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Cameron to Make Case for U.K. Airstrikes in Syria; Brussels Extends Maximum Terror Alert Level; CNN Reports Near ISIS Stronghold of Raqqah. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired November 23, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Together we will destroy this evil threat.

[05:58:42] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Maximum terror alert right now. Some 20 raids yielded 16 arrests.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is still this threat here for the capital city of Belgium.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What is going to be the standard to get that city up and running again if we don't catch the single person that they're looking for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: After Paris, the Sinai in the cross-hairs is here.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We just heard a distant buzz of what could have been two airstrikes. From where we're standing, here is the Kurdish frontline.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mali begins three days of national mourning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The country is under a state of emergency.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wrote another e-mail, and I said, "I do believe there are shooters here. And if I don't make it, I want you to know I love you."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Viewers in the United States and around the world, welcome. You are watching NEW DAY. We have some news in the war against ISIS. Is the U.K. about to join the all-out war against the terror group? British Prime Minister David Cameron meeting in France this morning, saying airstrikes and more must be done.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: This as the French president heads to Washington tomorrow to meet with President Obama, and major cities, including Paris and Brussels, take precautions to prevent further bloodshed.

Also, the manhunt for that eighth Paris attacker continues.

We have this story continued the way only CNN can. Let's begin with senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward in Paris. What's the latest, Clarissa?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Well, President Francois Hollande and British Prime Minister David Cameron went today to the scene of some of the worst violence in those attacks, the Bataclan theater, and they laid flowers there.

Afterwards, President Hollande spoke, and he laid out three main things that he wants to see happen in Europe to prevent more attacks of this nature happening.

The first thing he said: there needs to be an effort to improve and strengthen Europe's borders.

The second thing he said: there needs to be a major crackdown on weapons trafficking within Europe.

And the third thing he said: there needs to be an intensification of airstrikes on ISIS, in their territory, in Syria and Iraq. Prime Minister David Cameron certainly agrees with that. He's pushing parliament very hard to get the British to join the bandwagon, join the coalition, and join in those airstrikes on Syria.

In order to push this agenda, Hollande will be meeting tomorrow with President Barack Obama. He will also be meeting with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and he will be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Now here in France, authorities are trying to identify this man. I want you to take a look at this photograph. This was put on the Twitter account of French police. This man is believed to be one of the attackers who blew himself up outside the stadium. He is also believed to have traveled to France, using that refugee route. He's believed to have traveled with the other bomber, who we already know is traveling on what is believed to be a fake Syrian passport. French authorities here trying to identify both of these men, but today is the first time we've seen this photograph of this man.

And I have to tell you guys that security is still very tight here in France. We're hearing that all children going into schools today will have their bags searched by authorities. Parents are being told, don't congregate outside the school when you're dropping your kids off or when you're picking them up, and France has also taken the step of extending a ban on all forms of protests, all public gatherings, until the end of the month -- Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Clarissa. Thank you for the latest there.

Meanwhile, Brussels remains under the highest terror threat amid warnings of an impending attack there. Authorities arresting 16 people in a series of anti-terror raids across the city. This as the international manhunt for that eighth Paris attacker intensifies.

CNN senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen, is live in Brussels with that part of the story for us.

Fred, what do we know?

FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Michaela, absolutely, this city pretty much on lockdown. What you're seeing is there's a few people on the street, but really far less than you'd normally see on a Monday morning.

And one of the things we have to keep in mind is that this isn't only the capital of Belgium and a city that attracts a low of tourists, but this is also, de facto, the administrative capital of the European Union, as well. And to see so few people out on the streets on a Monday morning like this certainly is something that is a great deal -- a great cause for concern.

Now we were here last night, and there was a cordoned search operation. I'm right in the center of Brussels right now. And I can tell you, the soldiers that we spoke to, the police that we spoke to, they were very nervous as they were conducting searches here, trying to see whether or not there might be someone suspicious here in that area.

This place is still packed with soldiers. Behind me, you can see an MRAP vehicle that the Belgian military has placed here. And as you said, there have been several raids that went on overnight: 22 overall; 16 people were taken into custody.

However, the main person that they're looking for, Saleh Abdeslam, who of course, was apparently one of those implicated in the attacks in Paris, he is not among those who have been arrested, and as long as he is not arrested , this state of emergency here, the terror alert level that they have right here is probably not going to go away, although people are saying they're not sure how much longer they can carry on like that, with a major European city essentially in a state of lockdown.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely, Fred. What a situation. Thank you for that reporting.

Well, President Obama is back in Washington after his nine-day Asia trip. He returns to this country on edge after the Paris terror attacks, but he's urging Americans not to overreact and promising to destroy the terror group.

CNN's senior Washington correspondent, Joe Johns, is live at the White House with more.

Good morning, Joe. JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

The president arriving back here in Washington right around midnight after that long trip to Turkey, the Philippines, and Malaysia. And in that last speech in Kuala Lumpur, really giving a sense where his head is at after the attacks in Paris and also in Mali, wading into the notion that fear itself is part of the problem. Being afraid of the killers who attacked Paris, the killers who attacked Mali is, in and of itself, one of the biggest problems. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They're a bunch of killers, with good social media.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:05:00] JOHNS: So now, the president is going to have a whole week of dealing with some of these issues, including the visit of French President Hollande here at the White House on Tuesday. He's going to meet with him, talk more about the response to terrorism. After that, of course, Hollande moves on to Russia, as there are hopes that a broad coalition now can form to fight ISIS.

Back to you.

CUOMO: All right, Joe, thank you very much. Let's bring in CNN senior international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, and Michael Weiss, CNN contributor and co-author of "ISIS: Inside the Army of Terror."

Let's get to the ground there, Clarissa. The reports are that there is still this frenzy of activity to try to get their hands around the threat, that they keep learning more and more about potential urgency. What are you hearing and seeing?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think they keep learning more and more, every raid that do. And they've done more than 800 in the last week alone, Chris. But there's also a sense that this has spread beyond France now. We've seen these raids in Belgium. There's rumors that the eighth attacker, Saleh Abdeslam, was spotted in Germany or even the Netherlands. So this has really become now a pan-European effort.

But here in France, I would say one of the main focuses is trying to find out who was the third man in that Saint-Denis apartment where the architect of these attacks, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, was killed. We know that he was killed alongside a 26-year-old woman, believed to be his cousin, but we also know that there was a third man in that apartment, that he was wearing an explosive vest, and we don't yet know who he is.

In conjunction with that, authorities also still trying to identify, Chris, two of these bombers, who both blew themselves up at the stadium; who both allegedly took that refugee route, believed to be traveling on fake Syrian passports. So French authorities still trying to identify some of the key players who are involved with these attacks -- Chris.

CUOMO: Michael, when you're talking to the guys on the ground there who are doing the investigating, the word "overwhelmed" keeps coming up. That they have good capabilities, but in and around France, they have a unique situation there of a Muslim population that's disenfranchised, unusually radicalized, and has a lot of access to damage.

How unique is France compared to, let's say, the United States, in terms of should we be looking at them and be afraid that we're next?

MICHAEL WEISS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It's a little more unique than we are. It has a lot in common, I would say, with Great Britain. I lived in London for three years, and I saw this first-hand. I mean, there were entire districts, neighborhoods of London, where you feel like you're stepping into a foreign country. I mean, it has become that ghettoized, for lack of a better term, unfortunately.

The problem with something like this is, OK, you have this devastating attack. Really, Europe's 9/11, even eclipsing Madrid in terms of the spectacle and the sort of mass outrage.

You now have to go in and disrupt all of these networks and sleeper cells that you kind of, sort of knew existed, but didn't deem to be an imminent or credible threat.

CUOMO: Can they?

WEISS: No, I think it's very hard. I mean, we're talking now about a European-wide dragnet. Right? I mean, Clarissa just said this doesn't stay in France; this doesn't even stay in Belgium. It goes to Greece. It goes to Italy. It goes to Germany.

Within a matter of hours, if you're on the continent, you can be in any country. So Abdeslam could be anywhere. His confederates. I mean, we're still talking who is the third man? Well, who's the fourth, fifth and sixth guy we don't even know about?

According to CNN in January, Paul Cruickshank did a very good report and said there's been 20, according to European officials, that there's 20 sleeper cells scattered throughout Europe with as many as 180 operatives.

Well, you can do the math. How many terror attacks since then? I mean, of them, how many have been arrested and killed? There's quite a large -- the majority, in fact, remain, if that figure is to be accurate. So this is going to be months and months of police spade (ph) work, counterterrorism operations. We're not even -- we haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg.

CUOMO: That's assuming that this pressure from authorities doesn't spur more attacks, right? Because now you're going to panic on the part of the bad guys.

Clarissa, the result of a lot of this pressure is this increased recognition that the fight needs to be taken to Syria. What are you seeing in terms of possible public support of that? Because the France [SIC] had been unwilling to go in there and get on the ground, as well. Do you see a change?

WARD: Well, certainly, President Francois Hollande, that's been one of the main rallying cries that we've heard over and over again from him.

We are at war. We need to intensify efforts to hit ISIS in their home in Syria and Iraq. We know now that the French aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, has now arrived in the Gulf.

And essentially, what you're seeing him do this week is trying to see him rally support internationally for a more focused effort on attacking ISIS. He's got David Cameron, the British prime minister, here in town today. David Cameron has been trying to persuade the British parliament for some time now that the Brits need to be involved in this effort to attack ISIS with airstrikes inside Syria.

He's also going to be meeting with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, with President Obama, as we discussed, and also with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

[06:10:10] But there is a realization, I think, creeping in. You see it in editorials, in newspapers. You read it in analysis that airstrikes alone are not going to be enough to defeat this enemy. So perhaps there is a sense of creeping awareness or realization that more will need to be done.

But at this stage, I would say it's largely confined to editorials and analysis. I wouldn't say that you've seen any real outpouring of public support to do more than hit them with airstrikes.

CUOMO: Sounds right, Clarissa. When I got back here, I had a lot of messages from my buddies on this side that had been ignoring what they were like, slow down. The idea that the U.S., because Francois Hollande comes and visits, is going to get involved in something more than what's going on in Syria right now is far-fetched, at best. They just had a big attack. That's what's fueling him. The U.S. hasn't had it. They don't believe that there's the operational or public support for it. Your take.

WEISS: Yes, and look, I think if you talk to people at the State Department at the lower and middle levels, they're sort of sweating bullets every day. Saying, we've got, what, a year and change on the clock in this administration.

Let's just pray to God nothing happens here, because if it does, then you will see boots on the ground. You're going to see a ground force. And I think, look, it's inevitable. If you talk to any military commander official, past and present, on the record, off the record, they say, you cannot run a guerilla insurgency that runs a state-like apparatus, as superimposed on two countries, by dropping bombs from the sky.

I mean, Fallujah, 2004, we leveled that city. Leveled it. Turned it into a pocked moonscape. And within the first week of major combat operations, they had already set up shop in Mosul. That's how they operate.

So I think what we're doing, we're seeing is the president -- I agree with his urge to keep calm and not to kind of get alarmist, particularly on the Syrian refugee issue, which we can talk about another time, but there is this sense of inevitability. It's not going to be under his administration, but the next one.

CUOMO: Clarissa, Michael, we all know what the threat is. We also know what happens when you go in and fight it and then don't stay. So there are layers of decisions that will have to be made. Thank you very much for the perspective, Clarissa. Stay safe -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, some breaking news. Sixteen people rushed to the hospital following a shoot-out in a New Orleans park. Police say about 500 people, at least 500 people, including children and teens, were there filming a music video. Witnesses say that's when several people started shooting into that crowd. Detectives are combing the neighborhood, trying to find any surveillance video of the suspects.

Friends and family standing by "Washington Post" journalist Jason Rezaian after Iran's state news agency reported that he has been sentenced to prison. Iran not saying how long his sentence will be. His lawyer said Rezaian was charged with being a spy. The newspaper says he's innocent, and the State Department is calling on Iran to vacate his sentence and send him home. Rezaian had been held in an Iranian jail for nearly 500 days.

CUOMO: Donald Trump back on top of the polls. New numbers from ABC news and a "Washington Post" poll shows Trump holding his ten- point lead over Ben Carson among Republicans. But the frontrunner is under fire once again claiming he saw people in Muslim areas of New Jersey celebrating as the World Trade Center towers came crashing down. That has been wildly debunked.

He also appeared to justify the actions of some of his supporters, who got physical, really beat up a protester at a Trump event last week, saying, quote, "maybe he should have been roughed up."

PEREIRA: Well, perhaps you have never seen ISIS. In fact, you never have seen ISIS this close. CNN takes you within miles of the ISIS headquarters in Syria. What is life like in that terror stronghold? We have a CNN exclusive you do not want to miss, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:17:53] PEREIRA: In response to the terror attacks in Paris and the downing of a Russian jet, both France and Russia have ramped up airstrikes against ISIS targets in Syria. For the first time, CNN is getting a look at the situation on the ground in Syria. We are miles away from ISIS's stronghold, Raqqah.

CNN senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh made that daring journey, and he joins us now with his exclusive report -- Nick.

WALSH: Michaela, all the talk of airstrikes here, the intense pounding of Raqqah, is also coupled with discussions about a ground defense, and how can you dislodge ISIS from what they call their capital without troops on the ground? It is remarkable to see how Kurdish forces who have American support, how close they've actually got to Raqqah.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH (voice-over): After Paris, the Sinai, in the crosshairs is here. Raqqah, lost in the haze, yet they can hear it. Loud thuds, heaviest at dusk.

"Three days ago," says Barhos (ph), "we saw 40 airstrikes southerly hit just nearby, and then the French said that they'd started bombing. We'll do our best to avenge Paris."

He, like the other young Kurdish fighters here, have lost friends, but say fighting ISIS is a duty for humanity rather than vengeance, as they man a series of trenches and outposts about 20 miles from the city.

(on camera): We have just heard the distant thuds of what could have been two airstrikes, but from where we're standing, here is the Kurdish front line, a trench dug, as far as we can see, and then all in this direction, flat, open land, until you reach the outskirts of Raqqah, the capital of ISIS's self-declared caliphate.

(voice-over): Four Russian missiles hit Raqqah this day, activists said, but otherwise, it's the silence of stalemate in the desert.

Weapons here are scant. This man carries the AK-47 of his friend, who died eight months ago. Out here in the flat, open ground, with ISIS in the next village, they still scorn ISIS's leaders and welcome help.

[06:20:05] "If French, Russian, or American fighters," this commander says, "come here to fight, we'll cooperate with them, as we're all fighting to clean the area of ISIS for humanity."

ISIS left their mark on nearby Ayn al-Issa (ph), as has to fight for it. Even the mosque littered with mines.

The silence there is breathtaking. This is directly the road down to Raqqah, and you can just hear the complete absence of human life. There is little in victory left to fight for.

On the way out, we meet these guys. They don't look much like white knights, but that's what the Pentagon hopes they are. The Syrian democratic forces, getting American aid, who explain they've secured the major deflection of Sunni tribes inside Raqqah to fight ISIS.

"We weren't expecting this large number to join, but there are now 4,000 tribesmen," he says. "When we want to move, all of them are ready, and we've already managed to sneak weapons to them. We're moving forward."

Western leaders call this a global fight, but here, alone, you feel the dust, death, and determination.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: Nick, so powerful, what you've seen there and experienced. Give us an idea, from those that you're talking to on the ground, how effective those -- that air assault is.

WALSH: For those Kurds, they are a series of thuds in the distance of intense fire, but activists inside Raqqah have been giving a long list of targets, they believe, that have been hit by those French and possibly Russian airstrikes, too. And they seem to focus mostly on key parts of infrastructure. Large buildings and roundabouts. Something called the al Shabaab club -- It's a youth club, effectively -- hit in the past few hours alone.

Even suggestions, in fact that some of these munitions dropped, these activists say, we can't corroborate. Well, they have to say that our best source, really, independently outside that town, that in fact, phosphorous munitions, awful white-hot types of device that penetrate human flesh and kill everything in sight, really, have potentially been used, as well. Those airstrikes intense.

The question being, what's happened to civilians who may have been caught up in them and how did this large number of targets suddenly become available, given that U.S. craft has been over that city for months already now, Michaela.

PEREIRA: Airstrikes stepping up. Obviously, air travel is going to be a concern. We've learned over the weekend flights between Baghdad and Erbil were canceled. Tell us more about what is happening to air travel there.

WALSH: Well, all flights out of Iraq have been canceled for a 48-hour period, we understand. That includes those leaving for the Erbil area in northern Iraq and those in Baghdad, too. Until Wednesday morning, local time. That is because airport officials and security officials say, they are potentially concerned about a large number of cruise missiles flying across the country at that stage. That can only be from one direction. That will be the Caspian Sea, where the Russian navy has a substantial number of vessels.

As I should say, we did hear similar warnings about Beirut airport in the past few days. That turned out, the air space there was -- said it should close, but Lebanese government didn't adhere to that, nothing happened. But it does appear, according to what we're seeing, that some flights are being canceled here now. We have yet to see quite why what appears in the skies over Iraq, but that certain notion that, in the hours ahead, we may see intense bombardment, potentially from Russian craft in the Caspian.

PEREIRA: Certainly seems like a sign of that. Give us a sense of these Syrian democratic forces that you had time with. How well- equipped and prepared are they?

WALSH: We can't see them in their full, in their entirety, and there is certainly a belief that they are an essential part of making the Kurdish forces, the YPG, in so much of the fight against ISIS, to make it seem, frankly, less Kurdish to allow Syrian Sunni Arabs into their ranks, and to make the fight for Raqqah, which is a Syrian Sunni Arab city, seem less like a Kurdish land grab, so to speak.

Now, we saw some of them. They appear to be well-organized. They do certainly, I think, have Americans nearby. They would admit to that, but off-camera, they did mumble something to that effect, and they are obviously receiving training and weaponry, potentially.

Do they have the numbers? We simply don't know. We know they said in that report they have thousands of Sunni tribesmen inside Raqqah, willing to rise up and assist them. But that ground offensive, such a big part and optimism, frankly, I think, is the only thing you can say about it happening any time soon -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: Incredible report. Thank you so much for all of that and giving us a look inside the situation on the ground. Thanks, Nick.

CAMEROTA: Well, Mali is widening its investigation into Friday's hotel terror attack as a third group claims to be in on this siege. What an American survivor says about living through this attack, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:28:07] CUOMO: A third Islamist group is now claiming responsibility for Friday's deadly attack on a hotel in the capital of Mali. Now, at least 22 people were killed there, along with two of the attackers. Now Mali is widening its investigation. It's looking for more suspects. We're also learning more about what it was like inside. We have CNN international correspondent Dave McKenzie with more.

Morning, Dave, what do we know now?

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Morning, Chris. I'm right outside this hotel, which was attacked in this brutal terror rampage and hostage tacking, just a couple of days ago.

What we're learning is that authorities are widening the search, looking for both potential attackers and those who colluded with him to make this happen. There was definitely a level of planning in this attack. What we're learning is that they managed to walk into the so- called secure area, into the hotel, and start shooting people at random. I spoke to a specialist of the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta. She said that she was terrified, but her training saved her life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCKENZIE: Was there any point, really, any moment where you thought, OK, this is it? This is the end of the road? KATHIE FAZEKAS, AMERICAN MALI ATTACK SURVIVOR: When the shooting

came down the hallway, I was more nervous. I wasn't sure, but it wasn't going to end. I was going home. I knew I was going home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKENZIE: Well, Chris, she described how thankful she was that the Malian forces and American security agents freed her. They had a secret code that they used, a narcal (ph), a code which is obviously shared publicly and when they came to the door, they used that code. And then Kathie moved out of the barricade that she had created to the door, went out with those forces saying, "Merci, merci," all the way down the hall. She was very emotional, Chris, about those who lost their lives but seemed determined to come back to Mali and help -- Chris.

CUOMO: David McKenzie, unusual resolve there. And also resourcefulness, to find their way out of that situation. Let us know if anything develops there. Stay safe -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Well, world leaders zeroing in on ISIS. How the war...