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Dozens Killed in Istanbul Bombings; Nigerian Church Collapse; Trump Risks Adversarial Relationship with Intel Agencies; ISIS Offensive Repelled in Palmyra; Trump Risks Adversarial Relationship with Intel Agencies; How China Pokes Fun at Trump; ISIS Leader Killed. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired December 11, 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 ANCHOR (voice-over): Days of mourning, dozens of people feared dead after a church collapses on worshipers in Nigeria. We'll have the latest on this developing story.

Twin bombings rock a football stadium in Istanbul, the attack killing 38 people, wounding 150 more.

Plus, Donald Trump versus the CIA: the U.S. president-elect's team slamming a spy agency over reports that Russia may have tried to help him win the White House.

Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers around the world. I'm George Howell. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

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HOWELL: We begin in Turkey, the deputy prime minister of that nation saying that the PKK, quote, "seems to be responsible" for Saturday's deadly twin bombings in Istanbul. The Kurdistan Workers Party, a left-wing rebel group, has carried out attacks of this nature before.

But there's no evidence yet that they were behind those recent blasts. This attack killing 38 people, most of them police officers; you can see some of their fellow officers there, carrying caskets at a funeral just a short time ago.

The president of the nation, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was on hand to mourn the victims. President Erdogan says that the country has once again witnessed "the ugliest face of terror."

CNN's Muhammad Lila was in Istanbul when the blast went off and again was nearby when all of this happened.

Muhammad, first of all, set the scene for us.

What was it like, what did you see when all of this took place in a very busy area? MUHAMMAD LILA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Sure. So, George, we were about a kilometer away from where it happened. The first thing you notice is that the ground under your feet starts shaking and rumbling. Very quickly we knew that this was not a small-scale thing, that this was actually a major bomb that had gone off.

Let me set the scene for you for where I am right now. Just behind me over my shoulder you see a crowd of men gathered. That is the actual place where the car bomb went off. It created a 2-meter crater in the ground that's since been paved over.

In this area we've seen repair workers that are repairing windows that were blown out as a result of the blast. We know that there were two blasts; one was from the car bomb. The interior minister says the second was from a suicide bomber.

We do know that there are 38 people killed; of them 30 were police officers, seven civilians and one person unidentified; 155 people injured, currently right now in hospital, many of them in critical condition. So there's a concern that the death toll could go up as the day continues -- George.

HOWELL: Mohammed Lila, live in Istanbul, Turkey; Muhammad, thank you so much for the reporting. We'll stay in touch with you and follow the story.

Now to tragedy at a church in Nigeria. It's left an unknown number of people dead. The roof of the Reigners Bible Church collapsed, its steel pylons caving on to worshippers. The people there had gathered at the church for what should have been a joyous event, the consecration of their pastor as bishop.

But now the search is underway, crews there are on the scene, pulling bodies out of debris, trying to find survivors.

CNN's David McKenzie is following the story live from Johannesburg, South Africa, by phone with us this hour.

David, what more do we know about the situation with these crews looking for survivors?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, George, if you'll see in those pictures, there are some heavy lifting equipment and cranes on the scene that have been removing some of those steel girders to try and get at those people who may be trapped underneath the church.

But that also indicates the reason that those machines are there is because the church was still under construction. And several people I've spoken to are both shocked and saddened but also angry, pointing fingers at this stage, wondering why were so many people in the church that hadn't been completed and who's to blame for it -- George.

HOWELL: David, it does still seem very early to talk about this but earlier you indicated perhaps it's not so early, just given the fact that, you know, there are concerns about construction in this nation.

What more can you tell us about what could be behind this collapse?

MCKENZIE: Well, we don't know for sure as of yet. But what we do know is that the president, George, of building collapses and even church collapses in Nigeria that have killed many over the years.

And time and time again there's a call for inquiries into building conditions. If you look at this building itself, it's almost like an airport hangar, steel girders over the worshipers in a very open, cavernous space with a kind of steel sheeting over the top of it.

And so there may be some chance that many people got out because of the --

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MCKENZIE: -- nature of the building. And we haven't heard from the pastor in question. We've heard from the governor, who was seated near him in that celebration when the tragedy struck and he wants an inquiry to be called for.

But certainly he was there on the scene when it happened. So he managed to get out alive. Many others didn't -- George.

MCKENZIE: David, we're looking at these images, just understanding that, again, people could very well be -- many people trapped under all of this debris that we see.

Still no indication from what you're hearing with officials there. I know you've been in communication but no understanding yet of how many people may have lost their lives in this.

MCKENZIE: There have been wildly different numbers being put out there. At this stage, according to state media and some government officials quote in state media, that it appears as many as 50 people were killed in this incident.

Speaking to a person who was on the scene moments after this happened, a young student said he saw many coming out alive but injured. But, certainly, the death toll could rise in the coming hours.

HOWELL: David McKenzie live, David, thank you so much for the report.

At least 33 people in Kenya have died after the crash of a truck carrying flammable material. Authorities say that truck lost control and started to roll downhill.

It all happened Saturday night north of Nairobi on a highway near the town of Naivasha. It rammed into several vehicles and then it burst into flames. You see the video here. At least 11 vehicles were burnt and six other people were reported injured.

In Somalia the death toll has risen to at least 20 in a car bomb attack at the capital's port area. You see here the Al Qaeda-linked group Al-Shabaab has claimed responsibility on the group's radio station. Somali authorities say they heard a loud explosion when it happened. When the vehicle was packed with explosives, you see the result here.

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HOWELL: We now welcome our viewers here in the United States. This is CNN NEWSROOM, I'm George Howell.

And we're following Donald Trump's likely choice for secretary of state. It is sparking some concerns over his ties to Russia. CNN's Ryan Nobles reports on Rex Tillerson, who's a major name in the oil industry, who may become America's next top diplomat.

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RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's looking more and more like President-Elect Donald Trump is leaning toward ExxonMobil CEO Rex Tillerson as his secretary of state.

CNN's John King reporting that Tillerson left a meeting on Saturday at Trump Tower, feeling confident that he would be named to the post; Trump telling Chris Wallace from FOX that Tillerson's global business interests and his ties with countries around the world make him a very strong candidate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me ask you about Rex Tillerson.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Out of ExxonMobil.

Why does a business executive make sense as the chief diplomat?

TRUMP: Well, in his case, he's much more than a business executive. I mean, he's a world-class player. He's in charge of, I guess, the largest company in the world. He's in charge of an oil company that's pretty much double the size of his next nearest competitor. It's been a company that's been unbelievably managed.

And to me, a great advantage is he knows many of the players and he knows them well. He does massive deals in Russia. He does massive deals for the company, not for himself, for the company.

NOBLES: Now some of those same attributes that Trump views as positives have some concerned, including Republicans like Senator John McCain. McCain told me that he would want answers from Tillerson about his ties to Russia and his view of the world as it relates to the country before he gives him his vote in a confirmation process.

Republicans hold only a four-seat majority in the U.S. Senate. So Donald Trump will likely need almost all those votes if he is to get Tillerson confirmed -- Ryan Nobles, CNN, Baltimore.

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HOWELL: And thank you. Trump is pushing back against a report by the CIA that Russia tried to

influence the U.S. election so that he could win. A spokesman for the Republican National Committee also doubts Russia's involvement.

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SEAN SPICER, RNC COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I don't think, Donald Trump doesn't think, no one thinks that a foreign entity should be interfering with the U.S. elections, bottom line, full stop, I said it. Now let's get to the next thing.

What proof does anyone have that they affected the outcome?

Because I've heard zero.

OK?

So show me what facts have actually shown that anything undermined that election. Donald Trump won with 306 electoral votes, 2,300 counties, 62 million Americans voted for him.

So what proof do you have or does anyone have that --

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SPICER: -- any of this affected the outcome of this election?

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HOWELL: Sean Spicer there.

The Kremlin also brushing off the claims saying, in part, quote, "There are not new conclusions. And, again, it seems like naked blaming, having no evidence to be based on. Also, it may look like another attempt to try to influence the president-elect by imposing a certain negative image of our country."

Let's now bring in our senior international correspondent, Matthew Chance, live in the Russian capital.

Matthew, Russia making it very clear, if there is any evidence here, prove it.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, this is something that the Russians have been saying since this allegation was first floated a couple of months ago at the height of the U.S. presidential campaign when it first emerged, these allegations were first made, that Russia had been intervening in the presidential campaign in a partisan way, to support of one candidate over the other.

It's no secret that they've supported President-Elect Trump. Russian state media, which is a conduit or a mirror of what the Kremlin is thinking. When night after night talking about he was the best person to represent Russia's interests in part because he's voiced these sentiments about various aspects in the world, which reflect Russia's own point of view, for instance, on NATO enlargement, o the conflict in Syria and Trump saying that he would take a look again at recognizing Crimea being as part of Russia, of course, Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014.

So all of these things have given Russia the hope and Russians the hope that a Trump administration would be a positive for them and that contrasts with their attitude towards Hillary Clinton; you know, they saw her as being sort of, you know, virulently anti-Russian.

And so there's a great deal of relief I think in some quarters of this country that Trump won the presidential election. In terms of what that will mean, though, when it comes to the actual administration, I think the jury is still very much out.

There are a lot of expectations here in Russia about what Trump can deliver for Russians. Obviously, it's going to be very difficult for him to do any of those things.

But, of course, when we get back to the issue of whether or not Russia intervened in this election, yes, they are calling for evidence and it's not just the Russians that are calling for evidence. The Republican Party as well, the Trump administration-in-waiting is also calling for any evidence that's out there to be made public.

The fact is, at the moment, these are very serious allegations and they are not backed up by anything else at the moment, apart from anonymous sources in the corridors of the various U.S. security services. And, you know, frankly, and from a Russian point of view, that's not good enough.

HOWELL: Matthew Chance, live for us in Moscow. Matthew, thank you for the reporting.

Now let's bring in Scott Lucas, a professor of international politics at the University of Birmingham, live via Skype from England with us.

Scott, good to have you with us this hour for our U.S. and international viewers. Let's talk more about this situation that we just heard here.

Donald Trump is deferring now -- rather Russia is deferring to Donald Trump, Trump slamming U.S. intelligence, saying that, you know, you think back, he says to the misjudgments that were made with weapons of mass destruction, so it does seem that Russia has an ally within Trump on this topic.

SCOTT LUCAS, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM: Yes. This is extraordinary. I mean, you have the president-elect, effectively stirring Moscow's interest, giving Moscow's line and trash talking the intelligence community that he'll be leading from January.

Let's be clear here, this isn't just an anonymous source. This was several intelligence officials who said with high confidence -- now that is CIA jargon for near certainty -- that the Russian government is behind attacks not only on the Democratic National Committee but the Republican National Committee. Now there's some disagreement from the FBI who aren't quite as certain

as Russian government's intentions. But there's a general conclusion that, yes, these hacks took place.

But the president-elect, with no contrary evidence, with nothing else besides his personal opinion, is basically taking up Moscow's case and trying to distort or cover up that intelligence finding.

HOWELL: Not only the connection there, you know, between Russia deferring to President-Elect Trump but let's also talk about the optics here, because we're talking about the president, the current president's request for a full review into whether Russia may have had some sort of involvement in influencing the U.S. election.

U.S. intelligence agencies believe that to be the case but the president-elect casting doubt on the very agencies that he will soon rely on.

LUCAS: Absolutely. I mean, come January, we're talking about a President Trump who comes in amidst a series of serious cases, the fight against the Islamic State; the crisis in Syria, in which Russia is backing the Assad regime; issues against the Ukraine, where Russia has been trying to break off part of that country as the next Crimea; the question of the future of the European Union.

Now the U.S. intelligence services, the CIA are providing information on that. But if the president says I don't trust --

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LUCAS: -- any of this, where do you go with American foreign policy or diplomacy?

I honestly can't think of such a critical division between a president and his intelligence services since the final days of Watergate and Richard Nixon in 1974.

HOWELL: Scott, also want to talk about Rex Tillerson, Trump's likely pick for the secretary of state role, Trump touting the fact that this is a business leader, that his business background would bring a fresh approach to the job -- or, the cons here, critics say that, of course, he lacks political experience and question any potential conflicts of interest that may come into play with this.

LUCAS: I'm sorry but when you run the foreign policy of the United States, when you carry out diplomacy, you look for someone who is a diplomat. You do not say, oh, I'll just grab a businessman, a CEO, who I happen to know.

You especially don't reach out to a CEO who may be compromised, because Rex Tillerson, let's be clear here, has deep business interests along with ExxonMobil in Russia.

He has been honored by Vladimir Putin with the Order of Friendship. ExxonMobil has been basically fighting U.S. sanctions on Russia that have limited its involvement. Now how do you expect Rex Tillerson, when he becomes secretary of

state, to immediately put on a diplomat's hat and set aside all those business interests?

I think it's a deeply troubling choice and I do hope it is not confirmed. If it is, expect a fight in the Congress over Tillerson's nomination.

HOWELL: We're already hearing from Senator McCain, who has raised questions about Tillerson's connections to Russia, saying that he would certainly ask some probing questions into those relationships.

Scott Lucas live for us. Scott, thank you for your insight. We'll be in touch with you.

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HOWELL (voice-over): ISIS may have retaken territory in Syria on Saturday but Russia says that they have been pushed back. We have the very latest on new fighting in Palmyra ahead.

Plus, winter weather paralyzes part of Japan. How a powerful storm shut down one city. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

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HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM, I'm George Howell.

The U.S. Defense Secretary, Ash Carter, is in Iraq at this hour. Carter made an unannounced visit to Baghdad to thank U.S. coalition and Iraqi troops for taking part in the fight against ISIS. He'll be --

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HOWELL: -- given an update on the push to drive that terror group out of Mosul in Northern Iraq.

Russian state media also saying that an ISIS attack on the Syrian city of Palmyra has been repelled. Activists said earlier hundreds of Syrian troops withdrew from the ancient city Saturday after intense fighting on its outskirts.

Sputnik news agency reports the Russian air force conducted over 60 airstrikes in the area overnight and claimed dozens of ISIS vehicles were destroyed and more than 300 militants killed.

For the latest on this fight in Palmyra, let's go to CNN's Fred Pleitgen, following the situation from Damascus.

Fred, what more do we know about this?

Because again, just a day ago, ISIS was reportedly making gains and now we're hearing from Russian state media that they are pushing back. FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, George, it is actually the nature of the fighting out there in that desert region, it's very flat.

What you see there is forces like ISIS but also the Syrian army making very quick gains but then also being pushed back very quickly as well. So it seems that what happened was there was a lot of fog and bad weather over that territory there in Palmyra, which somewhat sidelined the Russian and the Syrian air forces to conduct airstrikes to try and hold ISIS up.

ISIS used that for a very, very fast, almost blitz-like attack on Palmyra. The Syrian military had also only left a skeleton force there, because, of course, right now they are binding most of their troops in that battle for Aleppo.

So ISIS did make quick advances and apparently made it all the way into the city limits of Palmyra and very close to the ancient city there. Apparently, it's cleared up; the Russian air force has resumed its airstrikes.

They say that they've conducted some 64 airstrikes overnight, pushing ISIS back but, at this point in time, it's, first of all, unclear how far they've pushed them back but also what exactly the damage is on both sides, how many were killed and wounded. That's still being assessed.

But it certainly does seem as though ISIS did launch that surprise attack but has now been repelled -- George.

HOWELL: Fred from Palmyra now to Aleppo. I want to ask you about the situation with so many people trying to escape that city.

Do we have any new estimates or figures on how many people have been able to escape, how many people may still be trapped there?

PLEITGEN: George, I was on the front line in Southern Aleppo just yesterday and I can tell you it was literally an avalanche or a tsunami of people that came across. Very difficult for us to see how many it actually was.

The official Syrian news agency is saying they believe that some 20,000 might have come out of there on Saturday alone. The Russians are saying it might be around 10,000. Really is impossible to say.

But what we saw was just a really, really tragic sight, because you have extremely intense fighting there: gun battles, artillery airstrikes. And the only way for the people trapped inside Eastern Aleppo to get out is to walk straight through that front line.

These people are very weak. We saw children, who just couldn't go on anymore, who were being carried by their parents. We saw children having to carry very heavy loads; people who were malnourished, people who were just absolutely scared and defeated because, of course, at the same time as they were coming out, those noises of that battle were still going on. So it really is a dire situation for the civilians that are trying to

get out. And while it's impossible to put any numbers on how many have already come out, I can tell you, it is a lot of people who are trying to flee as the fighting intensifies.

HOWELL: CNN senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen, live for us, following the situation in Damascus. Fred, thank you for the reporting. We will, of course, stay in touch with you as well.

Severe weather has really shocked parts of Northern Japan. Our meteorologist, Derek Van Dam, is here to tell us about that -- Derek.

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HOWELL: This is CNN NEWSROOM. Still ahead, the Trump team insists it is time to move on. We'll have more on the president-elect's response to reports that Russia helped him to win the election.

Plus, why one American company is actually hiring Russian hackers.

We are live from Atlanta, broadcasting here at home and around the world this hour. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM.

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HOWELL (voice-over): Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. It is good to have you with us. I'm George Howell with the headlines we're following for you this hour.

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HOWELL: One of Turkey's deputy prime ministers says the PKK seems to be responsible for twin explosions that happened in Istanbul Saturday. He offered no evidence for that claim but the left-wing rebel group has carried out attacks like this before.

Two explosions went off near a football stadium, killing 38 people, wounding more than 150 others.

These blasts are just one of several terror attacks in Turkey in just the past year. Fawaz Gerges heads the Contemporary Middle East Department at the London School of Economics and wrote the book, "ISIS: A History," joining now live in London.

Fawaz, it's good to have you with us. Let's talk more about this claim; one of Turkey's deputy prime ministers saying that the PKK seems to be behind this. No evidence yet, though, has been presented to back that up.

Explain the background for this group and why officials may be pointing the finger toward them.

FAWAZ GERGES, DIR. MIDDLE EAST CENTER, LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS: You know, George, for your own viewers, for the -- more than one year now, Turkey has been a frequent target of terrorist attacks. I mean, devastating terrorist attacks in Ankara, in Istanbul and, last night, attacks, you know, after the end of a soccer game.

Two major basically organizations have been behind these attacks. You have ISIS or the so-called Islamic State and militant Kurdish elements, the so-called Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK.

It's very difficult, George, to say exactly who was behind the attack last night. We don't have the evidence. We have to wait.

Even though the attack seems to target the police, most of the victims were police officers. And this tells me, even though there is no evidence, that probably the PKK was behind it because the PKK usually targets either security forces or the police forces, because you have a war taking place between the PKK and some other militant Kurdish elements and the Turkish government over the past year or so.

HOWELL: That's sort of the background, also the politics of the matter. But I'd like to just get a sense of how people are feeling about these things on the ground there in Turkey. There have been so many attacks over the last year.

What are the sentiment, the mood when attacks like this happen so unexpectedly in such busy parts of cities in that nation?

GERGES: I mean, you're asking a very important question, George, because the airport in Istanbul was attacked. Major civilian targets have also been attacked. You can imagine the feelings of terror, the feeling of fear. Imagine, George, it's not just about Turkey. We're talking about Turkey.

But these attacks against soft targets, whether you're talking about, I mean, the Coptic Christian church in Cairo or Somalia or Turkey or even Yemen, has become -- these attacks have become really an effective tool used by terrorist organizations like ISIS and Al Qaeda and the PKK.

Why they are using these attacks against soft targets, civilians and police officers and cultural, basically outlets, because they terrorize the public. They instill fear. They mobilize the social base of these organizations. A pattern seems to have emerged that soft targets now are really the --

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GERGES: -- preferred method for militant and terrorist organizations worldwide, not just in Turkey. But Turkey has been a very focused target for both ISIS and the PKK over the past years because of the political polarization and the counterinsurgency war that's taking place in Turkey.

HOWELL: Fawaz Gerges, live for us this London, giving us insight and perspective on the situation after twin bombings in Istanbul. Fawaz, thank you so much. We'll be in touch with you as well.

Donald Trump is at odds with the U.S. intelligence community six weeks before his inauguration.

The president-elect's team has mocked the CIA report that Russia tried to steer the election toward Trump, saying the following, quote, "These are the same people that said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. The election ended a long time ago in one of the biggest electoral college victories in history. It is now time to move on."

A source says the review of foreign hacking ordered by President Obama will not look at whether Russia interfered, whether it affected the outcome, but rather it will solely look at lessons learned. We get more now from our global affairs correspondent, Elise Labott.

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ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: President-Elect Donald Trump's comments, questioning the quality of the intel provided by the intelligence community about Russian hacking, could set up an adversarial relationship with a commander in chief, who's going to rely on the intelligence community to make monumental decisions about U.S. national security.

If it's an isolated incident, it could be worked out. It seems as if President-Elect Trump is very sensitive to any charges that he didn't win the election fair and square when, in fact, the intelligence community is really only looking at whether Russia did try to interfere in the U.S. election.

And about 17 intelligence agencies did conclude that they did with high confidence.

If there's a larger question about whether Donald Trump does not have confidence in the intelligence community, in the intel that he's getting in his daily briefing, that could set up a much larger issue.

Now the investigation that the Obama administration is engaged in is not about whether Russia affected the outcome of this election. Administration officials tell me it would be impossible to know what swayed a voter.

The investigation is really about looking at past practices of all foreign states, not just Russia, but other foreign actors, perhaps in 2008, 2012 and in the 2016 election, to see what kinds of techniques they used in their hacking, in cyber attacks, to use that as a lessons learned for the next administration.

But it would also give credence to any measures that the Obama administration could take on its way out the door. Officials tell me that there are a wide range of measures being considered against Russia, such as sanctions, other types of cyber measures that we probably wouldn't know about.

But if this incontrovertible proof is made public, it would be very difficult for President-Elect Trump, once taking office, to question that.

And if President Obama does impose measures and Donald Trump overturns them, that could -- he could face a lot of heat from members of Congress, not just Democrats but Republicans, who are very skeptical about Russia and say they're going to lead investigations.

As one senior administration official said, there would be a real price to pay once the president-elect takes office -- Elise Labott, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: Elise, thank you.

Russian hackers are known to be some of the most sophisticated in the world and one U.S. company sees their ingenuity as a business opportunity. CNN's Clare Sebastian reports.

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HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: The Russian government has engaged in espionage against Americans.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Long before the U.S. allegations of meddling in the election, Russian and Russian-speaking hackers were known to be some of the most sophisticated in the world.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 e-mails.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Now in the post-election U.S., fears of Russian cyber interference still linger.

But one New York company is trying to turn the tables to take advantage of that Russian skillset to actually protect American companies.

Cybersec is the work of New York-based lawyer Arkady Bukh (ph), who's defended some of the world's most notorious Russian cyber criminals, bad actors of the hacking world, some of whom he is now working with.

ARKADY BUKH (PH), CYBERSEC: Our company includes specifically hackers who have been prosecuted, who -- some of them still wanted. We do consult with the --

[05:40:00]

BUKH (PH): -- criminals who explain how the hacks usually done, from the botnets to creation of the viruses, to actual attacks.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): In Moscow, I met one of those consultants, Sergei Pavlovic (ph); a prolific credit card hacker back in the '90s, he's already served 10 years in prison in his home country of Belarus.

SERGEI PAVLOVIC (PH), CREDIT CARD HACKER: I explained him what to do to steal money from someone's bank account.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): Pavlovic (ph) is still wanted in the U.S. in connection with a major credit card fraud ring. That hasn't stopped him from publishing a book, called "How I Stole a Million."

SEBASTIAN: Did you really steal a million dollars?

PAVLOVIC (PH): Yes, one million and a little more.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): And then there's Vladisov Horahoran (ph), known online as BadB, currently in prison in the U.S. for selling millions of credit card numbers through online forums. He told me via e-mail that former hackers have a, quote, "mindset" which allows them to anticipate all the possible attack vectors.

"Hacking is not a skill," he writes, "it's an art."

Russian hacking has been in the news a lot recently, particularly around the U.S. election. How has that impacted your business?

BUKH (PH): Well, we get more interest.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): So far Bukh's (ph) clients have mainly been small and medium-sized businesses.

BUKH (PH): Some banks been inquiring but the main problem is the issue of liability of criminals consulting and assisting.

SEBASTIAN (voice-over): He's willing to take the risk, he says, because the dangers in cyberspace are growing and these people may be some of the best qualified to stop them.

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HOWELL: Still ahead, the most wanted terrorist in the world was almost caught by U.S. special forces. We'll have that story for you.

Plus: meet the people in China who say that they are having a laugh and speaking truth to power by poking fun at the president-elect, Donald Trump. Stay with us.

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HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell.

The United States military now confirms that a U.S. drone strike last month in the city of Raqqah, Syria, killed a senior ISIS leader with deep ties to French and Tunisian extremists. He is identified as Boubakeur al-Hakim. He was born in Paris and had suspected ties to two terror attacks in Tunisia in 2015.

He was also a person of interest in the Paris terror attack that happened in November of 2015. The Pentagon says the airstrike was carried out on November 26th.

So far the leader of ISIS has managed to avoid the same fate as many of his senior commanders. CNN's Brian Todd has more now on the intense manhunt for Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): CNN has learned of a close call for the world's most wanted terrorist, a man with a $10 million bounty on his head, ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

A senior U.S. military official tells CNN, U.S. special operations forces came, quote, "tantalizingly close" to capturing or killing Baghdadi in May of last year near Raqqah, Syria.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Anytime you have a chance to kill somebody like Baghdadi it would be a big deal, the sooner the better.

TODD (voice-over): The U.S. military official told CNN's Barbara Starr, when U.S. forces raided a compound last year and killed ISIS operative Abu Sayyaf, that terrorist's wife, Uma Sayyaf (ph), who was captured, told them they'd been with Baghdadi a few days earlier in Raqqah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Uma Sayyaf (ph), who was captured in that raid, she was the den mother for a lot of the sex slaves, the Yazidi girls, many of them underage, that were taken at Sinjar, including the one Western hostage, Kayla Mueller.

Kayla Mueller was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's personal sex slave. He was raping her. So he would have come to where Uma Sayyaf (ph) and therefore Abu Sayyaf were located. And that was exactly the location where the U.S. special forces raided in Deir ez-Zor.

TODD (voice-over): Where is Baghdadi now?

Earlier this year, U.S. officials said he was most likely hiding in Raqqah, the ISIS stronghold. At some point he's believed to have gone to Mosul, Iraq. But Iraqi sources tell CNN just after the Iraqi offensive to retake that city began in October, Baghdadi is believed to have left Mosul, despite apparently recording this audio message for his fighters.

ABU BAKR AL-BAGHDADI, ISIS LEADER (through translator): Holding your ground in honor is 1,000 times better than retreating in disgrace.

TODD (voice-over): U.S. officials tell CNN, Baghdadi's days are numbered but he remains elusive; known as the invisible sheikh, he's said to be obsessed about secrecy. Luke Hardy (ph) was a National Security Council official involved in the campaign against ISIS leadership.

TODD: How good is he at evading detection?

LUKE HARDY (PH), NATIONAL SECURITY OFFICIAL: This guy takes it really to a whole new level if you look at the way that he approaches operational security. The amount of information that we have about him as compared to somebody like bin Laden and his past is actually much thinner.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERROR ANALYST: There are rumors that this is a guy who used to cover his face, even when meeting with some of his own people, someone who took extraordinary precautions when it came to his own security.

TODD: And that likely also applies to how he communicates. A U.S. intelligence official tells CNN, Baghdadi and his lieutenants understand that any level of communication they use beyond couriers and face-to-face interaction make them vulnerable to being killed -- Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

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HOWELL: Brian, thank you.

Still ahead here on NEWSROOM, meet a Chinese comedian whose take on Donald Trump is sparking a political conversation in his own country. Stay with us.

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HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell.

Donald Trump has made no secret about his feelings on China, even bashing Beijing. But the U.S. president-elect has Chinese supporters who say they like his style. Some others like to mock that style. CNN's Alexandra Field reports from Beijing.

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ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a country of 1.3 billion, a lot of people have something to say about Donald Trump.

TONY CHOU (PH), COMEDIAN: It's like the guy goes for a blind date and he opens by asking the girl, would you like to have sex with me?

FIELD: That's Donald Trump to you?

CHOU (PH): Yes. (LAUGHTER)

CHOU (PH): Politicians here in China are always, like, play safe. It's a huge contrast and I think that's what brought Donald Trump into the spotlight.

FIELD (voice-over): Comedian Tony Chou got 1 million views online, mostly I China, for a video skewering then-candidate Trump, who once took to Twitter to blame China for a global warming hoax.

CHOU (PH): If China wants to damage America, why would we come up with a climate change hoax?

We'd just support Donald Trump.

FIELD (voice-over): Again this week the president-elect tweeted, taking aim at Beijing, alleging currency manipulation and military posturing in the South China Sea.

Trump writes, "Did China ask us if it was OK?"

Twitter is blocked in China but users found their way around the country's firewall to respond to his question with the #asktrumpfirst that's been shared several hundred times on Twitter and been seen nearly 1 million times on the Chinese equivalent, Weibo.

It's spawning snarky responses, like #askTrumpfirstifit'sOKtomakeChineseairqualitygreatagain. The trend started with a graduate student in Southern China, who said he wanted to speak truth to power in a language Trump would understand.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's, like, an Internet troll running for president. And now he's president-elect.

FIELD (voice-over): Conversations about the president-elect spiked across China's social sites after his tweets and a controversial phone call with Taiwan's leader, actions that spark concern for the Communist Party leaders who consider Taiwan a breakaway province --

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FIELD (voice-over): -- a style that fuels fascination among Chinese people.

FIELD: When you talk to his supporters here, what do they tell you that they like about President-Elect Trump?

CHOU (PH): Because, you know, he's a nationalist. He cares about the domestic issues, because his policies are always America first. So pretty similar with some of the -- most of the Chinese people's mindset when we care about ourselves.

FIELD: It is for many of those reasons that President-Elect Donald Trump was able to develop a strong and outspoken committed group of supporters among the public right here in China. Some of those people tell us that U.S. interests cannot come at the expense of China's interests.

But some of them say they are still standing with Donald Trump. That's because they believe that those controversial tweets and the phone call with Taiwan's leader are more indicative of the style of leadership that they like.

And that these aren't signs that the Trump administration would seek to change the relationship between the U.S. and China -- in Beijing, Alexandra Field, CNN.

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HOWELL: Alexandra, thank you.

Now we end the show with a bit of a galaxy that's far, far away but now in Los Angeles. Saturday's world premiere of "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story" shut down the streets in Hollywood. The film is a stand- alone prequel to the first "Star Wars" movie. It tells the story of rebels who steal the plans for the Death Star.

Stormtroopers, aliens, even an X-wing turned out for the premiere. The film begins its global release on Wednesday.

That wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell at the CNN Center in Atlanta. For our viewers in the United States, "NEW DAY" is next. For other viewers around the world, "THIS IS LIFE" with Lisa Ling starts in just a moment. Thank you for watching CNN, the world's news leader.

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