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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Report: AQAP Claims Responsibility For "Charlie" Terror Attack; Officials: Three French Terrorists Killed; FBI Warns Law Enforcement After Paris Attack

Aired January 09, 2015 - 16:30   ET

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

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JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I want to go back to this video, this remarkable video that we got in our breaking news, our World Lead, which is -- let's look at this. This is from the siege at a kosher supermarket earlier today. French police going after the alleged terrorist, Amedi Coulibaly, who had already told French police -- there he is being killed.

We stopped the frame before actually the bullets hit. He'd told French media that he'd already killed four hostages and that he had targeted this kosher market specifically because he wanted to go after Jews. There he is right there, Amedi Coulibaly. He's now dead.

But his female companion, Hayat Boumeddiene, is still wanted. Let's go to the breaking news that we got from our friend, Jeremy Scahill of "The Intercept," which is an online publication.

Jeremy citing an al Qaeda source said that AQAP, al Qaeda in Yemen, the Arabian Peninsula, is now claiming responsibility for the deadly terrorist attack on the satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo."

As of now, CNN has not been able to independently confirm this information. Let's go to our guest now, CNN terror analyst, Paul Cruickshank, and Daveed Gartenstein-Ross. Thank you so much for being with us, Gentlemen. It appears AQAP is claiming responsibility. That seems very significant, Paul.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERROR ANALYST: It is very significant. CNN hasn't authenticated this yet. The U.S. government -- U.S. intelligence community hasn't authenticated this yet. So I think we have to be a little bit cautious still.

But it does appear that an operative with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is claiming responsibility for this. This is after we learned that one of the brothers trained with the group in Yemen in 2011.

And from what we know about al Qaeda in Yemen, you wouldn't be allowed to train with a group unless you took an oath of loyalty to the leader and you actually formally join the terrorist organization.

So think that sometime today there's been some thought that they had some ownership over this. They're now saying they directed this plot.

TAPPER: Right. Of course, it squares with, as you said, the intelligence community in the United States and in Europe saying that one of the brothers, one of the now dead terrorists, Said Kouachi, who is 34 years old, had traveled to Yemen.

Also one of the Kouachi brothers earlier today telling a French TV station that Anwar Al Awlaki, the American-born cleric who was with al Qaeda, had been one of the people who financed this operation. How credible do you find that?

It's 2015 and Al Awlaki was killed in 2011 by an American drone. How credible do you find it that it would be four years later Awlaki would have a hand in this ugly incident?

DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS, SENIOR FELLOW, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSE OF DEMOCRACIES: It's hard to assess the claim of responsibility and hard to assess that particular claim right now. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula is unique amongst al Qaeda's branches and that it's both very close to the core.

Waishi (ph) is a high level leader there. He's also the general manager of the al Qaeda organization, which places him at the very top hierarchy. They've increasingly been responsible for al Qaeda's external operations.

Certainly if they were to -- if Awlaki personally funded and directed this particular plot, that would have involved a great deal of planning in advance and foresight.

It's possible he intended it to occur much sooner and they delayed the operation. But right now, it's really very difficult to assess the credibility of that claim.

TAPPER: Paul, some of the other claims that officials are trying to assess the credibility of and media as well have to do with a claim made by Amedi Coulibaly, the Algerian terrorist who laid siege at this kosher supermarket earlier today, saying that he did have a relationship with the Kouachi brothers, the two terrorists who killed 12 people at "Charlie Hebdo."

He claimed that U.S. intelligence officials or European intelligence officials been able to make a specific connection between Amedi Coulibaly and the Kouachi brothers?

CRUICKSHANK: I think that's quite well-established at this point that there was a connection, that they were friends, that they were all involved in an attempted prison break plot for an Algerian terrorist who's in French jail in 2010.

So I think that's now quite well-established that there was a relationship between these people. They're claiming these were synchronized attacks that they were working together in this plot. I think we're going to find out a lot more in the hours to come.

TAPPER: And, Daveed, I do want to ask you how you think this entire episode will impact propaganda and recruitment, obviously that's been a big fear, in Europe, in the United States, the ability of these groups, ISIS, AQAP, to radicalize and recruit normally what would be normally one hopes peaceful citizens?

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: I think it will have a significant impact. It will have an impact in a few ways. One is it will have an impact because it's another incident in the context of a chain of attacks which shows what the power of an attack can be, how it can captivate a nation.

This was an urban warfare-style attack, which would spread over a number of days. Secondly, targeting of media specifically, people who are deemed as offensive to the Islamic faith.

I think we will unfortunately see that replicated. And a third way, there's a competition between al Qaeda and the Islamic State for control over the global jihadi movement. And this is going to factor in heavily between a propaganda war between the two.

TAPPER: All right, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross and Paul Cruickshank, thank you so much for being here.

This intense day isn't over for authorities in France even after three other terrorists were killed today. Let's go live right now to Frederik Pleitgen who is live north of Paris.

Frederik, what do we know about the search for the suspected female accomplice, Hayat Boumeddiene?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, well, it's very interesting, Jake, that no one had ever heard of this woman beforehand, even while these events were going on around "Charlie Hebdo." And now all of a sudden she is the prime suspect in all of France.

Now what we know right now is police are searching for her, apparently searching in Paris to see if they can find her there. It's been reported that apparently she was part of that siege in that kosher supermarket and that some believe that she might have gotten out when the hostages were escaping from that place.

Now what we're hearing is that's not really clear. She might have never been there. But authorities are implicating her in the death of a policewoman on Thursday. Remember that Amedi Coulibaly went up to a police checkpoint in Paris a day before and shot a policewoman who was killed.

And she was, Hayat Boumeddiene, was implicated in that as well. The interesting thing is even before the siege happened today on the kosher supermarket. The police in Paris was putting out wanted signs of both him and her.

Obviously she is his girlfriend and apparently they've been together for a couple of years. Some people even claim that she is his wife and that she obviously went through this whole radicalization process with him as well.

There are pictures that showed up in a French magazine today that show him and her apparently shooting something like crossbows somewhere in the French countryside. So this radicalization process is something apparently these two went through together.

Now, of course, after all these other suspects have been killed, the police is putting extra effort into trying to find her because right now, she is the only link, the only person who is still alive from this greater plot, who could shed some sort of light as to what these people were trying to achieve, who the people behind this are and how this all came to be and what exactly they wanted to do with all this.

TAPPER: Right. The only person we know of that knows all the details are who's still alive.

PLEITGEN: Yes, exactly, of course.

TAPPER: I do want to ask you, you're at the site where the Kouachi brothers were killed earlier today. Tell us what you're learning about how that raid went down.

PLEITGEN: Yes, it was really bizarre in many ways. Very strange twists went on as all of this unfolded. The actual raid that happened, I have to say, compared to what went down in Central Paris, what went down here was very clean.

I would say that the actual shootout lasted less than a minute. We're about 400 yards away from that printing shop where all this happened. We heard gunshots, a damp detonation, a single gunshot and then more detonations and then it was all over.

I would say it took less than a minute. We are reconstructing that apparently the two terrorists came out, opened fire on the police. The police shot back, single shots, very accurate. And shot off those stun grenades as well. All this went down very quickly.

However, importantly this morning after the terrorists went into the printing shop, there was an employee who came in, actually greeted them and shook their hands thinking that they were police officers.

They then told that person to get out because they, quote, "wouldn't kill civilians," which is something that was proven untrue. But he was absolutely befuddled by the fact that he had just shaken the hands of these two terrorists.

Then we know that one French television station actually called the offices there and talked to one of the two, talked to Cherif Kouachi, who told them that he was send by Anwar Al Awlaki. We have been talking about that exchange here on CNN a lot.

And then one of the other really interesting things that happened is there was another person inside the print shop. We were reporting the entire day that these two terrorists had taken a hostage apparently the entire time this person was hiding inside the building.

The two men didn't even know that there was someone else was there. They didn't have a hostage. They were just holed up there. The police didn't know that either. In the end, the raid went down certainly in the best possible way, at least from the vantage point of the French police.

TAPPER: Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much. As we've been telling you the Paris prosecutors expected to speak at any minute. We'll bring it to you live.

But first back here in the United States, a new bulletin issued in the United States hours ago to law enforcement across the country noting the sophistication of the terror attacks in Paris and warning police to be individual Atlanta. We're getting new details on that bulletin. And that's next.

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TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. We continue to wait for that Paris prosecutor who's going to give new details on today's amazing, stunning, tragic events.

But turning first to our national lead, we have just learned that in the wake of this terrorist attack in France on Wednesday and the hostage stand-offs in Paris and outside Paris today, the FBI in country is warning law enforcement across the country.

CNN's Pamela Brown is live in Washington with more on that. Pamela, is there any specific threat?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: At this point, Jake, we're being told by sources that there is no specific information indicating that anything's happening here in the U.S.

But this bulletin is reminding law enforcement officials that al Qaeda and its affiliates are focused on attacking aviation, mass transit and major cities as well as anyone who might offend Islam.

Now the bulletin mainly focuses on the fact that these attacks demonstrate a degree of sophistication and training traditionally not seen in recent small armed attacks.

That's what caught the attention of officials here in the U.S. the bulletins said the shooters handled the situation with competency and familiarity. And that suggests formal training. One of the brothers apparently traveled to Yemen in 2011 and had some level of training with AQAP -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Pamela Brown, thank you so much. Let's go now to Congressman Ed Royce. He is the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us today.

When you look at how everything has unfolded in France and you have the information about one of the brothers, Said Kouachi, going to Yemen in 2011, the claim of one of the Kouachi brothers that this entire operation was financed by Anwar Al Awlaki and AQAP.

Other information, possibly AQAP, taking responsibility today as Jeremy told us. What concerns you the most about what that might mean here in this country?

REPRESENTATIVE ED ROYCE (R), FOREIGN AFFAIRS CHAIRMAN: Several things. Anwar Al-Awlaki obviously was an inspirational figure and able to convince people to undertake really heinous actions if you think of the fort hood shooting, if you think of the way in which he convinced these two brothers basically to martyr themselves.

What he was good at was convincing people that martyrdom was the way. And if you look at the attacks on the hospital in Yemen or the attacks on our embassy or the attack of the underwear bomber, it is clear that he and his particular affiliated al Qaeda organization down there has found a way to reach out far beyond the region into Europe, into the United States in order to get recruits to the cause.

TAPPER: And what can be done about it, Congressman?

ROYCE: Well, better intelligence. And in this particular case, French authorities did have a heads-up of the of the Algerian intelligence services. It is unfortunate that they weren't taking down very, very quickly. Obviously they were able to escape after the attack.

Now, we can say one thing. It was good that once hostages were taken, that the operation in Paris ended up with the release -- because of the good work of the French authorities.

But obviously this is going to be a real challenge for going forward for our counterterrorist organizations because of the degree of training that they're getting is equivalent to the degree of training that our police have. And that's part of the problem here.

TAPPER: Very disturbing. Congressman Ed Royce, thank you so much.

Coming up, they came face to face with murderous terrorists and lived to tell about it. One survivor says he even shook the hand of one of the killers. His story and more coming up next.

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TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. We continue to wait for the Paris prosecutor. Is that him standing up right there? That looks like him standing up. It will be simultaneously translated. Let's take a listen.

FRANCOIS MOLINS, PARIS PROSECUTOR (through translator): Are you ready? Yes. Ladies and gentlemen, first of all I'd like to pay my respects to the victims of the terrorist barbarity, the journalists, police and citizens who died. I'd like to emphasize the exceptional support the police services throughout these three days.

Several hundred police have been mobilized, 23 magistrates have been committed, involved in this work in Paris, 16 detentions in police custody, 67 expertise in terms of witnesses.

The work which has made it possible in about 48 hours to identify the killers, those who carried out the killings at "Charlie Hebdo" on Wednesday, the professionalism of the units, those who made it possible under dangerous conditions to free hostages, who were detained in dangerous conditions.

I'm not going to repeat all the details about the facts, about what happened two days ago about the precise -- how the exact things happened at "Charlie Hebdo" and near the building. There were numerous injuries including ten serious ones, 12 killed.

We just need to remind the extreme, extreme violence. Three shirts were found inside the premises. The cartridges were found on the outside as well showing the extent of the violence and the force that was used.

The police and other tactical services were there on the scene of the crime distributing material, cars which were stolen in the 19th district, the information that they used in order to escape the vehicle which was found, which the perpetrators used.

The Citroen car that was found, a charger, a jihadist flag, there was a charger as well as other equipment that was found in the car, a national identity card.