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Russia: MetroJet Flight Brought Down by Bomb; Source: Massive Manhunt for Elusive Paris Terror Suspect; Kerry Meeting with Hollande in Paris. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired November 17, 2015 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: To you in the United States and around the world, this is a special NEW DAY from Paris. Alisyn and I are following new leads in the terror attacks here in Paris.

Also, we have information about another deadly ISIS attack, that MetroJet that was brought down in the Sinai, killing 224 people. Russian authorities now say it was a homemade bomb that did it. This comes from Vladimir Putin. From the top, they are saying they will take vengeance.

ALISY CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: That's right. We have all of the angles covered the way CNN can.

We want to get right now to Moscow and Matthew Chance.

Matthew, what's the latest?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, thanks very much.

That's right. Within the past hour, the head of the Russian security service, the FSB, has appeared on state television briefing Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, on the latest in the investigation into that MetroJet airliner crash that crashed last month killing 224 people on board, saying that we can say now, and I'm quoting him now, "We can say unambiguously that this was a terrorist attack." It seems that according to the FSB, traces of a foreign-made explosive were found in the airline debris and the passengers' belongings.

The FSB chief said that he estimated, the homemade explosive device on board was equivalent in power to one kilogram of high explosive TNT. So, this is the first time to be clear that it's been confirmed that it was a terrorist act and that it was a bomb that caused the downing of that MetroJet airliner on October 31st killing all 224 people on board. Already, there's been swift reaction from the Kremlin.

Vladimir Putin, of course, at that meeting. He addressed it saying, "We will search for those responsible everywhere no matter where they are hiding. We will find them in any place on the planet and punish them." So, Vladimir Putin vowing revenge against the culprits and against the people responsible for downing the airliner, and saying that he will take that retribution anywhere, where the investigation leads to, points to where the attackers were based. It was a very significant developments coming out of Russia in the past hour or so.

CAMEROTA: OK. Matthew, thank you for all of those developments.

We also have breaking developments for you in the Paris terrorist attacks, and the apparent intelligence failure in the months preceding them. A U.S. homeland security assessment six months ago raised the red flag about the suspected mastermind and suggested that ISIS was developing the ability to carry out more sophisticated attacks on the West.

Let's bring in our national security correspondent Jim Sciutto.

What have we learned about the warnings?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: So, we reported yesterday, speaking with the French security source, that they believe the mastermind in these attacks was a man named Abdelhamid Abaaoud. He's a Belgium national, but who was in Syria, and crucially close to the ISIS leader Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.

So, now, we know that the DHS, the Department of Homeland Security knew about this man, knew about his connection to a previous plot in Belgium in January to kill police officers there. That they sent out a warning that they tried to monitor him and also that they believe he was involved in a plot, very similar to the one we saw play out on the streets of Paris on Friday. They were developing a capability for a multi-act attack in a European capital.

So, you know, it is yet one more missed warning sign. We knew that several of the attackers were known to French police. Now, we know the mastermind was known not only to French authorities, European authorities, but to the U.S.

CUOMO: What's the missing piece between what they knew and what they didn't know which did not allow them to act to stop them?

SCIUTTO: This is the thing. This is the number we talked about a lot, 11,000. Just in France alone, 11,000 people suspected of ties to terrorism or radicalization, et cetera.

What they will say and I hear this from U.S. officials as well, is that you have numerous warnings like this. You have numerous possible plots that you are trying to extinguish every day, on any given day of any year. But I will tell you this, and you and I, we covered a lot of terror attacks. Often times when an attack happens, you will say, well, in hindsight is 20/20.

CAMEROTA: Of course.

SCIUTTO: We knew about this guy, or they had stopped him once before. But in this case, I have to say these are multiple information points here. You knew about the mastermind of a previous plot. You knew they were developing an attack in this mold. You had several of the attackers on a surveillance list, but on a warning list here. We know they don't have the resources to follow and monitor all of them.

But this is a remarkable number of signs to have been missed.

CAMEROTA: So, what about this mastermind? When they say they were monitoring him. What were they doing?

SCIUTTO: Well, they were trying to monitor him. That is the thing. It looks like they weren't able to monitor him.

He's an interesting detail -- apparently he faked had his own death or attempted to fake his death by having someone to make a phone call, to say, oh, poor Abdelhamid Abaaoud, he's dead now. Then use that cover to travel back and forth to Syria to Belgium to continue to plot attacks.

[05:05:04] And this is one issue. U.S. security officials were telling me in the past several days, they are concerned and French officials echoed this, that these attackers went dark. It's a warning we've heard some time. They were under surveillance and not using communications or encrypted communications. They were trying, but they couldn't find them.

CAMEROTA: Jim Sciutto, thank you. Stick around. We will have more questions for you throughout the program.

CUOMO: Right. So, we're going from a larger context of what was known to what they are trying to find out right now. And to be sure, the focus of the investigation is who else was involved, specifically an eighth attacker on the run.

The terrorist brother speaking out denying any knowledge, and we do know that over 100 new raids were carried out overnight. And that has become both a blessing and a curse for the French. We're going to talk about that more.

But let's go to Belgium and Ivan Watson. He is there tracking this manhunt.

Ivan, what do we know now?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a lot of the focus has been on three brothers hailing from Belgium, French nationals. Now, one of them, authorities say, was one of the suspected suicide bombers in the Paris attacks, Ibrahim Abdeslam. His brother, Salah Abdeslam, a 26-year-old, is the focus of this international manhunt.

The French and the Belgian authorities have put his name up. They believe that he may have helped rent two of the cars used in the attacks. He may have actually been one of the eighth attackers. He is on the run. Nobody knows where he is right now.

A third brother, Mohamed, well, he was briefly detained by Belgian authorities and released presumably because there was not enough evidence against him.

And he came out and spoke in defense of his brothers. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MOHAMED ABEDSLAM, BROTHER OF TWO SUSPECTS (through translator): You also need to understand that in spite of the tragedy, my parents are in shock. We do not realize yet what has happened. My family and I are affected by what happened. We found out by TV just like many of you. We did not think for a moment that one of our brothers was related to these attacks.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Now, the French president, he has said that the series of attacks was planned in Syria, but really organized here in Belgium. And it's not the first time that Brussels and in particular, the neighborhood I'm in right now, Molenbeek, heavily immigrant, heavily Muslim neighborhood has been implicated in international jihadi acts of terrorism.

In fact, the suspected mastermind of the series of attacks, a man named Abdelhamid Abaaoud, well, he originally hails from the neighborhood right now and he is believed to be somewhere in the Middle East. The Abdeslam brothers, they're from this neighborhood as well. Their family residence is, in fact, about 50 feet from where I'm standing right now.

Now, the Belgian authorities, they also made some arrests over the course of the weekend. They have since charged two suspects. We don't know their names yet with suspected acts of terrorism.

But also the threat levels have come up here, Chris. The Belgian football association canceled a match tonight in Brussels with Spain amid the security fears -- Chris.

CAMEROTA: All right. Ivan, stick around for one second. We do have more questions for you.

But, first, Secretary of State John Kerry vowing to ramp up security around the globe following the terrorist attacks here in Paris. He spoke after meeting with French President Francois Hollande.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: With Lebanon's attacks, with what's happened in Egypt, with Ankara, Turkey, with the attacks now in Paris, we have to step up our efforts to hit them at the core.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, Kerry went on to say that a clear strategy to take out ISIS is in the works. He said great attention needs to be placed on borders and movement of refugees in Europe. Kerry also announced that Hollande will travel to Washington next week for more talks. Our CNN chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour also

sits down with Kerry. She will bring us that interview later in the program. So, stick around for that.

CUOMO: All right. So, we got Ivan Watson. Let's bring back Jim Sciutto.

Let's talk about what's going on here. The good news is French authorities now have the obvious resolve. They are putting resources because of the state of emergency which is something that is controversial here about what rights are being taken and being suspended. Right now, the need is obvious.

Here is what I'm hearing from sources with knowledge of this investigation -- 100 plus raids overnight, additional ones. That's good. It's an impressive number. They are overwhelmed with the depth and the intricacy of the network they have here in France.

And they are saying that they are finding more and more leads to follow, but they cannot find the ones from the first batch of searches.

So, how do you deal with the amount of information you have and the amount of leads you can process into actionable deterrents?

[05:10:02] SCIUTTO: It comes about -- it comes down to prioritizing, right? I mean, that is the question. How do they decide who to put under house arrest, right?

And let's be honest -- and again, I don't I've never liked to jump on police or counterterror officials because there job is -- I mean, particularly in this country, they overwhelmed. So, how are they deciding who to focus the resources on now?

You have two things going on at once. You have preventative stuff. You are putting guys away who you are concerned with and now, you don't want to take a chance with. And then you have this active investigation trying to be find a missing eighth attacker or more support network for this attack and may be planning something initially. And then as you say, with each one, you have more information, more leads to trace down.

But I tell you one thing that struck me is that French authorities for some time have been encouraging people in communities to do their part. Like we have in the States. If you see something, say something. Here if you know someone that is something suspicious.

One of the attackers we know, Sami Amimour from the Bataclan, his parents have aggressively gone to police. His father had even gone to Syria, to try to get him out of Syria. His mother warned the local police saying, listen, my son has gone nuts, right? He has been radicalized.

He was on the list of the 11,000 of people who are under watch. But, you know, how much more of a warning can you expect to have and how much more can people do than his own mother go to the police and say I'm worried this guy is going into terrorism? And yet, he was able to carry out the attack.

CAMEROTA: Right. Even with that, he was reported.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Ivan, Jim has told us here in France there are 11,000 people with some possible terrorist ties. Can you explain to us what the nexus is with Belgium and Brussels? And particularly the neighborhood where you are? Why is that such the epicenter now?

WATSON: Yes, Alisyn, per capita, Belgium contributes more volunteer foreign fighters to Syria and Iraq than any other western country. Up to -- close to 500 from this country, a tiny country of 11 million people. A lot of them seem to come from this neighborhood. Again, a heavily immigrant Muslim neighborhood with high unemployment, some 40 percent youth unemployment.

You have suspects here involved in previous attacks. Just last August when a Moroccan international attacked on a train on the way to France from Brussels. He was believed to have lived here. The mastermind of the attacks Abdelhamid Abaaoud also hailed from this neighborhood, Molenbeek originally.

Now, I spoke with Belgian justice minister yesterday. He conceded that part of the problem is the way that the city is policed, he says there are six different police forces, 19 different municipal mayors, and they are clearly not coordinating well enough to share information to try to figure out what's going wrong.

There's also some racial ethnic tensions here. You've got a predominately white police force here in a neighborhood that is a heavily immigrant, where you hear Arabic, Turkish, Urdu on the streets, almost as much as you hear French, which is one of the native languages here.

Belgium itself is divided between people who speak Belgian and Flemish. That's making complications with the law enforcement agencies here. But then there's also this deep problem, how is this one neighborhood is again and again recruiting down and an organizational point for acts of international terrorism.

It's is something that Belgium is going to have to struggle with. Residents are frustrated with the media spotlight. But there is no question that a number of people, particularly in the recent attack, originated from here and may have in fact organized car rentals here from this very neighborhood -- Alisyn.

CUOMO: The consensus is that it's more symptomatic though, that Belgium is a symptom, not the cause of what is a disease of terror. There is an unspoken thing here in France. We learned of it at "Charlie Hebdo" and again now. There is a second class citizenship failed to this emerging Arab and Muslim population here.

Yes, they are here, yes, they are French citizens, but they feel isolated and cut off. The secularism of what France is known for doesn't play to their heavy identity of faith and there's not a level of acceptance. When you have that isolation, other things can wind up taking root.

SCIUTTO: Much more insular communities here and elsewhere in Europe than we have in the States frankly, much less assimilation in those populations.

CAMEROTA: Jim and Ivan, thank you very much. Stick around, we'll talk to you obviously throughout the program.

There is other news to tell you about. Michaela is standing by in New York to bring us more.

Good morning, Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you.

Here's some headlines for you at 14 minutes past the hour.

There's growing fallout after officials revealed one suspect in the Paris attacks slipped into Europe hidden among Syrian refugees.

[05:15:00] Now, more than half of U.S. governors say Syrian refugees are unwelcomed in their state. At least 27 governors oppose administration plans to resettle 10,000 Syrians in the next year in the U.S.

We're going to speak with the first governor to go on the record fighting the administration's plan, Alabama's Robert Bentley. He'll join us in our 8:00 hour.

The mayor of Minneapolis wants officials to open a civil rights investigation into the fatal police shooting of a black man last weekend that sparked angry protests. More than 50 people were arrested as protesters shutdown a section of the I-94 freeway for three hours. 24-year-old Jamal Clarke was shot as also tried to arrest him. Witnesses say Clarke was unarmed and on the ground when he was shot.

Confirmed tornadoes touching down in Texas. One, in fact, leveled a Halliburton plant in the state's panhandle. Emergency crews worked into the night trying to contain a chemical spill at that facility. We're told two deputies were exposed to leaking chemicals. No one else was inside when the tornado hit.

Check out this funnel cloud spotted in Miami -- Miami, Texas, in fact. Several thousand people lost power in the region.

So, we will continue to watch that weather here and your headlines. But for the meantime, let's head back to Paris with Chris and Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Michaela, thanks so much.

Well, French President Francois Hollande says his country is at war with ISIS. He is calling for a global coalition to wipe out the terrorist with the U.S. and Russia teaming up. Is all of this possible? We will explore that.

Stick around.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:20:50] CAMEROTA: U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and French President Francois Hollande meeting this morning to figure out how to fight ISIS. Hollande is calling for a global coalition to fight them.

We turn to our CNN international anchor Hala Gorani.

Hala, what do we know about this meeting and the plan?

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Well, the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry announced that the French president would be travelling to Washington next week. That was new. We hadn't heard that before.

We also heard that the COP21, this is a big climate change conference, will go ahead the first two days of December with heads of state present. We don't know if any of these events will be scaled back. It is possible perhaps that the heads of states and governments will spend a little bit less time on the ground. But there have been calls for postponement or cancellation of this climate change conference.

So, these are two important things that came out of the meeting with the French president.

CUOMO: How much of a challenge is internal? Specifically for the French? We are hearing again these cultural themes that we heard after "Charlie Hebdo." Yes, the Arab and Muslim populations are French, but it's French in quotes, there's the sense of being second class citizens and not integration.

What they are learning with the raids is there is so much penetration, that the network is so much broader than they expected. How do you deal with that?

GORANI: Well, I think it's a huge Muslim population. I mean, people have to remember, it is the largest Muslim population in Europe. France has about 4 million Muslim. A vast majority are not well integrated.

One the major ministers, the education minister in France is an Arab French -- of Arab Muslim origin minister. So, you have integration. There is that small minority of disenfranchised Muslims and perhaps some of them were working class, lower income neighborhoods in France, where you have the vulnerable to brainwashing, vulnerable to recruitment Muslim French people. You do have that.

But one of the interesting aspects is the mother of one of the suspected bombers went to the mayor of -- her local mayor and said, "I'm concerned my son is radicalized. He's in Syria. What do I do?"

So, there were warning signs. When people say, well, the community needs to speak out more, in this case of this mother.

CUOMO: But he was on a watch list, what else could they have done? You cannot arrest somebody for what they're thinking.

GORANI: You cannot arrest somebody for what they're thinking. He was in Syria at the time. It is a failure of intelligence, some would say, if the mother came forward, he was on a watch list and yet participated in this mass attack.

CAMEROTA: Yes. So, Hollande, as we've said, has called this an act of war. He has said the response would be merciless. We have seen overnight, the past few nights, this bombing campaign and airstrikes campaign.

So, do you sense the attitude of the French changing in terms of their willingness to actually be aggressive and undertake war?

GORANI: I think with many countries including the United States, there is no appetite for ground troops, perhaps special forces in some cases.

But the idea somehow that France should intensify airstrikes on some of these ISIS targets, clearly you feel that people here this is different from "Charlie Hebdo." This was a traumatic event for France. They were targeted in their lifestyle, terraces of cafes, et cetera, concert venues, football stadium.

So, yes, there is more of an appetite for that. In fact, what the French president is saying we are going to bring up the deployment of our big aircraft carrier, Charles de Gaulle. It's going to the eastern Mediterranean. We are going to intensify air strikes.

But when you speak to analysts, they will tell you, this is still a very small operation compared to what might be needed to defeat the group.

CUOMO: That's true. Quick take on this. There's a play in the U.S. media that this is the 9/11 for France. People last night were saying to me push back on that.

Look, this is terrible. It gives us an acknowledgment of the new reality. There is no big hole in the ground where the Eiffel Tower once was.

What is the perspective on how big a deal this is, on how France will change after this?

GORANI: Look, it is a big idea. I really haven't heard even many French people saying this is our 9/11. I think these types of analogies sometimes are a little bit sensitive. It's difficult to compare atrocities and compare which one is worse and which one is not as traumatic.

But what is clear is that compared to "Charlie Hebdo" in January, this is a bigger deal for France.

[05:25:02] "Charlie Hebdo" was an obvious target. This was a satirical magazine that was threatened before.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

GORANI: A kosher Jewish supermarket, an obvious target for Islamist -- radical Islamists. This was completely different. And, in fact, you sense the panic even when there was a false alarm right where we are standing, hundreds of people started trampling over each other. Babies being pulled out of -- this was just one false alarm. It's different this time.

CUOMO: And no protests about the state of emergency, which is also telling here.

CAMEROTA: Thank you, Hala. Great to get your perspective on all of that.

CUOMO: So, in terms of what they do politically, that stands to come. What is going on militarily is very obvious. There is a new round of airstrikes against ISIS. Launched by the French and now full members of the coalition in Syria, but there's also a feeling as we have been discussing that fighting from the air will not be enough. What happens next? We'll discuss.

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