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Three Woman Detained in Terror Investigation Released by French Authorities; More than 250 Yazidis Released by ISIS; Pope Francis Visiting Philippines

Aired January 18, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And this morning we're working on two breaking stories. First, look at these new images of ISIS freeing more than 200 members of the Yazidi religious community in Iraq. They were held captive more than six months. Most of them elderly men and women in poor health.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Also another breaking news story. French authorities just released three women who were detained in Paris as part of a terror investigation. Nine others are still in custody right now. And we're so grateful for your company as always. Happy Sunday to you. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you. We're going to start with Pamela Brown who is anchoring our special coverage from our Paris bureau.

PAUL: Good morning, Pamela and what is happening there right now?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to both of you. Victor and Christi, there are some major new developments this morning in the investigation on the deadly Paris terror attacks. We're learning this morning that French authorities have now released three women who were detained. Nine other people remain in custody here in France. And we're also learning that America's top diplomat Secretary of State John Kerry will cohost an emergency meeting on how to confront what happened - what happened on Thursday in London. This is violent protests are flaring in the former French colony of Niger against the French magazine "Charlie Hebdo." The demonstrators that you see in this video are furious because "Charlie Hebdo's" latest edition published after terrorists killed cartoonist as its offices, portrays the Prophet Muhammad on its cover.

Well, France is ready if there's another potential terror strike. That's what officials say. And we're going to have more on the breaking news about the three women who were released as we know here in Paris. Let's bring in now senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann. Jim, I have been here for a couple of days in Paris, I have noticed that more security guards are on the streets. What are you seeing in terms of the security measures?

All right. It seems like we're having some technical issues that we're going to work out. But in the meantime we're going to go to Ivan Watson because he's been following another big breaking story, the CNN has been on top of Nadasi (ph), the terror cell that has been broken up in Brussels. But we know, more people are on the run. I've been watching. What are you hearing especially in regards to the Greek investigation that's taking place right now?

IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well budget authorities are keeping a lot of the details about suspects close and not revealing a lot because they say they do not want to endanger their investigation. But to recap, basically, Thursday night Belgium police carried out a raid against a suspected jihadi cell in the Belgian town of Verviers. The suspect opened fire on the police, and two of them were subsequently killed. A third captured.

Belgium authorities still aren't identifying these suspects. They say they now have, as a result of different raids, pressed charges against five Belgium citizens accusing them of participation in a terrorist organization. They're also pressing those same charges against two more Belgium citizens that were arrested by French authorities trying to cross the border from France into Italy. The cell that they went after Belgium authorities say were plotting imminently, we're told, an attack, some kind of attack against Belgium police. And they were even found to have in their possession, not only weapons, guns, Kalashnikov rifles and explosives, but also police uniforms. Now, in addition to this, since that raid Thursday night, Pamela, we've learned that the Belgian authorities have reached out to police in Greece to conduct some kind of joint investigation there. Both sides being very careful not to link this, not to confirm any links of this to the suspected jihadi cell in that Belgium town of Verviers. But definitely, the timing is suspect and it's clear that the Belgians are looking across borders to some of their citizens that they believe have been moving across Europe. Pamela.

BROWN: When we spoke yesterday, Ivan, we talked about the increased security measures there in Belgium. Could more soldiers be deployed, especially in the light of the fact that it's believed that other people who were part of that terrorist cell could still be on the run?

WATSON: Definitely, the Belgium government has taken a very unusual step to -- and very symbolic step to deploy now what is approaching, they say, 300 soldiers in two Belgian cities. They're expected to have 300 soldiers deployed by Tuesday. That hasn't been done, Belgium hasn't seen soldiers on the streets of Belgian cities in more than 30 years, we're told. So, it's a highly unusual step. But it's also pretty symbolic if you consider that France whereby where you are, has some 10,000 soldiers deployed since those "Charlie Hebdo" attacks. But it does show that the Belgium government is taking the threat very seriously since that raid I talked about Thursday night. These soldiers being deployed outside places like the U.S. Embassy here in Brussels, outside the European parliament. This is the capital of the European Union, for example. And outside a number of Jewish institutions both here in Brussels and in the city of Antwerp. This little country has the dubious distinction of having more suspected Jihadi volunteers per capita that have gone to the Middle East than any other country in Europe. Pamela.

BROWN: Any idea of why that is, Ivan? WATSON: It says something, perhaps, about the alienation of immigrant communities here in Belgium, that they do not feel connected, they don't feel part of Belgian society as a minority here. And it says also something about that powerful magnetic pull that not only the Syrian civil war has had for hundreds, if not thousands of European citizens, but also in particular that militant group, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. Pamela.

BROWN: All right. Ivan Watson, thank you very much from Brussels there. Now we're going to turn to another breaking story. On the -- at least of those three women here in Paris. Now we can bring in senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann for more on that. Jim, is there anything more that we know about these women and how long can France and these other E.U. countries detain people?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORESPONDENT: Well, basically they can retain people for 48 hours without a lawyer present. Beyond that they've got - in terrorism cases they can go another 48 hours, which is what -- we are seeing here. In fact, because this is a terrorism case, so they can go 48 hours without having the suspect in contact with their lawyers. Basically, in this case, according to what one of the prosecutors told us was that they have raked abroad path, as he put it. Basically, they're going out after anybody they know who had contact in this case with Ahmed (ph) Coulibaly, who was one of the three terrorists involved in the -- shootouts. He was the one that took over the kosher grocery store on the eastern -- of Paris. Anybody that had any contact with him is being taken in and questioned. And we've got - still got nine people now that they're holding for questioning. Eight men and a woman. And of those nine we are, according to reports, media reports out there, two left traces of DNA in Coulibaly's affairs. For example, in his weapons cash, one of the pistols apparently had the DNA of one of the suspects that's been arrested. And another suspect has been arrested, and left some traces of DNA in a car that was used to take Coulibaly to the kosher supermarket.

So, they've had some kind of contact with him. The question is what exactly did they do? What exactly -- what was the contact? Were they supplies -- logistics support. Were they just friends? And that's what the police are talking to him, about it will go on for a while yet. What ought to be interesting, though, is that at the end of this 96-hour period here, the question will be will they be charged with anything. Because at the end of that they have to be charged or they have to be released. So, we'll see what happens at that point. Pamela.

BROWN: Still very much a developing story there. Jim Bittermann, thank you very much.

Meantime, Secretary of State John Kerry will head to London on Thursday to talk about the next phase on the war on ISIS. He's going to join British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and up to 20 other foreign ministers from the military coalition, the ISIS military coalition including members of the Arab states.

Joining us now, Peter Neumann, he joins me actually from London, and he's director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence. Peter, what if anything, do you expect to come out of these talks? Do you expect anything concrete to happen as a result?

PETER NEUMANN, DIR., INTL CENTER FOR STUDY ON RADICALIZATION: I think there's certainly a desire by certain European countries, especially France, of course, to step up the war against ISIS. The question is how exactly are you going to do that? I think it would be very dangerous for combat on the ground troops by Western countries to become involved. Because, to some extent ISIS is aching for that. It wants to kill Americans, French, British in Muslim countries. It wants to be able to claim that Western countries are on the ground, are, quote-unquote, occupying Muslim lands, because it believes that that is going to be beneficent to them. So the question is, how can you step it up without crossing that red line of having on the ground combat troops?

BROWN: And in light of that, we know that officials want to train 5,000 rebels, the Pentagon announced that it's going to send 400 troops to train these Syrian rebels. So, what do you think about that? Do you think that's the right call?

NEUMANN: I'm a little bit pessimistic here because we've heard these announcements so many times before over the past two years. And if you consider that there are literally tens of thousands of combat soldiers, if you want, or terrorists out there in Syria fighting on behalf of the Islamic State and on behalf of other extremist groups, having 5,000 people trained -- and this is going to take, you know, perhaps one or two years. I wonder what difference that will make on the ground in the foreseeable future. I'm quite skeptical.

BROWN: But as U.S. officials say, this is a marathon, not a sprint. There's no quick fix to this. Peter Neumann, thank you very much for coming on to share your perspective. We appreciate it.

NEUMANN: Thank you.

BROWN: And Christi and Victor, back to you in Atlanta.

PAUL: Thank you so much, Pam.

Listen, wondering, you might be what happened while you were sleeping, well the president announced a plan to change your taxes. Yes, getting down to an economic nitty-gritty. We've got details for you.

BLACKWELL: Plus, two fugitive teens who were the subject of a multistate manhunt are captured. Just ahead, where police found them and what happened when they were arrested.

PAUL: And as we mentioned at the top of the show, we're following breaking news, ISIS freeing hundreds of people held captive in Iraq. Why would they do this? This is against everything we know about them. We have new images of all of it coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLACKWELL: All right, here's a look at some developing stories right now. Two Kentucky teenagers who were the subject of a massive manhunt across double states, they've now been caught. 18-year old Dalton Hayes and his 13-year old girlfriend, Cheyenne Phillips were found sleeping in a stolen pickup truck in Panama City Beach, Florida. Police say the two were arrested without any incident. Now the teens were wanted on several felony charges, including stealing at least three cars with guns inside. And coming up, in our 7:00 hour, we'll speak with the mother of that 13-year-old, of the 13-year old Cheyenne Phillips.

Hundreds of people gathered in Washington to support the nation's police officers in what has been dubbed the Sea of Blue rally. Organizers put together the event to counter what they call an anti- police sentiment expressed in the wake of several controversial police incidents, including the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Supporters stress that every profession has its bad apples and most police officers are good people.

Pro-golfer Robert Allenby posted this selfie. Look at it. It's happened after he said he was kidnapped, beaten and robbed after failing to make the cut at the Sony Open this weekend in Hawaii. Allenby says he was at a bar when he was abducted, thrown into a car, driven 6.5 miles away, and that's when robbers, according to Allenby, took all of his money and a cell phone and then dumped him in a park. Police are reviewing surveillance video, of course, hoping to find the people responsible.

And look at this photograph. It's from Oregon. This shows a man pinned between two semis after a 70-car pileup in the eastern part of the state. If you can't tell, this is one semi. This is another. You see the man's head peeking out here in what's left of the cab of his pickup truck. This is remarkable this man survived this crash. Witnesses say he escaped with only scrapes, and you can see him here, just scrapes to his head. Vow. Christi.

PAUL: I can't believe that was a pickup truck at one point.

BLACKWELL: Yeah.

PAUL: Good.

BLACKWELL: Just (INAUDIBLE) now.

PAUL: All right. Thank you.

Now, listen. If you're still a little blurry eyed this morning, this is going to wake you up. President Obama wants to make some changes, major changes to what you pay in your taxes. He's willing to fight a Republican controlled Congress to make this happen, apparently. As the president gets ready for Tuesday's State of the Union address, we've learned that he wants to raise taxes on the country's top earners, offer more tax breaks to the middle class. Now, that's something likely won't sit well with the GOP just based on history. Erin McPike joins us by phone with more. So, Erin, what -- specifics have you learned about the president's address? ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christi, what we're hearing now is

that he's going to propose a $500 tax credit for married couples who both have jobs. And what the intention of that is basically ease to help with the cost of child care. And the idea is that both spouses who want to work should be able to. And this is supposed to help them out. Now, he also wants to increase the top childcare credit to $3,000. But they're saying that the total cost for all of this is going to be $235 billion. And the way to pay for that, he is saying, is to raise the tax rate on capital gains from 20 percent to 28 percent. So raising the tax rate on the highest earning Americans. But already we're hearing from Republicans in Congress who are very upset with this idea, Brendan Buck who is the spokesman for Paul Ryan, who's now the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, says, "This is not a serious proposal. Well, obviously, this is going to meet with a lot of resistance from Republicans in Congress."

But I have to tell you that there is this populous strain going on in both parties right now. We are talking about this yesterday with Mitt Romney and his remarks on Friday night in California to the Republican, the RNT gathered there that he's saying that some changes need to be made. So in both parties we're seeing this populous strain. So, there may be some Republicans who are open to some of this. But by and large, Republicans are likely not going to be willing to pass this, Christi and Victor.

PAUL: All righty. Erin McPike, we appreciate it so much.

Coming up next hour, by the way, we're explaining who could win, who could lose from the tax plan. So, a lot more discussion on that throughout the morning.

MCPIKE: Thank you.

PAUL: Thank you, Erin. Victor?

BLACKWELL: All right, thank you, Christi. Pope Francis is in the Philippines and millions were there to celebrate mass with him this morning. You see all the pictures here.

We've got a bit of this message, we'll bring this to you.

Plus, the breaking news out of France this morning, three women detained after the Paris terror attacks now released. We'll bring you the latest on this increasing number of Paris terror probes, not just in France, but across Europe. We've got the latest next.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POPE FRANCIS (speaking Latin)

PAUL: Pope Francis there in the Philippines this morning. Millions celebrating mass with him in Manila. And today, by the way, is the pope's final full day in the Philippines concluding his six-day tour of Asia. Now, CNN's Anna Coren is live in Manila. Anna, I was reading that some people were jumping over barricades and running towards the pope's vehicle just to try to get to him. Help us understand what the mood is like there with this visit?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's been incredible, Christi. He has received a rock star reception during his time here in the Philippines. And certainly as he came to celebrate mass in the park behind me, the crowds just went crazy. They just wanted to get as close to the pope as possible. He traveled in his popemobile despite the rain. It didn't stop pouring throughout the entire mess, but he traveled around, stopped along the way, kissed babies. And as I say, just got close with the people.

He is a pastor. He is a pope of the people. And we saw that when he went to Takloban yesterday meeting with the survivors and the families of the victims who lost their loved ones during Typhoon Haiyan back in 2013. And again, when he delivered mass, so his messages of looking out to the poverty, preserving family, looking out to children, that really, really just rang true to the parishioners that were here.

You have to remember, the Philippines is a deeply religious country, home to the third largest Catholic population in the world. 18 million Catholics reside here, and while there has been a bit of a split as far as social issues are concerned, progressives wanting the Catholic Church to evolve to change so it doesn't become irrelevant, they're also big fans of Pope Francis who message of inclusiveness, and acceptance, and love, has really brought those -- those sheep, if you like, back into the flock, Christi.

PAUL: Yeah, I read that his message was one of empathy, which I think is really becoming a theme of his legacy. And you mentioned it briefly. He had this message of how we need to focus on young people and guiding them and protecting them. Were there a lot of young people in the audience and how did that resonate?

COREN: Look, the Philippines has a huge young population. And that was a theme throughout this entire visit about nurturing the young, caring for the young, every single child and making sure that they reach their full potential. We have to remember that here in the Philippines 20 percent of the population lives in poverty, they live below the poverty line on less than $2 a day. And while this is a country going through incredible economic growth, those fruits are not trickling down to the poor. So he had strong messages for the government, the leadership of not just the government, but also of the church to end corruption and make sure that the poor are also included, that they're lifted up as this country prospers. But certainly that message of inclusiveness just reaching out to everybody here reassuring them that they too belong, Christi

PAUL: Anna Coren, we so appreciate you giving us a sense of what's going on there. Thank you so much. Victor?

BLACKWELL: This morning Europe is on high alert after a string of anti-terror raids. Coming up, how the troops are now working side by side with local police and why more could be on the way.

Also, breaking news out of Iraq. ISIS has freed hundreds of people held for captive -- or held captive, rather, for six months. We've got new images coming in here.

Plus, CNN is on the ground in Yemen. We're tracking the Kouachi brothers' ties to Jihad in a place known for being a training ground for terrorists.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Mortgage rates dropped this past week. Take a look.

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