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Belgium Officials Reportedly Uncover Terrorist Sleeper Cells; Troops Will be Sent to Train Syrians in Fight Against ISIS; Officer's Last Moments Caught on Camera; New U.S.-Cuba Rules Go Into Effect

Aired January 16, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Terror threat across Europe.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The threat involves as many as 20 sleeper cells.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Federal police headquarters now heavily guarded by commandos.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tracking this swollen investigation that's linking France to Belgium to Syria.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I heard two big detonations.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two suspects on that property were killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This group was connected to ISIS.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a radical ideology out there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is a very real threat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're at the relatively early stage, I think, of dealing with this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I do worry, you know, that it could come to the United States of America.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Friday, January 16th, just about 8:00 in the East.

The headline: 20 sleeper cells discovered with up to 180 terrorists armed ready to attack France, Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Major developments in France -- a dozen more people arrested in connection with last week's terror attack in Paris. This as new video emerges of suspected ISIS militants urging more attacks in Europe. Let's get right to Fred Pleitgen, he is live on the ground in

Brussels, where officials foiled what they say was an imminent terror attack. What's the latest, Fred?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Alisyn, there were 12 terror raids in all overnight here in Belgium. The most violent one happened in a town called Verviers, which is about 40 miles outside the capital of Brussesl. Two alleged Islamists were killed there.

Now, the police have told us they came to a building there, they went inside, and immediately the people in there opened fire on them. Two of the people in there were killed. Apparently, they had AK-47s. The police returned fire with their rifles. That firefight went on for a few minutes.

But, again, there were terror raids all over this country overnight. Police are saying they believe that they have busted a major terror cell and that most of the people who were part of that terror cell were jihadists who were returning from Syria. Apparently the police have confiscated several AK-47s. They've confiscated handguns, communications equipment, and most importantly they've confiscated police uniforms because they believe these jihadists wanted to dress up as police officers and then attack police here in Belgium, both in the streets as well as in police department, and kill as many police officers as possible.

The country has now reacted and literally only a couple of minutes ago the government here announced that it's putting the army on standby to get ready to possibly deploy to help guard sites around the country. Other interesting developments is that Jewish schools are going to be closed today and there is a prominent European Jewish organization that is calling for Jewish organizations to be armed here in Europe, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Fred, thanks so much for that background.

Another developing story to tell you about because a dozen suspects are in custody this morning in France. These are alleged accomplices in last week's Paris terror attacks. CNN's John Berman joins us with more in Paris. A lot happening there, John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Alisyn. These 12 suspects in custody right now believed to be connected to Amedy Coulibaly. He was the man who attacked the kosher market killing four people. These people believed to be involved in the logistics, the operational level of being involved in these attacks in custody right now.

This coming in an environment of extremely frayed nerves in this city and in this entire nation. There were reports that all of the major media operations, all the papers here, they had their websites shut down this morning. There was fear that it was some kind of cyber terror attack. Well, the person who runs the server for most of these companies now says it was a software bug, not terror related, not a hack. So people here are breathing a sigh of relief on that front. There is another incident ongoing right now in the town of Cologne

which is seven miles away from where I'm standing right now. It's a hostage situation, a man in a post office holding at least two people. But, again, officials say that appears to be criminal, not terror related. But you can understand the extremely high level of concern for any type of incident like this taking place right now. Michaela?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, John, absolutely. And as the investigation in the Paris attacks continues we do know this -- Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for the "Charlie Hebdo" attack last week. What we don't know is whether the Kouachi brothers ever actually met with the man believed to have masterminded that massacre, Anwar al Awlaki. Nick Paton Walsh is the only TV journalist in Yemen joining us now with the latest details. Nick?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, key for investigators, Alisyn, is to work out exactly whether those claims made in the Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula statement, the statement, the lengthy 11-minute video from a few days ago, match up to the reality of what the brothers actually did. That video claims Anwar al Awlaki was operationally involved in the training when he was killed by a drone strike in 2011, pretty much when one or both of the brothers left here said to be carrying tens of thousands of dollars to assist those attacks in France.

The question is did any resources or coordination from here, Yemen, the hot bed of Al Qaeda groups, did that continue after 2011. Investigators need to know that because it might suggest further links now ongoing to other networks across the nation. You see all these different incidents pop up, but there's still now an angry reaction inside of Yemen. It's quiet, it's Friday prayer, just after here. Protests with fierce, particularly against the images of Mohammed in the latest edition of the "Charlie Hebdo" French satirical magazine. The government is angry, feeling Yemen is being scapegoated. But this really is a country often considered a failed or failing mistake. A lot of questions people want to answer, a lot of answers still to come from here. Michaela?

CUOMO: I'll take it, Nick. Thank you very much. The Pentagon confirms the U.S. will send 400 troops to train moderate Syrian rebels in the fight against ISIS. Barbara Starr joins us right now from the Pentagon. Barbara, what is the timing on this because as we know, the need is great right now?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Chris, this is what everyone has been waiting for. The Pentagon had laid out the plan several weeks ago, now saying they hope to be sending some of the initial trainers, U.S. military personnel and support personnel perhaps as soon as March to Saudi Arabia, Qatar, other countries in the Middle East for training of moderate Syrian rebels that right now are being vetted, if you will. Their credentials being reviewed to make sure they legitimately are who they are, that the U.S. isn't going to train them, put a weapon in their hands, and they're going to go back to Syria and then fight with ISIS. Getting this program done, training up to 5,000 moderate Syrian

rebels, it sounds so small in the face of the challenge. But Syria, of course, the heartland of ISIS control, the U.S. has no boots on the ground, won't have any U.S. boots on the ground, so getting Syrians on the ground that can help the U.S. understand what is going on there, where ISIS is, where its command and control is, and maybe, just maybe begin the fight back against ISIS on the ground in Syria, getting these people up and running is vital. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Barbara, thanks so much for all of that.

Let's bring in CNN global affairs analyst Bobby Ghosh and managing editor for "Quartz" Bobby Ghosh as well as CNN security analyst and former Homeland Security and Counterterrorism adviser Fran Townsend. Great to have both of you with us this morning as we try to make our way and get our arms around what is happening in Europe.

Bobby, the breaking news this morning, 12 more arrests in connection with the terrorist massacre today in France. In addition investigators have uncovered what they say could be up to 20 sleeper cells of somewhere between 120 and 180 terrorists who were poised to attack France, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands. What's going on in Europe?

BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALSYT: Well, so this is the worst outcome. This is the -- this is what we've been fearing for years now since we began to see young European men, and they're mostly men, heading to Syria and Iraq to fight alongside is. All along the fear is that some of these guys come home and bring that violence back with them.

And we've learned from the incidents in Paris that in some cases these operations have been years in the planning, and people have come back from Yemen in 2011 and then laid low and waited until 2015 to launch an attack. So the fear is that all of these sleeper cells, some of them acting together, some of them acting independently, not even aware of each other necessarily, are all over Europe waiting to spring.

Now, once Paris happened, you have a new level of fear, which is that perhaps Paris inspires a lot of these other cells to activate themselves. They see what's going on TV. They see these Kouachi brothers and Coulibaly are getting all of the attention. This is the moment to strike. Europe is afraid. This is the moment for us to carry out what we've been planning to do. And there's that fear.

We know what happened in Belgium is that an investigation that was going on for weeks accelerated after Paris because of exactly that fear. So Paris could be a catalyst, could be the inspiration to speed up a lot of other things, including investigations against these things.

CAMEROTA: So, Fran, are we comforted today that there's such great police work that they're able to suss out these cells, or are we terrified today at the proliferation of these, you know, small sleeper cells that are planning terrorist attacks throughout Europe? FRANCES TOWNSEND, CNN SECURITY ANALYST: Well, look, so we ought to

feel comforted by the fact that not only is there sort of the intelligence and law enforcement cooperation throughout Europe. They're clearly sharing information, they're clearly coordinating, and they're working with us. Let's remember that, you know, many of these individuals that they're targeting now are on U.S. watch lists.

Of course, the concern is once these guys go fight, go back to Europe, they're able to fly to the United States without visas and it's a five or six hour plane ride. That's why these watch lists and the intelligence sharing is so very important.

You know, I think that it's -- rather than being fearful of this, it underscores the reality. This is not sort of a potential threat, that is, these foreign fighters coming back. This is the reality, and these guys have been planning to use the military training and experience they got in the battlefield, whether that's in Yemen with Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or whether that's with ISIS in Syria and Iraq, but to deploy that capability now into western Europe. And there's the potential for it to happen here in the United States.

CAMEROTA: We know a few chilling details about what the raid in Belgium has produced. They say they found a cache of weapons as well as police uniforms. And investigators there believe that these terrorists were planning to kill police officers at police stations, obviously somehow infiltrating.

GHOSH: And it shows you also I think that the range of targets, the Coulibaly attack was on a Jewish kosher deli. He also shot a policeman e think in the street, a jogger, one set of quite different targets. The Kouachi brothers, very specific. They went after "Charlie Hebdo." Here you have them going against law enforcement.

This is not random attacks just to create a sense of fear. If you wanted to do that you would attack a tourist target. You'd want a target with, you know, maximum number of casualties. These are much more focused, much better planned. And that makes them -- this may be hard to get our hands around, but that makes them at the same time more dangerous and somewhat more reassuring, that they're not randomly killing people. They have specific targets in mind.

CAMEROTA: That is a paradox, but I understand what you're saying.

Fran, we've been so focused of trying to get to the root of where the terrorists are trained in Syria and Iraq, but it sounds like we should be focused on Yemen today.

TOWNSEND: Well, I'll say, you know, we've heard from the director of national intelligence, the director of the CIA consistently that the greatest threat for operational activity targeting the United States in terms of Al Qaeda has been Al Qaeda in the Arabian peninsula. I think we see that now. There have been a number of disrupted plots. We've reported on all of them. Much of those disrupted with the help of the Saudi intelligence service that has better access, better penetrations than we do. This ongoing sort of legacy of Anwar al Awlaki, the American preacher

killed in a drone strike in 2011 is going to continue. He gave these sermons that radicalized the Fort Hood shooters and others. They're still available. They're available on tape and they're available on the internet. And he's held up much the way bin Laden is held up as this icon of the movement, and he continues to inspire people, and that ought to concern us.

CAMEROTA: Yes, inspiring from beyond the grave is concerning. Bobby Ghosh, Fran Townsend, thanks so much for being with us this morning. Let's go back to Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Alisyn, this is very tough and hopefully an instructive situation that we're going to coverer. A perfectly calm conversation between a cop and a man with his hand in the pockets in an instant turns into the final moments of an officer's life. We have the officer's body-cam video showing it all and we're going to discuss what it teaches us with a veteran officer, and this officer is also the father of the young man who lost his life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: There is a body cam video that proves why police officers are trained the way they are. You're about to step into a young officer's shoes just moments before he was killed by a man who seemed to just calmly have his hand in his pockets. We're going to talk with the victim's father who is also a police officer in just moments. But first, take an up close look at the actual events as they unfolded. Now, of course, this video is not easy to watch, but we've cut it the best we can to teach you the most it can.

Take a watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO (voice-over): Officer Tyler Stewart's body camera was rolling the day he approached this Arizona home looking for a suspect in a domestic violence dispute.

The 24-year-old officer finds this man, 28-year-old Robert Smith.

OFFICER TYLER STEWART, KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY: How you doing?

ROBERT SMITH: Good.

STEWART: Talk outside?

CUOMO: Just then smith goes back inside for something, completely out of the officer's site. He disappears into one of the rooms. Moments later he comes back out, his right hand inside his jacket pocket.

STEWART: Don't have any weapons in your pockets or anything like that?

SMITH: No, sir.

STEWART: OK.

CUOMO: Officer Stewart calmly questions smith about the incident with his girlfriend that prompted her to call Flagstaff police. Minutes go by. Everything seems normal but then just in seconds things take a turn.

STEWART: Do you mind if I pat down your pockets real quick? You don't have anything in here.

SMITH: No. No.

STEWART: OK, nothing in here?

SMITH: No. No. This is my smokes.

CUOMO: Suddenly Smith pulls out the concealed .22 caliber gun firing six shots, five hit Officer Stewart wounding him fatally. A seventh shot ten seconds later as Smith shoots himself with the officer's gun.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO (on camera): It's just a horrible situation for it to unfold. The body cam video instructive of every moment. Remember, you heard, it went on for minutes.

It's important to show it because it's one thing to talk about the dangers of being a police officer, it's quite another to see it firsthand.

Now, someone who knows this danger too well on both sides of it now, being the officer and a victim of it is Sergeant Frank Stewart. He is the father, of course, of the officer that you just saw there.

Sergeant Stewart is a member of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.

Frank, thank you very much for being with us. I know that there's sensitivity about seeing something like that. I made sure you couldn't watch it here, but I know your family's had to deal with it. I'm so, so sorry for your loss. I'm sorry to meet you this way.

How is the family holding up in not even a month since this happened?

SGT. FRANK STEWART, FATHER OF POLICE OFFICER SHOT AND KILLED: They're doing pretty good. They're sticking together, going through the process right now.

CUOMO: What is making you want to come out, especially so soon, and talk about not just your son but the issues that are presented here?

STEWART: Well, it was when they released the video that caused a little concern because it was such a short time since he -- the shooting happened, and I really didn't have time to prepare all the kids to get ready to watch something like that.

CUOMO: I can't imagine, and yet I know it's very important to you to want to get out and speak about who your son was and what it says about the job. You must have been so proud when he took the call to duty and got involved. He was a young officer, just 24 years of age.

Do you feel that the job has changed since you got on the job yourself, that solo policing may be a thing of the past?

STEWART: It's changed a lot. In 28 years, there's a lot of different threats to police officers. We really don't get the respect that we used to get 28 years ago.

CUOMO: And a scenario like this one not uncommon. You know, not part of this new threat that officers have to deal with. Domestic violence, you don't really know the guy. You're trying to feel him out. In what you perceive of your son doing, what do you see in your son's approach to doing the job?

STEWART: In that video particularly he's very calm. He's doing his job. You can see that he focuses on the person's hand as it's in a pocket. He doesn't look like he feels threatened at any time until he asked to pat him down, and that's when I think Tyler became concerned that he might possibly have a weapon in his pocket.

CUOMO: There's a lot of talk these days about the judgments that officers make, especially when they wind up in shootings, usually the controversy is about the officer doing the shooting, not being the victim. But what do you think this situation teaches about how situations change and the small window, literally seconds that officers have to make life and death judgments?

STEWART: Well, it just really shows you that you have to -- you have to be courteous to these people and at the same time you have to be cautious. With this video, it was less than four seconds from the time he drew the weapon from his coat until he killed Tyler.

CUOMO: And that's nothing, obviously. It's just a moment in time.

You've been on the job a long time. This assumption that people make that the officer's in control. The officer's controlling the situation, and when they shoot somebody and the person winds up being unarmed, it's almost automatically a bad decision by the officer. What do you say to people who believe that?

STEWART: Well, officers are trained to react so they're trained to handle situations like that. Officers don't just randomly come out and want to take force like that. It's really hard on them and they do -- they're trained, and I believe that most police officers really take more time than they should when they encounter somebody like that, just to be calm and try to diffuse the situation. They really go out of their way to do that.

CUOMO: Just like Tyler did. He was a rookie on the force, but he was showing the patience that you'd want to see in a seasoned officer, and also it shows this is the fear of the officer, right, is that any situation could turn into this situation. I mean, there was nothing particularly threatening about this guy circumstantially and what we see on the video, is that a fair point? STEWART: That's fair. He didn't look like he was at all a threat to

Tyler.

CUOMO: Now, look, obviously, you're talking about this as an officer and you want people to know things about policing, but I know this is your son and I know how hard this is for you and how hard it is to have these conversations. Your son called you shortly before he went on this call, right? Do you remember the conversation?

STEWART: Yes, I do.

CUOMO: Is there anything you can share about it?

STEWART: He had explained earlier in the day that he was looking for this person. Then when he called me he said he thought he had located him based on the -- a vehicle the guy drove away earlier in the day. He told me he was just going to make contact with him, that he didn't feel it was a big deal. He thought it was more criminal damage than it was domestic violence because apparently it involved something with an apartment and somebody damaged some items inside the apartment.

CUOMO: So he had his head in that place and he got to talk to you. At least you got to talk to him, especially with what was to follow. I know your family's hurting from this. I appreciate you so much coming out and addressing this situation and trying to help people learn from it, about what it's like to live life on the job. Thank you so much, Frank.

STEWART: Thank you.

CUOMO: And our best wishes to your entire family.

STEWART: Thank you.

CUOMO: Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Oh, Chris, what a terrible, terrible story and video to watch. It's nice to hear from his father trying to do some good.

We want to turn now to the deadly attacks in Paris because they have sparked debate over whether Muslims are to blame for the violence. Some even believe that the extremists represent a majority of Islam so how many terrorists are actually Muslim? We'll tell you that number.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: New rules easing trade and travel to Cuba go into effect today. For the first time in decades U.S. airlines will be able to fly routes to Cuba. Americans will be able to fly there for religious, educational and other purposes without the Treasury Department's permission.

CNN'S Karl Penhaul is live for us in Havana.

Tell us the latest, Karl. KARL PENHAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, why these new changes

do not mean is that Americans can come here and hit the beaches and knock back mojitos. As you rightly point out, this is travel for a certain number of categories that Americans will now not need any written permission to do -- religious visits, humanitarian visits, family-to-family visits, sporting visits as well. But it makes things easier.

What the Cuban government says it estimates this could open the door up to 1 million American visitors per year.

Now, in the short term what that could do is put a lot more money in the Cuban government's hands. Over a longer period of time, it could also put more dollars into the hands of ordinary Cubans who work in the tourist industry, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: A million tourists a year. Wow. The flood gates are going to open.

But, Karl, how really -- will it work if you don't have to OK it with the Treasury Department? Who do you have to tell you're going for an educational reason?

PENHAUL: Well, really nobody. There may be question when you get back to U.S. soil. You may have to sign an affidavit before you go saying I'm going for x, y, or z purpose.

In practice, however, nobody expects there to be the beach police here checking whether Americans are on the beach when they should be in church, for example, and checking whether they're drinking mojitos in contravention to U.S. law.

Of course, another of the main changes is the question of remittance as Cuban-American families will be able to send up to four times more money to Cuban relatives here, and that, again, will push a lot of extra U.S. dollars into the Cuban economy, and that could over time start chipping away at the socialist political system here, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely.

Karl, let's talk about that money. So, When Americans go to Cuba now they can use their credit cards? They can use their bank cards? They have to bring cash? How does it work?

PENHAUL: Well, good luck on the credit card front. That is somewhat tricky, to try and get somebody to take plastic. Cash really still is king here in Cuba. But, yes, there will be no limits on how much you can spend on your vacation. You can also take small amounts of rum and cigars back to the U.S.

But as I say, the important thing, and I think this is what President Obama's administration is really aiming at, is to inject U.S. dollars into the Cuban economy at the point where the U.S. administration thinks it will matter most, trying to get it to Cubans, ordinary Cubans on the bottom end that work as chamber maids in the tourist industry, have small businesses such as restaurants and can then set up or expand those businesses thanks to increased remittances. That will essentially take some of the economic control out of the government's hands because remember right now this is a communist command economy, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Karl Penhaul, thanks for all of that reporting. It is Friday. I believe there's a mojito in your future today.

Thanks so much, Karl.

Let's get over to Michaela.

PEREIRA: I'm not counting but there was four mojito references in that report.

Time for the five things you need to know for your NEW DAY.

At number one, at least 20 sleeper cells activated and ready to strike in France, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium. This chilling discovery made after major terrorist attacks thwarted in a deadly raid in Belgium.