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Istanbul Terror Attack; Interview with Senator John Barrasso. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired June 29, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[09:00:16] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just recognized the gunshots and then heard this huge explosion and I knew immediately it was a bomb.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just pure panic. People falling over themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The first was pretty awful. Their families in other parts of the world, it's quite a terrifying experience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'd like to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

A sophisticated and coordinated terror attack strikes one of the most secure airports in the world. Forty-one people are now dead after three terrorists, wielding AK-47, set off suicide vests in the Istanbul -- in the Istanbul airport. A senior Turkish official says authorities are still working to I.D. these attackers and that there is a strong possibility they were foreign.

While there is still no claim of responsibility, many experts say it has all the hallmarks of an ISIS style attack. Here's how it went down. The attack took place in three phases. One terrorist hitting the parking lot while two others struck inside at the international arrivals hall.

I want to warn you, the imagines you're about to see are disturbing. The video shows one of the attackers, and you will see him here, running through the terminal. At one point, he's shot by police fire and he falls down. An officer then runs toward him and takes another shot, at close range, before running for his own life. And then seconds later, the attacker's suicide vest explodes. All of this as Turkey unleashes a new wave of strike against ISIS in northern Syria.

We're covering all of this with our team of CNN reporters and experts but let's begin with senior -- CNN senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir. She is at the Istanbul airport.

Hi, Nima. NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol.

Well, Istanbul, Turkey, as a whole, has spent months reeling from terror attacks, so sadly this has come very much the new normal. And you see behind me, if I step out of shot, just quickly the Turkish authorities now work to try and bring normality back to these places that have been hit by terror. Outrageous. They are putting in panels where the glass was blown out. The ceiling -- where the ceiling tiles were ripped by the sheer force of the explosion. Those tiles painstakingly one by one.

This is part of a broader attempt to make not only the citizens of Turkey, but the millions of passengers that come through here every single day feel like there's some constant here, that there is some sense of control, but, of course, the reality is, that where we are standing here now is at the entrance to the arrival hall, and this is exactly where it all happened yesterday evening. Take a look at this, Carol.

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ELBAGIR (voice-over): A horrifying scene of carnage and destruction at Turkey's busiest airport. Three suicide attackers carrying out a deadly siege on Tuesday night. The coordinated attack captured by airport surveillance cameras.

SUS SAVAGE, WITNESSED AFTERMATH OF EXPLOSION: I just recognize the gunshots and then heard this huge explosion and I knew immediately it was a bomb and I just bolted as fast as I can.

ELBAGIR: Two of the terrorists opening fire at the international terminal before blowing themselves up.

This amateur video shows just some of the injured laying outside on the ground before the first explosion. That sound from the first blast by the arrival hall on the first floor. Travelers seemingly unaware of the attack that is about to unfold.

Another surveillance video captures the chaos inside as one of the attacker runs into the airport. Then he's apparently shot by a police officer. His gun sliding across the floor. Seconds later, another massive explosion. Rooftops falling, panes of shattered glass along the floor and bullets perforating the windows and walls.

THOMAS KEMPER, WITNESSED AIRPORT TERROR ATTACK: You don't think it's real, but then people started running and running and running. So we clashed and then fell over each other. It was total chaos.

ELBAGIR: The third attacker detonating a third explosion at the parking lot at Ataturk Airport. Istanbul's airport is known for its heavily fortified security inside and outside the terminals.

[09:05:01] Turkey's prime minister says the attackers arrived at the airport by taxi. He says all indications point to ISIS bearing chilling similarities to the deadly bombings in March at Brussels airport and subway system.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Nima Elbagir, reporting for us this morning.

While U.S. officials say signs point to ISIS, authorities are still trying to pin down the identities of those attackers.

This all comes as Turkey, a NATO member and a U.S. ally, carries out a new wave of airstrikes against ISIS in northern Syria, and as Russia calls for a joint fight against terror.

Let's get right to CNN senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward. Good Morning.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Well, that's right. The U.S. officials here and also Turkish officials all saying the same thing, essentially that this does bear -- have all the hallmarks of an ISIS attack.

Turkey is no stranger to terrorism, Carol. There have been at least eight attacks this year alone. Most of them carried out either by Kurdish separatist group or by ISIS. Now what's interesting is that ISIS doesn't claim responsibility for its attacks in Turkey, unlike in the West where it's quick to trump it online that it has carried out an attack.

In Turkey, traditionally they have not claimed responsibility. They thrive on the atmosphere of chaos and uncertainty and instability, that leaving the perpetrator ambiguous does for them. So how do we know? What are the hallmarks?

Let's talk about some of them. Well, first of all, the way the attackers launched this siege on the Istanbul airport, the fact that they were wearing explosive vests, but also carrying AK-47s, fitting the profile of the ISIS Inhamazi (PH), the suicide warrior, designed not to just to blow themselves up in a crowded area but to go in guns blazing, kill as many people as possible first, and then blow yourself up. That intended obviously to create the maximum number of casualties.

We are also now in the last 10 days of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. These are considered the holiest of the 10 days as the period where Muslims believe that the Prophet Muhammad received the message of the Quran. So it's an incredibly holy time and we did hear ISIS spokesman several weeks ago, Abu Muhammad al-Adnani, calling on ISIS supporters to carry out these types of attacks.

What we don't know at this stage is whether it was ISIS directed or simply ISIS inspired. But certainly the fact that it was a coordinated attack indicates that this took some deal of planning and sophistication, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Clarissa Ward, reporting live from Washington. Thank you.

The United States has denounced Tuesday's terror attack. The White House releasing a statement reading, in part, quote, "The United States condemns in the strongest possible terms the heinous terrorist attack at Istanbul's international airport. We remain steadfast in our support for Turkey, our NATO ally and partner, as we continue to confront the threat of terrorism."

President Obama now on his way to Ottawa, in Canada, this morning for an economic summit with his Canadian and Mexican counterparts. The president could make comments about the Istanbul attack during a news conference later today. Of course, we'll keep you posted.

Joining me now to talk about this, Republican Senator John Barrasso. He's a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

Welcome, sir.

SEN. JOHN BARRASSO (R), WYOMING: Thanks, Carol. Thanks for having me.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. Have you been briefed on this attack?

BARRASSO: We're having a briefing today on the attack. We had a briefing yesterday on any progress to be made against ISIS. But let's face this. This is a horrific attack in a strong of horrific attacks at home and abroad, so there is clearly fear, clearly anxiety, and as a U.S. senator, my focus is on protecting the homeland. There are two parts to that. One is to make certain that our military, our intelligent forces, law enforcement have all the tools they need. And then number two is taking the fight to ISIS themselves where they are in their safe haven.

They are a resilient enemy. They are an enemy that is formidable. And what we need to do is destroy them. They will not self-destruct.

COSTELLO: "The Daily Beast" notes the special forces style sophistication of this airport attack. Do you notice a new level of sophistication in how terrorists carried out this attack in Istanbul?

BARRASSO: Well, you see that, and the reason I believe it's there is because ISIS still has a safe haven in which to train, in which to inspire. Their message is twofold. It says come here to this safe haven and join the fight. But if you can't come here, then stay where you are and kill where you are. And that's why there is so much concern about the fact that ISIS has a safe haven, but ISIS, like a cancer, has also spread to multiple places around the world. So we have to destroy the safe haven. We also have to get to the metastasis.

[09:10:01] COSTELLO: OK. You said we should take the fight to ISIS. How do we take the fight to ISIS?

BARRASSO: Well, I think that we've had now two years since ISIS has found a vacuum in which to operate. The president to my mind has still not come up with a strategy to deal with ISIS, to go after them. He has said that ISIS is on the defense. But his CIA director, who came to the Capitol Hill last week, said that ISIS continues to inspire and direct attacks. That they have people around the world to do that. You see some of it directly under the control of ISIS. You see other people who are self-radicalizing.

And every time ISIS can claim any kind of victory, that's something that instills in the level of excitement in their followers worldwide to say, yes, this is the winning team. I want to get involved. That's why we have to take the fight to them where they are in Syria as well as in Iraq.

COSTELLO: But how do we -- how do we do that? We helped Turkey do airstrikes over Syria, for example, just today. So when you say taking the fight to ISIS, do you mean more U.S. troops? What do you mean by that?

BARRASSO: Well, ISIS has a number of things going for them. They have a source of funding through oil reserves. I think we've been slow to go after their source of funding. They have an incredible ability through communications to attract young people to their cause. And any time young people who might be inspired in that way see what they would view as a success, they're more likely to be inspired. So we have to do that.

But at home, the FBI director who briefed us last week said there are efforts and there are observations going on in all 50 states of people who are in the process of self-radicalizing. So we need to be able to address it from the standpoint at home in terms of our own intelligence gathering abilities.

COSTELLO: Do you think it's time that lawmakers pass a bill authorizing the use of U.S. military force against ISIS so that senators like yourself could have a say in how exactly we take the fight to ISIS?

BARRASSO: Well, the president has the authority that he needs. My concern is if the Senate passes something, it would be to limit the president's ability. I think the president has full authority to do it, but we've been asking him for several years to say what is your strategy. What is the strategy to defeat ISIS?

If you look at the history of why they showed up in the first place, it has to do with a vacuum that was created when all of our troops were pulled out and there was no stay behind force to provide stability. And the evil people went into the area of the vacuum, which is giving them this safe haven of which they're operating, and which even the president's CIA director has said this has allowed them --

COSTELLO: No, I --

BARRASSO: To train and increase the intensity.

COSTELLO: I understand -- I understand where you're coming from, Senator. I'm just wondering why the U.S. Congress doesn't want to get more involved in this bypassing a bill authorizing the use of U.S. military force against ISIS because wouldn't that give lawmakers more say in what the president does?

BARRASSO: Well, the president is the commander-in-chief, and the president will tell you, he has all the authority that he needs. And he says that the -- that ISIS is on the defense, but I believe that they are not. These are not the JV team. I think you need to describe who they are. They're radical Islamists. The president will not use that term. But I think that's the facts on the ground.

I think the president needs to be realistic about the way it really is, rather than the way he wishes it were. So I think that the CIA director when he came to the Hill really laid out the facts. But it's up to the preside now to come up with a strategy to defeat ISIS on the ground and deny them the safe haven from which they continue to operate.

COSTELLO: All right, Senator John Barrasso, thank you for joining me this morning. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM --

BARRASSO: Thank you.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, security was tight, but their plan was sophisticated. Three terrorists pull off the unimaginable in Turkey. Could it happen here?

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[09:18:19] COSTELLO: Three terrorists, three bombs, one mission. The carnage in Istanbul's airport exposing these killers. They had a sophisticated plan. The first, creating a distraction in a nearby parking lot, drawing security away from the terminal. That move allowing the accomplices closer access to the airport. One of them detonating just outside the terminal at a busy security checkpoint. That blast giving the third killer a clear path inside the airport.

With me now to talk about this is Arash Ari Aramesh, a national security and foreign policy analyst, and Robert Baer, a CNN intelligence analyst and a security analyst.

Welcome to both of you. Welcome. Can you hear me? I want to make sure.

ROBERT BAER, CNN INTELLIGENCE AND SECURITY ANALYST: I got you, Carol.

ARASH ARAMESH, NATIONAL SECURITY AND FOREIGN POLICY ANALYST: Good to be here.

COSTELLO: OK. Got you. I want to show our viewers some disturbing video first off because it's video that we don't get to see that often and that's probably a good thing. But this is a security footage of one of the suicide bombers blowing himself up. You can see him fall to the ground. He fell to the ground after being shot by a security guard. He is writhing in pain and then eventually he just -- he blows himself up.

As many times as I see things like this, Bob, I still can't fathom how someone could have the psychology to do this to themselves.

BAER: Well, Carol, it's ideology. It's very simple fundamentalism, submission and sacrifice. You accept orders without thinking. Sacrifice means martyrdom, it's the term they use. And also these people have probably been on the front scene. A lot of violence over the last year. They are prepared to do this. And as well the technology is such that they probably had a dead man's switch, so that the moment he released his hand or his arm move, the bomb went off.

[09:20:05] And yes, it was well-planned. This is a commando-style attack. Speed, surprise, maximum violence at the point of contact. In their terms, they did everything right.

COSTELLO: So, Arash, the Turkish airport is so heavily fortified. They're known for security there. Is there any way then to stop the suicide bomber?

ARAMESH: It's very difficult to stop suicide bombers even at a place like the Ataturk International Airport. Unlike many airports here in the West, Ataturk has an extra layer of security. When you go inside the international airport, before you even go to the check-in counter, you have to go through one layer of security to get your bags screened and to go through a metal detector.

But again even at that point, there is a big congregation of people and people gather and, you know, and line up to go through security. And that creates a good, soft target for terrorists to hit. So, you know, again, we're talking about major international airports, they are targets of ISIS or other organizations. And the reason is you can't really have hundreds of checkpoints and sort of shut down traffic to all incoming and outgoing traffic for the sake of security because then you will no lo longer have a free and open airport.

So no matter how hard you try, and we should try harder. But no matter how hard you try, there are going to be places at airports that are going to be soft targets and unprotected. And that's a challenge that we have to deal with.

COSTELLO: Bob, Turkey has conducted airstrikes in Syria. Apparently with U.S. help. The Turkish president talked with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. They don't exactly -- they're not exactly on good terms but they did talk. Is this the tipping point for Turkey to do more in the fight against terror?

BAER: I think, I mean, I think they understand the problem they have now. At the beginning of this, they were almost supportive of the Islamic State because it was fighting Bashar al-Assad. Their main enemy. But now obviously they've seen the result of this, the blowback. The problem is, we've been bombing these people for the last three years. It's just not doing any good. It's not doing good in Yemen. This ideology will live on, even after the fall of Fallujah.

Their people are more committed than ever and you're seeing these attacks are spreading to other countries, Jordan, Lebanon, Yemen. Just this last week. So this is not the end of it. And nor is it of the ideology. I have maintained that they could lose the capital of the caliphate Raqqa today and it would make very little difference.

COSTELLO: My goodness. So, Arash, I want you to take a look at the tabloids here in New York City. On the front cover of both tabloids is a man trying to save a child. It's a very dramatic -- it's just a heartbreaking picture. The "Daily News" calls ISIS baby killers and that is certainly true. ISIS is holding 3500 people as slaves, hundreds of thousands of Muslims have died at the hands of ISIS.

What will it take for Middle Eastern countries to put aside their religious differences, their factional differences, and fight this evil together?

ARAMESH: It's going to take a miracle. And I don't think it's going to happen any time soon. It's not just sectarian and religious differences. We're talking about real political differences and differences of security and national interests. The ongoing proxy war between Iran and Saudi Arabia in the region has fueled much of this conflict. What is going on in Turkey and other countries around the region is a direct and an indirect impact or effect or consequence of the Iraq war and the Syrian civil war.

Look at what's happening in Turkey today. Istanbul airport has been and still is but used to be the major hub of transport for foreign jihadists coming to Turkey to go through Turkey to go to fight in Syria. For years and years the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and former Prime Minister Davutoglu didn't really do much about it to crack down. And as, you know, Bob just said, they were very much in favor of bringing in these foreign jihadists to fight against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, who has committed without a doubt genocide against his own people.

But this free-flow of jihadists coming from Europe, from Central Asia, from other parts of the world to go through Turkey and to go to Syria has definitely opened this sort of transportation gate to many foreign jihadists, A, and B, I don't really see this ongoing conflict to come to an end any time soon, but I do think that these actions taken by ISIS are acts of desperation at this point. Now that they've lost Fallujah, their symbolic heartland in Iraq, now that they're under attack in the Dara'a Province, in Syria, in Raqqa, their, you know, Islamic -- their caliphate capital in Syria.

Now that they're under attack around both Iraq and Syria, I think they're trying to take out these sort of symbolic yet spectacular attacks to get more attention, to inspire more recruits and to try to get more followers.

[09:25:03] But again these are acts of desperation. And we do need to put a little more pressure, increase the pressure on ISIS with -- you know, we just saw what U.S. cooperation in the air with Iraqi forces on the ground has produced. Fallujah is now under Iraqi control. And again, I'm not saying that Iraqi forces who have taken Fallujah out of ISIS' hands are all Jeffersonian, you know, Republicans. No, far from it. They are sectarian forces, they are Shia militias fighting there. But again, we saw U.S. cooperation helping the Iraqis on the ground.

And also, U.S. cooperation in helping some of the Kurds in Syria fighting can produce great results. We don't necessarily have to commit thousands of boots on the ground. We do and we can be much more effective and we have been I think in the past few months.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Arash Ari Aramesh, Robert Baer, thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, terror abroad and the political impact here at home. Two candidates, two very different responses to the Istanbul attack.

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