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Airport Attack Likely Carried Out By ISIS; Witness Says Heard Screams; Bombers' Taxi Driver Questioned And Released; Airport In Istanbul Reopened Hours After Attack; Obama States We Stand With Turkish People; U.S. Assisting In Attack Investigation; No Claim Of Responsibility In Airport Attack; 41 People Dead And 128 Still In Hospital After Blast At Turkish Airport. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 29, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police (INAUDIBLE) soldiers everywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have never experienced such a panic. So many people from so many different nations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bloody rage just lying around on the floor. It was pretty horrific. No one had a clue which way to run. (INAUDIBLE.) It looked like someone had gone around with a -- with a bulldozer and just shredded the whole entrance to the terminal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I set (ph) down the plane, turned the corner and there was this wave of sort of screaming people towards me. I mean, like a sort of zombie apocalypse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, there, I'm Brianna Keilar in for Wolf Blitzer. Thank you so much for joining us.

A sense of calm has settled over Istanbul today with the main airport there open again just hours after a devastating terror attack. The incident captured on camera, and we want to warn you, the images are very disturbing. Some are calling this attack an act of defiance in the face of terror that claimed the lives of 41 people.

More than 230 more were injured after three attackers opened fire and then blew themselves up. Two inside the international arrivals terminal, the other outside in a parking lot. No one, at this point, has claimed responsibility but it is believed that this was either carried out by ISIS or at least inspired by the terror group. A bloody, disturbing scene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURENCE CAMERON: I just heard these screams. I turn around the corner and it's just this wall of people running towards me, you know, tripping over themselves, police with guns out. In the middle of it all, there was some old chap in a wheelchair just sort of -- I mean, just horrendous really.

I guess the worst thing was when the police were funneling us out of the -- of the airport. You know, clearly, there had been families that had been split up, tour groups that had been split up, friends that had been slip up. People were, you know, looking back towards the airport shouting names and the police are pushing them out and they are getting into arguments over wanting to go back in, and, you know, whether or not they had been killed or injured or just, you know, lost in the sort of chaos is anyone's guess.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Here, you can see, in this video, one of the attackers running through the terminal, then apparently shot by police or airport security. He loses his gun. That was what you saw on the floor that was sliding out there. Then, moments later, he detonated the explosive.

We have CNN Senior International Correspondent Nima Elbagir. She is live at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul. And we have White House Correspondent Michelle Kosinski with the president in Canada today.

And, Nima, today was declared a national day of mourning in Turkey. We know, at this point, 14 of the victims were foreign nationals. This included six from Saudi Arabia. What are Turkish officials saying now about the nationalities of the attackers?

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's still, as we understand it, very difficult to try and glean anything conclusive from the forensic evidence. A senior Turkish official tells us that, really, all that's left of the attackers is the lower parts of their bodies.

But early indications that these were foreign nationals and that really recalibrates the process here because the two big ISIS associated -- ISIS-linked attacks so far were carried out by Turkish citizens. And that was part of the home-grown terror network, similar to what we saw in Brussels and in Paris.

This is something a little difficult -- different. For years, Turkey has been suffering from the reality of being the entry point for foreign jihadis into Syria and Iraq. But it had been seen to have gotten a handle on it.

So, now, for authorities, this is a race against time, Brianna, to figure out who else is out there. And how can we move fast enough to stop this bigger network breaking up and leaving the country?

KEILAR: And what about this taxi driver that's being questioned, the one who brought the attackers to the airport?

ELBAGIR: So much of this attack echoes in the most chilling ways of what we saw in Brussels. And this -- the use of this taxi driver to scuff out the trail or any trail that authorities would be attempting to follow. It's very similar to what the Brussels attackers did, getting dropped off by a taxi driver that they had no connection with.

We understand authorities have interviewed the man. They have released him. And they're looking very deeply into all of the details that he has given them, again, to try and retrace the footsteps to try and make their way back to a safe house or safe houses potentially where this network could be seeking refuge now.

[13:05:02] KEILAR: Tell us, Nima, it's pretty interesting that the airport is back up and running. Was that surprising to you or not?

ELBAGIR: It's absolutely extraordinary. You can see, as we've been talking, people have been walking behind us, air crew, captains. This happened within five hours this morning of the attack. When we arrived, they were still hosing down some of the blood from the pavement, putting up barriers from the tarmac areas that had been ripped through by the detonation.

Very quickly, though, this seems like a normal busy day at any normal, busy airport. But, of course, the reality that's weighing heavily on all these passengers that are moving through some of the busiest airports in the world is, this just happened. These very doors are where people ran screaming out of yesterday evening. And it's a testament, I think, to how quickly this country's attempting to piece the pieces of their lives back together, that they are able to try and bring some sort of normality here.

KEILAR: And I want to bring in Michelle Kosinski now. You're traveling with President Obama and his top aides in Canada, Michelle. What are you hearing from them, as far as reaction?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we just heard from the president for the first time since the attacks. We know that he placed a call with the Turkish president this morning, offering condolences, offering U.S. assistance as needed.

But this is another time that we, again, see the specter of global terrorism hang over other work the president is trying to do. I mean, this meeting today is supposed to be about North American issues, primarily trade. But we see the president having to talk about ISIS.

And, again, even though there hasn't been a claim of responsibility here, we see the White House absolutely talking as if this was at least ISIS inspired or at least as if this is a primary possibility right now. Talking about the fight against ISIS. The fact that there have been gains. But there is still -- obviously, there's concern about ISIS' continued ability to launch attacks and the commitment remains to ultimately defeat it. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I had a chance to speak to President Erdogan earlier today to discuss with him not only how heartbroken we have been by the images of the injured and those killed, but also to reaffirm our strong commitment to partner with this -- with Turkey, with NATO, with the broad-based alliance that we have structured around the world to fight ISIL. And we stand with the people of Turkey and we intend to do what's necessary to make sure that these kinds of terrible events are not happening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KOSINSKI: Remember, it was only two weeks ago that the president of Turkey was calling President Obama to offer his condolences over the Orlando terror attacks. I think it's inevitable that the president is going to face questions about the fight against ISIS, the ability of ISIS to launch these kinds of attacks, any potential risk to the United States in the press conference. It's going to happen in about two hours.

But another issue, of course, is the relationship with Turkey. And the White House has faced repeated questions over the last year about Turkey's commitment to fighting ISIS, over how much are they doing to seal that border, which remains, for about 60 miles or so, still unsealed, according to the White House.

So, while today the White House wants to emphasize continuing to prioritize the work with Turkey against ISIS in that region, they acknowledge, yes, there is more work still to do -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Michelle Kosinski traveling with the president in Canada and Nima Elbagir in Istanbul for us. Thanks to both of you for your reports.

And I want to take a closer look now at this terror attack, what took place inside the airport, what we can learn from the video that we have seen. And here with me to talk about this now is Tom Fuentes, he is a CNN Law Enforcement Analyst, and former FBI assistant director; Kimberly Dozier, CNN Global Affairs Analyst and Contributing Writer for "The Daily Beast." And we have retired Admiral James Lloyd, a former deputy security of Homeland Security and former TSA administrator.

Tom, I want to start with you about some of the coordination of these attacks. We've seen the video of the blast. We've seen the video of the attacker running through a terminal then blowing himself up. I want you to take us through what you see in these -- in these videos.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, in this one, where you have the terrorist shot down and apparently wounded, the police officer must see that he's wearing the vest and figures he's going to explode it shortly. So he runs away and then we do see the bomber detonate the vest. So, you know, we do have that. The shame being that maybe if he could have killed him in the first place, he wouldn't have had a chance to detonate.

[13:10:04] I know some have said that he may have had a dead man's switch, which means if you kill him and he let's go, the bomb goes off. However, I would question that only because only how do you operate a semi-automatic rifle? How do you reload? How do you fire hundreds of shots if you can't let go of the button without blowing up? So, I think that's one argument that it might not have been a dead man's switch on that explosive device.

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, one thing I noticed is it seems like the terrorist on the ground seems to lift his arm up at the end before the explosion. I remember being shown bomb factory -- suicide bomb vest factories in Iraq where they show you the triggers. And some of the triggers had a ball in them so that if an arm was raised, that ball made a connection which would blow it up. This is speculation here but that's one of the traditional ways that the precursor to ISIS, Al Qaeda Barack, used to blow up suicide vests.

KEILAR: And I think it's pretty interesting, Admiral, we see this attacker inside of the terminal which, obviously, the expectation, I suppose, is that he may have shot his way through security. But this is supposed to be one of the most secure airports in the world. And it just shows there are limitations.

ADM. JAMES LLOYD, FORMER DEPUTY, SECURITY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: There are. I think the single most important lesson that, I think, TSA and the other folks thinking about security at large at the airport complex has learned from this is the combination of the delivery by the taxi cab. The external to the terminal effort and that, of course, provokes the requirement to think through, very carefully, if you are establishing a security checkpoint external to the terminal. That, in and of itself, becomes a choke point. That offers yet another soft target for the -- for the bad guys.

So, the challenge, I believe, is -- which is underway. The thinking has actually been underway for the last couple of years to ponder the notion of expanding the security envelope away from the terminal building itself to the access points of not only cabs and foot traffic and other vehicular traffic to the terminal building itself, but to the wider security concerns with respect to the people that are there, the vendors, all the players that populate the airport on a daily basis. When do we find our way towards background investigations to all of those players as part of the system as opposed to focusing just inside the terminal building?

KEILAR: You know, it's a really interesting point. I do wonder, Kimberly, is you've seen some of these videos. You are finding out more and more about these coordinated attacks. What does it tell you about the experience level of these attackers?

DOZIER: Well, the intelligence officers that I have been speaking to have said it could be either ISIS or Kurdish separatists. But -- because they both have the level of military training and experience to conduct this kind of attack. This -- these three attackers were very cool and collected. They weren't like some of the suicide bombers you see who've actually been drugged and tied into the car before attacking.

These guys were alert. They knew what they were doing. They used the element of surprise to get through that first layer. They hit at that time of the night when there weren't many people around it either. So, people weren't expecting this at this time either. And through that, they were able to go in three different directions and cause as much damage as possible. That's why some are calling it a commando style attack. But, you know, both the Kurdish separatists and ISIS use suicide bombers.

KEILAR: What do you think about the experience level, Tom?

FUENTES: No, I agree. And that's why it's difficult to say positively it's ISIS, it's Al Qaeda, it's Al Nusra, you know, some other group, because so many of them follow, kind of, this game plan of -- and, you know, as Kim mentioned, we saw suicide in Iraq in the early 2000s after our invasion. And they're probably not that much different wired. And some were triggered electronically. Some were dead man switched. Some were buttons to switch. So, there's a wide variety.

Hopefully, the authorities will get enough pieces of debris from the bomb -- the bomb components to look at who probably made it. Which school of bomb making is this likely to have been from? The way it was wired and the way it was detonated will tell them a lot about who might be behind this.

KEILAR: Tom, Kimberly, Admiral, thank you to all of you for being on this panel. I do appreciate it.

And coming up, Homeland Security is talking about changing how U.S. airports are protected along their perimeters. We've got details on that next. But before we go to our break, our own Nima Elbagir gives us a close-up look at where one of these bombs went off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELBAGIR: The first detonation was back there at the pick-up and drop- off point. The force of the blast ripped apart the tarmac. Authorities have now shielded that. They're barricading that from public view. But the blast traveled, you can see, all the way back here where it ripped open the glass walls of the arrival (INAUDIBLE), ripping the ceiling tiles out.

[13:15:05] And this is what was raining down on the heads of those terrified passengers attempting to flee for their lives.

[13:15:00] NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The glass walls of the arrivals hall, ripping the ceiling tiles out. And this is what was raining down on the heads of those terrified passengers attempting to flee for their lives. And on the ground around our feet are still shards of glass from that impact.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Well, Homeland Security official here in the U.S. are considering ways to extend security perimeters at the nation's airports, a U.S. official tells CNN, those discussions were underway even before the deadly attack in Istanbul. The airport there is considered one of the most secure in the world, but that wasn't enough to stop this terrorist attack that killed 41 people and injured more than 200 others.

CNN aviation correspondent Rene Marsh joining us now to talk about this.

First of all, what have you learned about these discussions?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION & GOVT. REGULATION CORRESPONDENT: So, Brianna, we know that the - according to this U.S. official, DHS has been having these conversations about potentially extending the security line beyond where it is. As it stands right now, the U.S. security checkpoint, TSA's checkpoint, we should say, is the first line of defense. So the idea would be to extend that possibly beyond that security checkpoint. Maybe it's the front door of the airport. Perhaps it's the airport. The department has not come up with the most effective way to go about this because, think about that, it would be a logistical nightmare. We're talking about - you need the manpower to do this, first of all. You need the money to do this. And then you have loads of passengers, possible missed flights. So how do you make this all work where you extend that security line without affecting the operations of the airport? So that's the problem.

[13:20:36] KEILAR: It really is a problem. You can see how that works.

The security at Ataturk Airport is quite different than I think what people traveling through American airports are used to.

MARSH: Well, here's the thing. That airport is what's called the last point of departure airport. So that means there are direct flights that fly to and from Istanbul to various cities within the United States. Because they do have these direct flights, they are under strict guidelines from the Department of Homeland Security as far as how they screen their passengers, how they screen cargo. If they don't meet those guidelines that are set out there by DHS, then possibly the Department of Homeland Security could prohibit those direct flights.

So they pay close attention to that. The federal government pays close attention to airports like that to make sure that they have the same sort of security that we have here, similar to TSA. But what happened at this airport was beyond that. This is the perimeter now. And most times that's in the hands of the airport or local police, not DHS.

KEILAR: All right, Rene, thank you so much for that report.

Up next, what was behind the airport attack? We'll look at all the factors, including Secretary of State John Kerry's assessment that ISIS is acting out of desperation. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:26:29] KEILAR: There's been no claim of responsibility in the deadly terror attack in Istanbul, but Turkish authorities say they believe it was an ISIS attack that killed at least 41 people, and they also believe the attackers came from outside of Turkey. Right now, there are more than 120 people in the hospital injured in the gunfire and suicide explosions carried out by three people. Two of the explosions were caught on camera. These are blasts that ripped through the ceilings and entrance windows of the airport, leaving people panicked and looking for a place to hide.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS KEMPER, WITNESS TO ISTANBUL AIRPORT ATTACK: It's a very scary and frightening and terrifying moment. So - so I was in the kitchen with somebody who - probably Chinese. We couldn't understand each other. We didn't have no - no language. But we were there hiding. And other people were trying to break the glass, trying to get out of the lounge and hiding in other places. And it went on for at least 30, 40 minutes until some staff came and calmed us down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Tuesday's attack on Istanbul's airport bears the hallmark of ISIS. That is according to several officials. Secretary of State John Kerry says the fact ISIS could be the culprit shows they are desperate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, SECRETARY OF STATE: Yes, you can bomb an airport. You can blow yourself up. That's the tragedy. Daesh and others like it know that we have to get it right 24-7, 365. They have to get it right for 10 minutes or one hour. So it's a very different scale. And if you're desperate and if you know you're losing and you know you want to give up your life, then, obviously, you can do some harm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Let's talk about this with our panel. I am joined by senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward, as well as Juliette Kayyem, CNN national security analyst and former assistant secretary for Homeland Security. She's also the author of the book, "Security Mom," and Bob Baer, he is a CNN intelligence and security analyst and a former CIA operative.

So, Clarissa, I want to start with you and what we heard Secretary Kerry say. He said ISIS is desperate. Is that your read?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's - there's' no doubt about it, ISIS has had a really tough year. First of all, you saw the U.S. led coalition really targeting its oil infrastructure. That is its primary source of revenue. Then you saw them through their Kurdish allies on the ground and some Arab allies on the ground in Syria. And then, of course, with the Iraqi Army in Iraq and the Kurdish forces essentially starting to nibble around the edges of the so-called caliphate, of this vast swath of territory across Syria and Iraq. So ISIS has lost a lot of money and a lot of territory. They've also been hit very hard in Libya, losing control of the key town of Sirte.

So it's fair to say that they're on the back foot. And in these situations, when they are on the back foot, how do they retaliate? Well, traditionally, ISIS retaliates by trying to launch spectacular attacks, by trying to project an image that they are still powerful, that they are still on the offensive. So absolutely that plays a part in it. But I think what we're seeing now is that ISIS is kind of moving the idea of the caliphate is moving from a physical land in Iraq and Syria, to a virtual caliphate, where they can wreak havoc and terror simply through their fans across the world, Brianna.

KEILAR: Certainly we're seeing that here in the U.S.

Juliette, I think people were startled by what happened at Ataturk Airport. You are familiar with aviation security. Because this is such a secure airport. When you see what happened there, is there anything else that could have been done to prevent or minimize this attack?

[13:30:09] JULIETTE KAYYEM, NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. Yes, because I always go by the philosophy, that if you lose 30 plus people in an attack like this,