeslam. Earlier my colleague, Zain Asher talked with CNN contributor, Michael Weiss about the ties between those two terror suspects and the potential for more attacks in Europe. Listen.
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MICHAEL WEISS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I've talked to ISIS fighters, recent defectors from the ISIS organization and they have assured me that the war is being brought to Europe in a way that I think we have not seen in the past two years.
Paris was sort of a forte the spectacular success in the eyes of ISIS of that massacre has redoubled their efforts to try to emphasize foreign operations. I have been told that you know they have dispatched other sleeper agents into the heart of Europe.
According to CNN today, Paul Cruickshank and Tim Lister reported as many as a dozen other operatives who took part in both the Paris and the Brussels attacks, the so-called Francophone network are still at large. I've heard that even women are to be repurposed as suicide bombers and sent into Germany to wage attacks there. So yes, I think this is a very, very dangerous period for the continent. ZAIN ASHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Belgium has the largest number of ISIS
fighters per capita. How do authorities in Belgium begin to even root that out?
WEISS: I mean the problem is we've sort of gone so far or we've allowed the situation to become so dire that you know it is almost a Hercules effort now to rectify what has been done.
