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Girl Killed in West Bank; Istanbul Attack Investigation. Aired 3-30p ET

Aired June 30, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:04]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And just to warn you, as we play it for you, it is extremely graphic to watch.

But it tells the story of a piece of what happened two nights ago. You can see a man, reportedly an undercover officer. He apparently asks one of the suicide bombers to show him his I.D. And then the man turns and shoots this officer.

We are told from a senior Turkish government source that these three attackers traveled here to Turkey from Raqqa in Syria, the de facto capital of ISIS, about a month ago, bringing along with them the suicide vests and the bombs used in this attack. So, again the vests, the explosive devices coming from outside of Turkey in.

And it is here in Istanbul where these three would-be attackers rented an apartment, one of them leaving his passport behind. And that led investigators to another piece of the puzzle, the attackers' nationalities.

For more on what we are learning today about these bombers and where they were holed up here in Istanbul, let me bring in Ivan Watson, a CNN senior international correspondent who has lived in Istanbul for 12 years.

So you share also a unique perspective on all of this. But, first, on these three, so for the last month, they were living not too far from this airport.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, in a neighborhood called Fatih. It's working-class neighborhood as the crow flies just a few miles from where we are.

Now, we are getting more information about the area where they lived. Our Nima Elbagir, she was investigating around that place, saw the apartment that the police went in to, interviewed the real estate agency that rented the apartment out. They have confirmed that they knew the identities of the three men and that they have since been questioned by police about this, neighbors around there, a woman who said that she smelled chemical smells from that area a couple of days ago and neighbors were asking whether it was a gas leak.

That's a fear here. Sometimes, gas leaks blow up. And separate from that, a 75-year-old man who has kind of a garage around there said that he saw a man smoking by the window of that apartment and often the curtains were closed to that apartment.

So, some more snippets of information from the apartment where a Turkish government officials says the three suspected bombers were living before the terrible attack here.

BALDWIN: You may not be able to answer this. My immediate question would be, did anyone call authorities, A, and, B, what about anyone else, potential co-conspirators who would also be in that apartment area? Do we know?

WATSON: Well, we certainly know that the Turkish police have been carrying out raids here today, not only here in Istanbul, detaining about 13 people, but also in another port city called Izmir. So, they are fanning out. They're looking for any possible people.

Now, you have got to assume that if these people smuggled their way across Syria, across the long border there a month ago, that they must have had accomplices here to help them with money, with financing to rent a place and to carry out the attack. And judging by that video we saw, they knew the layout of this airport.

BALDWIN: Yes, yes, highly technical, highly sophisticated.

WATSON: So well. They knew exactly where they were going. And you saw just the nonchalance that that attacker used to shoot the undercover police officer.

He didn't even think twice.

BALDWIN: Didn't pause. Didn't pause.

I was talking to someone last hour who said he has killed before. That was his question.

Final question, just quickly. I'm reminded, as we're talking about this horrendous event that happened two nights ago, we're surrounded by taxis and traffic. New glass panels within just the last day. Can you talk to me about just the Turkish way of life and how they have responded to this attack?

WATSON: Well, clearly, the Turks are trying to show two messages, one, that this major gateway to the commercial capital of the city will not be shut down by a triple suicide bombing.

So within hours of the attacks, the airport was up and running again. And that's a message to ISIS itself, who has lived as neighbors of Turkey, along that border of Syria, areas that they control, previously not seemed to have directly attacked the Turkish government and the people of Turkey, though they have carried out numerous bombings here targeting foreign tourists, targeting ethnic Kurds and leftists.

Now they have declared war on the broader Turkish state and the Turkish people as a whole. And it is a major psychological turning point for Turkey. BALDWIN: Yes. Yes. Ivan Watson, thank you very for that and

fascinating news from Nima Elbagir and crew. We will have more on that.

Also, we are also now learning that one of the suicide bombers from Russia, he was the one that left the passport behind in the part of Istanbul that Ivan was just talking about not far from here. He came from the Black Sea area of Dagestan. We knew these two others came from Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan.

A senior Turkish government source telling CNN specifically where they believe those three bombers are from. And, as I mentioned, the one attacker from Russia apparently left his passport behind in his apartment that these three men apparently rented here in Istanbul.

Now, Kyrgyzstan's Foreign Ministry says it has not -- quote, unquote -- "confirmed" that one of the attackers was from that country. Russia's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman says -- quote -- "The person named by Turkish sources as an organizer of the terrorist act is known by the Turkish side very well. As we understand, they can share with the media all the details about him."

[15:05:17]

So, you have that tonight.

Let me bring in senior international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson in Brussels with more, with more on the angle of this attacker from Dagestan in Russia.

I hear Dagestan, and I immediately, Nic, think of the Boston bombers.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the older brother, the one who was killed in the shoot-out there, or killed being run over by his brother essentially, the elder of the two Boston bombers, he had gone there 2012.

He spent about six months left. Look, Dagestan in the Caucasus, neighboring to Chechnya, there's been a growing, if you will, Islamist revolt against the Russian government there. Just last year, they pledged allegiance to ISIS. Also, the Uzbeks, the Islamic movement in Uzbekistan around about the same time a couple of months later, they pledged allegiance to ISIS.

Kyrgyzstan, just a couple of months ago now, the authorities there cracked down and arrested a man who was claiming to sort of support ISIS and calling for people from Kyrgyzstan to support ISIS and go and fight in Syria.

But to the point about Dagestan, this is a place that the Russian government regularly runs into gun battles, attacks on checkpoints by small Islamist groups who are hiding out in the forests and the woods around there. They have been chased out of the towns. But the Russian authorities face a growing problem with them there.

They have been recruiting heavily from there to send people to Syria and Iraq. And, indeed, there's been a leader of a whole battalion of so-called sort of Chechen fighters, fighters from this Caucasus region of Russia. Shishani, Abu Omar al Shishani was killed just a couple of months ago in Syria.

But they have a real pull because of this leader. They have a real pull because this is the place that they have pledged allegiance to ISIS and they have a real pull because this for them is a growing campaign, this Islam -- radical Islamist terrorism in the Caucasus area, Dagestan and Russia. That's growing, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Nic Robertson, thank you. You hit on all the important points.

I want to bring this conversation into more of a fuller circle here. I have Jill Dougherty standing by, a researcher at the International Center for Defense and Security, used to serve as CNN's Moscow bureau chief.

Also with me, Hugh Naylor.

Hugh, nice to meet you. Thank you so much for being with me.

HUGH NAYLOR, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Hi.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: "Washington Post" correspondent based in Lebanon in Beirut.

So, Jill, first to you, since I know all things Russia is truly your wheelhouse. When you hear Russia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, significance?

JILL DOUGHERTY, FORMER CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, significance, obviously that, in Central Asia, which used to be part of the Soviet Union, as Nic mentioned, you have a lot of groups, some that started way back in the '90s after the Soviet Union broke up.

Most of them in the beginning, terrorist organizations, were focused on the individual governments there, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and, of course, in Russia itself with Dagestan and Chechnya.

And then they kind of morphed. And right now some of them have split off and they're looking for their -- the big guy on the clock, which is ISIS. So that is why some of them ally themselves. And they actually, according to the FSB, which is a former KGB -- it is like our FBI -- they say that there are about 3,000 fighters from Russia alone who have gone to the Middle East and to Syria.

And I was just checking some numbers on the Kyrgyz. There are about an estimated 500 who have gone from Kyrgyzstan. So, you have a large contingent now of these radicalized Islamists coming from Central Asia and in Syria.

And, of course, Brooke, when I think Russia, Syria, terrorism, et cetera, you have to think of Turkey, which is, of course, where this took place, the attack, because Russia and Turkey have had a very bad relationship because of the shoot-down last year of the Russian fighter. And now they're trying to mend bridges. So it is a very complicated situation, and it has to do obviously with Syria ultimately.

BALDWIN: We know, though, significant, we have talking about the beginning of a thaw perhaps between Erdogan and Putin, the conversation started just a couple of days ago.

We also know about the deal between Israel and Turkey here. But that doesn't necessarily mean that's why. This clearly, as we have been talking to experts, was months in the making, eighth suicide attack here in Turkey in the last year. The question keeps being asked, well, why don't -- why doesn't ISIS take responsibility? I really don't know if there is a great answer.

[15:10:05]

NAYLOR: I think it is a tactic of intimidation.

BALDWIN: Who are they trying to intimidate?

NAYLOR: The Turkish government, the Turkish people, tourists.

This place is a hub not only for tourism in the Middle East, but it was a hub, a transit for the Islamic State itself. Turkey was used to transit weapons, fighters, food, you name it, even uniforms to the Islamic State.

BALDWIN: Yes.

But Turkey's cracked down on the border significantly. It is fighting a shadow war with the Islamic State. Behind the scenes, its intelligence operatives are going after Islamic State operatives in the south. There is a full-blown actual war on the border, where Turkey's actually backing rebels in Syria that are fighting the Islamic State.

And Turkey's also backing the U.S.-led coalition that's launching airstrikes at the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. So, I think ISIS is trying to send a message here and they have.

BALDWIN: But isn't that fairly recent? Incirlik Air Base, opened just in the last year, right, I'm sure that has frustrated ISIS.

You also have more of the sealing off of the border. The question to me is, so what does Turkey do about it, right, as far as the war in Syria and Iraq?

NAYLOR: It is a tough one. Turkey's sort of in a corner right now.

BALDWIN: Literally, geographically, literally.

(CROSSTALK)

NAYLOR: Yes, right, well, and also sort of metaphorically speaking, they are. BALDWIN: Yes.

NAYLOR: Before the Arab spring, they were an ascendant power. They sort of called the shots in the region.

But everything that Turkey sort of banked on, especially in the Syrian civil war, has sort of gone awry. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, he is not going anywhere. ISIS basically turned on Turkey. They have sort of had the modus vivendi, or whatever you want to call it, before.

And Russia and Turkey, although there's this rapprochement, they're still at odds. Russia's calling the shots in Turkey -- in Syria.

BALDWIN: Yes.

NAYLOR: And so Turkey doesn't really have that many options right now except to strike back hard at these sort of underground networks that are operating within the country itself and hope that nothing like this happens again.

BALDWIN: Jill, what do you think?

DOUGHERTY: Well, I think it's going to be very complicated right now, because, remember, Turkey has been accused, rightly or wrongly, of trying to help ISIS because they think of the Kurds as more of a threat than ISIS.

And then you have the United States supporting the Kurds to fight Assad. So this is a multifaceted game. And -- but I do think fact that ISIS is now using people from the former Soviet Union is bad news both for Russia, for Turkey and for the region.

And, you know, President Putin just opened up -- today, in fact, he announced that travel ban on Russians vacationing in Turkey is going to be ending, so you're going to have more people going to Turkey and these are civilians. Civilians are soft targets. It's a very dangerous situation.

BALDWIN: Jill Dougherty, thank you. Hugh Naylor, thank you for being with me here in Istanbul.

Coming up next, a source telling CNN the airport bombers likely came from inside Syria, specifically the ISIS stronghold in Raqqa. We will show you what the life is like there under the brutal regime.

Also ahead, U.S. airstrikes hundreds of ISIS vehicles carrying fighters within Iraq. What is next? Could this be the catalyst to change the strategy against the terror group?

And moments from now, as he faces backlash from President Obama and, by the way, his own party, Donald Trump holding a town hall. Stand by for that. We have got you covered on this Thursday.

You're watching CNN's special live coverage.

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[15:18:05]

BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN here. We are live in Istanbul, where we have heard today from a senior Turkish government source telling CNN that officials investigating this deadly -- the blasts here at the Istanbul Airport now say they have strong evidence to believe the attackers made their way to Turkey from Raqqa in neighboring Syria.

You know the story of Raqqa. Raqqa's the ISIS stronghold. It's truly become the terror group's de facto capital.

Reporter Kassem Hamade with CNN's Swedish affiliate Expressen TV actually made it inside of Raqqa a few months ago with hidden cameras to show what life is like for those who are stuck there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KASSEM HAMADE, EXPRESSEN TV REPORTER (voice-over): Al Raqqa fell in 2014 towards the end of summer. Since then, the city has been governed by medieval methods.

The worst affected are the women. They're not allowed out on their own. They must be accompanied by another woman or male guardian. They're not allowed to work, go to school, or go to university. They have been stripped of all rights.

In the taxi, an anthem is playing on the radio. It praises the highest leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It would mean big problems if you picked up a woman on her own. The driver is punished with 30 lashes.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Thirty lashes?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: What do you think?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: That's if you pick up a woman on her own.

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: If you would give a lone woman a lift?

UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Well, they would stop the car and punish you with 30 lashes. The woman will be punished as well.

HAMADE: Qum Omran (ph) and Qum Mohammad lived in Raqqa when ISIS stormed the city. Since then, they've lived under the oppression of the terrorist group. They've witnessed murder and torture --

QUM MOHAMMAD, RAQQA (through translator): I was shocked. It was the first time ever I saw anything like that. I went over there, being curious is human, really. I tried to watch, I could see there was a man sitting on the ground. It was a young man. He was a soldier. He sat there and they'd placed knives beside him. The executioners

were lined up. They were dressed in black. There were four or five executioners. Each and everyone fired at him with four or five shots. He died, they eventually beheaded him. I tried to look, but I couldn't do it.

[15:20:44]

HAMADE: Qum Omran and Qum Mohammad have dreamt of fleeing for a long time, but they had to stay to save a pregnant friend from certain death. Extramarital relations are punishable by stoning.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: That is a look inside of Raqqa in Syria.

Let's begin there with CNN national security commentator and former Michigan Congressman Mike Rogers. The congressman is also the host of CNN's new original series, "DECLASSIFIED: THE UNTOLD STORIES OF AMERICAN SPIES."

Congressman, nice to talk to you, sir.

Let's begin with one of the biggest pieces of news here out of Turkey, the fact that from a senior Turkish official we are hearing that these three bombers came within the last month from Raqqa to strike this airport. What do you make of that significance?

MIKE ROGERS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it's fairly significant for two reasons.

So they didn't just show up and stay somewhere. That was pre- coordinated. They clearly had done surveillance, even themselves, of the facility. So, some -- they had some help there.

So, there's probably an extended cell or network that's helping with the logistics to bring people from Raqqa, Syria, into Turkey for an operation just like this. This one happened to be executed at the airport.

There could be logistics cells, finance cells, recruiting cells. All of them would appear to be involved and engaged in an operation of this size, if in fact that they were there for 30 days.

BALDWIN: Congressman, let's just bring this home to the U.S.

For people who have never been to this Istanbul Airport, just driving in, you pass by almost like you would see guard towers at a prison. Right? So, there are these watch towers. You pass five in a row. You get here. You have to go through a metal detector and security just to get inside that original glass door to then walk to check in to your plane, so unlike what we experience in America.

I mean, what do you make of any potential changes in the U.S. at airports there as far as security? Is it even possible to secure the periphery of all of our airports? ROGERS: You know, Brooke, it is really not. And the way you stop

these folks is have -- you interdict in this thing before it happens.

These are intelligence-based investigations, so you want to get -- in this case, they went up and they had logistics help in their living conditions. You want good intelligence that you can undo that, you can intercede, you can catch them coming in to the country, you can catch them during that month of operations where they slip up, they use communications, they tell somebody that somebody that is using them or housing them slips up or decides they don't want to go through with it.

Those intelligence-based operations become incredibly important on soft targets. And same for the United States. It goes exactly the same. And I will tell you one thing, Brooke. The fact that they came out of Raqqa and all the command energy for ISIS comes out of Raqqa and all of their propaganda comes out of Raqqa, including the propaganda that convinced Mateen to shoot and slaughter over 50 innocent Americans in Florida, that's what we're going to have to deal with.

BALDWIN: Yes.

ROGERS: If we want to deal with dealing with what's going to happen in the United States, we are going to have to deal with Raqqa.

BALDWIN: It is just so chilling watching that video from this local TV affiliate here in Istanbul, where you see that one of the attackers walking in to the security line, and he's asked to show his I.D., without even, it appears, to blink, shoots this officer, to then get inside.

I want to move off of the story just briefly since I have you here to Istanbul and ask you about the historic news that we caught live last hour from the Pentagon with our secretary of defense, Ash Carter, announcing really to the world that the U.S. military was now open and would love to allow transgender troops to fight and to serve.

Your thoughts on that?

ROGERS: Whatever your position is on the transgender issue, including service in the military, I am flabbergasted that this was their big announcement after we have had an attack in Florida, after we had just gotten over the San Bernardino attack, after the Turks had just told us that we had military operators coming out of Raqqa.

I just find it hard to believe that this was the most important thing for the U.S. military to be engaged with today. I'm shocked. I'm a little disappointed. I'll tell you, again, it has nothing to do the with transgender issue. Let them deal with that.

[15:25:03]

BALDWIN: You think he should have pushed it off?

ROGERS: I would have pushed it off, absolutely. And I would be talking about how we're going to deal with people who are -- and even in your clip where 30 lashes for a woman for riding in a taxicab.

They're slaughtering people. They're executing Christians. They're beheading people. I just -- it just tells me that they are not serious about solving this problem. I mean, my blood pressure goes up. They do a press release about sending special forces over there, and then we don't hear again about what we're trying to do to put the right coalition together, to go in to Raqqa, to stop this.

Again, remember, they're going to influence someone else in the United States. Somebody right now is going through this radicalization process that is interested in committing acts of violence against Americans. We have got to come together on that. This notion that -- I just don't get it, Brooke, to be honest with you, given the severity of what faces the threats to the United States, why this is what they choose to talk about the day after we saw this slaughter, a couple of days after we saw this slaughter in Turkey.

BALDWIN: All right, Congressman. We want to get all perspectives. I appreciate your candor there.

We did ask -- Barbara Starr was in the briefing and she definitely asked the secretary of defense about Raqqa. So, he answered some questions about it. But you are correct. That was not the lead.

Mike Rogers, thank you, Mike Rogers, congressman, host of "Declassified." You can watch it here on Sunday night at 10:00 Eastern time.

We are following breaking news here tonight here out of Istanbul and beyond. The U.S. State Department has just confirmed that a 13-year- old girl has been stabbed to death in the Southern West Bank and we know that that little girl was an American citizen. Israel Defense Forces say the attacker, a Palestinian teenager, walked in to this home, stabbed this girl while she was asleep in her bedroom.

CNN correspondent Oren Liebermann joins me now from Jerusalem.

Oren, why? What has happened?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, Hebron is an area in the Southern West Bank that is known for tension between Israelis and Palestinians, especially after so much violence between the two that started back in October.

But that has dramatically climbed. I think people were hoping here that perhaps it has truly declined, but this morning, a violent reminder that it had not. We just confirmation a short while ago that that 13-year-old girl killed in her sleep was in fact an American citizen, a dual national, an American-Israeli.

She was asleep in her bed in Kiryat Arbam, a Southern West Bank settlement near the town of Hebron, when the IDF, the Israeli Defense Forces, say a 17-year-old Palestinian teenager from a nearby village broke into the settlement, which is surrounded by a fence, snuck into this girl's house, into her room and stabbed her to death. Security guards from the settlement responded, ran to that house.

There was a fight. One security guard was stabbed, according to the Israeli Defense Forces. And the suspect, this Palestinian teenager, was shot and killed.

Condemnation coming from all over. Prime Minister Netanyahu calling on world leaders to condemn this act, also saying that he would work to revoke the permits of this Palestinian's family and has started the procedure to have this Palestinian's family's home demolished in the Southern West Bank -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: As you get more information and as we hear continued condemnation of this fatal stabbing, please, please let us know. Oren Lieberman, thank you in Jerusalem for us.

Back here in Turkey, among the people killed here at the Ataturk, in an Airport, the chief of pediatrics at a Tunisian hospital who was reportedly in Turkey trying to get his son back from ISIS. We have his story.

Also ahead, an 8-year-old girl, her father speaking to CNN today at her funeral.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's very lovely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is very lovely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very lovely. But I lost her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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