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Former ISIS Commander Interviewed; Latest Information from Brussels Terror Suspect; Brazilian President Moves Closer to Impeachment; More Than 400 Activists Arrested at Capitol Protest; Suicide Bomber Strikes Yemeni Security Checkpoint; Boko Haram Victim Details Her Ordeal; Thai New Year Marked. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired April 12, 2016 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:00:00] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW HOST: Former ISIS commander speak to CNN in an exclusive interview. We hear why two men who were members of the Taliban joined ISIS and then defected.
ERROL BARNETT, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW HOST: Plus, new relations from a Brussels terror suspect that his cell wanted to attack one of the world's biggest sporting events.
CHURCH: And lawmakers in Brazil move one step closer to impeaching President Dilma Rousseff.
BARNETT: A big welcome to those of you watching from all around the world. We appreciate you being with us. I'm Errol Barnett.
CHURCH: And I'm Rosemary Church. Thank you for joining us. This is CNN Newsroom.
BARNETT: We begin with what's become a dreaded annual rite of spring in Afghanistan, one that's brought violence, bloodshed and thousands of death.
CHURCH: The Taliban have announced Tuesday marks the start of their annual spring offensive. They are vowing Jihad against what they call the American invasion.
Now, this comes just one day after the Taliban claimed responsibility for a deadly bus bombing which targeted Afghan army recruits.
BARNETT: Twelve people were killed and at least 26 wounded in Monday's suicide attack in Jalalabad.
CHURCH: Now even as the Taliban launch this new offensive, some Taliban fighters who joined ISIS have now defected from the terror group and they welcomed U.S. drone strikes.
They talked exclusively with our senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh. And Nick joins us now live from Kabul with more of all of this.
So, Nick, let's talk very quickly if we can, bring us up to date on this offensive and what new information we have on the Taliban offensive.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they named this 'Operation Omari' after their late leader Mullah Omar, the longtime leader of this insurgency here and it marks the beginning of what people refer to as the fighting season.
Now many are concerned about the reforms of Afghan forces that been reset by desertion, poor supply chain, poor command in the past year or so resulting in record casualties in the police and military.
But also, too, there's been a key distraction in the fight. It's more urgent some say against ISIS because despite a long challenge against the Taliban here, the fact that ISIS is trying to get a foothold in society, that was an urgent potential problem that could be met the size the already messy conflict here and there's something far more troubling for Afghans and for the West as well.
But to some degree fortunately, former Taliban who joined ISIS who they say are mostly from Pakistan are being so disgusted with the brutality of the group that they have in fact defected back to work with the government, and, in fact, welcome American drone strikes against their own villages that are targeting ISIS militants who now live there.
We spoke to two of them.
Looking for ISIS F.M. in Afghanistan's east ISIS' radio broadcast of hate was bombed off air recently by the U.S. But here it's been coming back in the past week.
"It was there three days ago and is gone again," says one man. "They were talking nonsense," says another. They're asking people to pledge allegiance and march on Kabul here. This is one broadcast they recorded earlier.
ISIS is trying to put down roots here but every day more Afghans want to tear them up. And that starts here with Arabistan and Zaitoun. Two months ago, we wouldn't have been sat like this. Then they were commanders in ISIS.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZAITOUN, FORMER ISIS COMMANDER (TRANSLATED): They just like beheadings, things they are good to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALSH: ISIS they say came from Pakistan that Iraq and promised guns and money to their struggling group of Taliban. Their agenda, black flags, killing, and looting which they did go along with at first.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARABISTAN, FORMER ISIS COMMANDER (TRANSLATED): They knew who are rich to take their money. The poor, they were armed to fight for them or kill them. (END VIDEO CLIP)
WALSH: They went sour fast and they both remember the moment when --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZAITOUN (TRANSLATED): I remember when they beheaded seven people in the bazaar, including government workers and Pakistani Taliban. I saw the long strip of wood they did it on covered in blood. They just threw the bodies away and buried. It was very anti-Islamic.
ARABISTAN (TRANSLATED): My worst memory was if we were killed fighting for them they wouldn't hand your wife and children to your relatives, but put them in a camp.
WALSH: ISIS recruit children here their own video show, another reason the two men worked for Afghan intelligence to set up our interview to get other locals to join an uprising program against ISIS.
[03:05:02] But they say they have lacked government protection and money and that's put potential defectors off. The fight is now just left to American drones they say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARABISTAN (TRANSLATED): Drones are doing a good job killing ISIS. They target them as soon as they leave their house.
ZAITOUN (TRANSLATED): The government hasn't made any progress in those areas, it's only the bombing that's effective.
WALSH: You were in the Taliban they knew you're ISIS and now the American drones are bombing your own village but you're pleased about it because it's killing ISIS. Is that's strange killing for you.
ARABISTAN (TRANSLATED): It makes us happy. We want them wiped out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALSH: They're killers themselves who know what they're talking about. Arabistan holds up his cloak, holes from an American helicopter attack not long ago when he was Taliban. ISIS has shattered ordinary lives, too. Across town in a luxury village built for rich people who never came, a hundreds of families who fled ISIS.
Afghanistan like many nations afflicted by just as basically has to battle an idea, a kind of virus that appeals to minds warped after decades of war. That those in the Taliban is radical enough, an idea that no matter how hard you battle or bomb it is very difficult to completely extinguish.
Many of their homes are still occupied and much damage is irreversible. They killed this man's brother and then shot him in the waist as he helped his family to escape. He's left unable to provide for them and ISIS still live in their home. ISIS savagery was first glimpsed in Afghanistan in this video where
they lined up opponents and then detonated a bomb below them. The man who speaks is survived by his nephew Rustam (ph).
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ARABISTAN (TRANSLATED): My brother called our father to tell him the death was on Facebook. We couldn't bury him as we didn't have a body. Its pieces are probably still lying where he was blown up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WALSH: Decades of trauma here yet somehow it gets worse.
CHURCH: Nick, it is a shocking and extraordinary report there. These two men defected from ISIS, did they go back to the Taliban? And is their message about ISIS resonating in any way with boys and men in that region?
WALSH: No, they joined what is known as the popular uprising program. That's a fledgling bid to harness local militia, yes, often form a Taliban often ISIS defectors to fight against ISIS. Using Afghans to push out what Afghans refer to as this foreign body for this ISIS. Remember most of them conceive them to be led by Pakistanis but getting on board a variety of this disenfranchised Taliban or other Afghan fighters, too.
That's the focus of this government program that you have to see in the faces of those men we talk to there, they have pretty long term sympathies of the Taliban. And they were insistent with us that wasn't where they go back to once ISIS are being defeated.
But this is all about the pragmatism of the war here. And there are some elements of I think optimism that when something as grotesque because ISIS comes in to Taliban held territory, where the Taliban reject it.
Partially they say out of ideological classes but too frankly because they are competitors for insurgence for recruits for the minds of the disenfranchised youth here who are angry, the government, but still it is bizarre and perplexing almost to see how they welcome American drone strikes on their own village against ISIS despite the fact that similar weapons have been targeting them just months earlier. Rosemary?
CHURCH: Yes. Amazing on so many levels. That being part of the Taliban they're shocked by the brutality of ISIS. Incredible report there. Thank you so much, Nick Paton Walsh reporting for us, live from Kabul. Many thanks.
BARNETT: Now some other stories we're following for you. Police in Europe are following up on an alarming claim from one of the Brussels terror suspects. Mohamed Abrini says his ISIS cell, the same one responsible for the most recent attacks in Belgium and in France, had plans to target the Euro 2016 tournament. CHURCH: That tournament is one of the world's largest sporting
events. It's set to take place in June and July in cities across France.
Now even before Mohamed Abrini's arrest, emergency officials in France have begun preparing for the worse at the Euro 2016 tournament.
BARNETT: CNN's Jim Bittermann shows how they've rehearsed for a terror attack.
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Just days before the terrorist attack in Brussels it looked like terrorists were on the attack in France, using chemical weapons. It looked like that because it was meant due. This was a practice run for first responders, security chiefs and government officials to give all a look at what might actually happen if such an attack did occur during the coming Euro 2016 football tournament.
With eight million supporters expected at stadiums and fans zones across the country, ensuring public safety is a major nightmare for the French government. The tournament is set to begin less than three months after the terrorist attacks in Brussels and seven months after the bloody events of November 13 in Paris.
[03:10:01] An assault that began with suicide bombings during a soccer match outside the same stadium with the opening and closing games of Euro 2016 will take place. The government is trying to sound as reassuring as possible.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MANUEL VALLS, FRENCH PRIME MINISTER (TRANSLATED): I hope that the tourists who haven't return since November 13th will return for this, to celebrate, to share a moment and to see games on big screens.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BITTERMANN: Government reassurances however have not been enough to convince everyone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We know some fanfares are selling their tickets on web sites because they are afraid.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BITTERMANN: Security officials promised 10,000 police and military will be on duty to keep everyone safe during the month-long Euro 2016 tournament, but the prime minister does not rule out the possibility that some matches might have to be played in empty stadiums if the threat level seems too high.
And security at the stadium is not as big a problem as in the fan zones where mainly private security companies are being hired at an estimated cost of 70 million euros to pat down and check the bags of those fans who want to gather to watch the games free on big screen TV.
Those fan zones will be set up like this, large open areas that authorities say could be difficult to secure. Still, French officials say they are going to do their utmost to protect against every possible threat insisting that the best response to terrorism is to carry on with the tournament as planned.
Still, defiance is one thing. Taking tough preventative measures is another. Something that will no doubt guarantee that the rehearsals and security gaming will continue right up until the moment the Euro 2016 games begin.
Jim Bittermann, CNN, Paris.
BARNETT: Now we're continuing to follow the developing story this hour of a fire in a four-storey building in Mumbai, India. We can show you the footage that we have into CNN.
Massive flames and smoke there. Officials say it began on the first floor which is used commercially and the second and third floors are residential.
At this stage we know that more than 50 people escaped by climbing on to a terrace. You see some of the footage there and now they are coming down. The good news so far is that no deaths have been reported. We'll keep you posted on developments as we get them.
CHURCH: Peru's tax agency is investigating possible connections to the Panama papers. Authorities raided the home of Mossack Fonseca's representative in Lima Monday. The Panama based law firm is under fire for setting up thousands of off shore companies for its clients which may have been used to dodge taxes.
BARNETT: Brazil's embattled president is one step closer now to impeachment. Dilma Rousseff is accused of hiding a budget short fall while she was running for re-election back in 2013.
CHURCH: Well, now a congressional committee is recommending she be tried.
CNN's Shasta Darlington has more on the spirited debate.
SHASTA DARLINGTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: After eight hours of heated debate, a committee in Brazil's lower House of Congress has voted 38 to 27 in favor of impeaching Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff for allegedly breaking budgetary laws.
Now the vote came at the end of this heated, very rowdy session with some lawmakers shouting impeachment now, others denouncing the whole procedure as a coup d'etat. And while the recommendation isn't binding, it is seen as a test of which way lawmakers are going to lean when the major vote comes on Sunday.
That's when the full lower House of Congress is going to vote on whether to -- on whether or not to launch this impeachment trial. The opposition needs a full two thirds of votes for this to go forward for it to continue onto the Senate. If they fail that, it's shelved.
Political tensions are running high on both sides. In fact, police have erected this one kilometer long fence on the lawn in front of Congress to try and separate the protesters who are in favor of the government and those who are against it to try and prevent clashes.
Basically because you have many people against the government who blame President Dilma Rousseff for this prolonged recession, for a massive corruption scandal that has engulfed many politicians and her worker's party, although it has not implicated the president herself.
