Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

12 Killed in Terror Attack in Paris; French Interior Minister Speaks about Precautions Being Taken; France's Anti-Terror Alert Highest Ever

Aired January 07, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Chris, thanks very much. Alisyn, thank you very much. Good morning, everyone. I'm Anderson Cooper. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and watching around the world on CNN international. Thanks very much for joining us.

First this morning, we are following the breaking news obviously out of France. This as French Police right now are hunting for masked gunmen who stormed the offices of the satirical newspaper opened fire in the French capital today.

Now an eyewitness took video that you're about to see, as the attack unfolded. It's shot from a nearby rooftop and you can hear the gunfire ringing out.

You can also very clearly hear the shout of "Allahu Akbar", "God is great."

At least 12 people are dead, four others are in critical condition. The gunmen still on the loose at this hour.

There's also the chilling picture that was posted on Twitter of one of the attackers holding a gun as another person lies on the ground. A police officer.

These are new pictures in to CNN from the scene. The injured being put on stretchers and taken away in ambulances. Witnesses say the assailants were dressed in black, wore hoods, were armed with Kalashnikovs and machine guns, possibly, possibly, and this is in earlier report, a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

French President Francois Hollande just wrapped a press conference where he says there is no doubt that this was a terrorist attack. He's called an emergency Cabinet meeting.

We're also devoting the majority of this hour obviously to this breaking story. I want to begin with our CNN senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann who joins us now live from Paris.

Jim, the bottom line, these gunmen, and unclear exactly how many right now, are still on the loose.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. President Hollande said that they would be pursued for as long as it takes. However, he hasn't been able to make good on that promise apparently because the authorities are not telling us that they've caught anybody.

They seemed to make their getaway, and we have seen this on video, make their getaway quite calmly in a black sedan, so calmly in fact that one of the gunmen drops a shoe and he stops to pick up the shoe before they drive off.

Now apparently in their escape they also may have hurt another person, a pedestrian, who was in the area as they drove away but the main damage was done at the offices of the newspaper. Twelve people dead, as you have mentioned, four critical condition.

We are not absolutely able to -- to define who exactly was killed and injured in this attack simply because the bodies are still being taken away from the scene at this hour. The police have encircled the area and there's a steady stream of ambulances coming and going at the newspaper.

The incident is over but nonetheless they left things in place especially the dead bodies until now. So they're just now taking the bodies away -- Anderson.

COOPER: Jim, a couple of things, and let's just kind of drill down on these. First of all, do we know for sure how many gunmen were involved? You see at least two gunmen in this video, two gunmen armed with AK-47s. But is -- there are conflicting reports about whether there was another gunmen, whether there was a driver as well.

BITTERMANN: Well, as far as we can tell, there were only two people involved. The two gunmen are seen to get into the car and one go takes the wheel and drives off. So -- and as far as I can see that there's been no report -- the verifiable report that there were any more involved.

One of the curious things is that a journalist at a newspaper right next door to "Charlie Hebdo," the newspaper that was attacked, said that in fact the gunmen came to the wrong address first this morning, walked in, thought they were at "Charlie Hebdo" and were told they were not, and then they went next door to the headquarters of "Charlie Hebdo." That's being a magazine which, as you know, Anderson, is quite controversial.

It has been in the forefront of attacks on Islam, but also on Catholicism and on Judaism. It's a very pointed satirical magazine that raises a lot of ire here, but particularly in the Islamic community and after prophet -- the Prophet Mohammad was shown in a cartoon, depicted in a cartoon in a fairly rude way, back in 2011, the newspaper was fire bombed. So they're no stranger to controversy. But nothing like this has ever happened -- Anderson.

COOPER: Yes. The newspaper reprinted the Danish cartoon of the Propher Mohammad. And that got them a lot of problems. 2011, as you said, this was fire bombed. They actually had to move officers.

They were under police protection. There were two police officers there believed to also now killed and in that still photo that we're showing there is a police officer -- what appears to be a police officer lying on the ground. It looks to me that he has his hands up almost right before the gunman executes him in cold blood right on the street.

Is it clear that at this point, the gunmen -- they obviously seemed to have had some training, they seemed to, as you say, be calm enough to pick up a shoe that had somehow fallen before actually leaving. Is it clear if most of the journalists were killed inside the newspaper office? Because there was a meeting going on, a staff meeting, which is a weekly staff meeting so if you were going to pick a time to attack this newspaper this was certainly the time.

BITTERMANN: That's very clear that they had some level of knowledge about how the newspaper worked to pick this moment at 11:30 this morning when the maximum number of people would be around. These are people that -- some of them work from home. I mean, they don't even go to the newspaper offices but they were around for the editorial meeting and as a consequence they seemed to know that and timed the attack accordingly.

So I think there was a fair amount of training. They are armed. The way you see them armed in the video is very much reminiscent of what we've seen in the videos out in the Middle East, out of ISIS territory, black clothing and hooded, and with ammunition belts around their waists, and whatnot. Very much in the same sort of configuration that we've seen from the fighters out in the Middle East -- Anderson.

COOPER: And also in the video, you can hear at least somebody yelling out "Allahu Akbar."

BITTERMANN: Yes, and in fact, one of our producers listened to the video here as well and heard one of the gunmen say, "This is vengeance for the Prophet Mohammad," and also saying, "We have killed Charlie Hebdo."

COOPER: It's -- there are also reports, and again earlier reports should often -- you know, you got to point them out for what they are, they're early reports, they often change because the eyewitness -- you know, eyewitnesses see different things, hear different things. But there are earlier reports that the gunmen actually were calling out reporters, cartoonists by name.

BITTERMANN: That has not yet been verified. It's difficult to know whether that's the case or not. And I don't think we'll know that for some time yet when we've got a full after-action report from the -- from the police. But it's clear they knew what they were doing and they knew who they were hitting.

This magazine has been the focus of controversy ever since it's been in existence. That's its whole reason for being. And it has a very small readership really compared to other magazines in the country. It's -- just appeals to people that love to see sort of a send-up from all the icons in France and including the religious icons. And so it's -- for an extremist it's clearly a place that would be ground zero for an attack. The police had been protecting it up until recently, 24/7. We're not

sure what the protection level was but of course there were policemen shot today so there must have been some police on the scene -- Anderson.

COOPER: Jim, we're going to check in with you as we continue to gain more information throughout the hour.

I want to bring in our chief international correspondent Christiane Amanpour who joins us from London.

Christiane, clearly an attack against the press, an attack on press freedom, something obviously that journalists throughout the world react to, and the death of two police officers, what we believe at least two police officers so far.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, you're absolutely right. This is definitely sending a chill and will do through the entire journalistic operation around certainly Western democracies who feel freedom of speech enables them to report and even to engage in satire.

The British prime minister, David Cameron, has obviously sent his message of sympathy to the French people, saying that they stand with the French in their fight against terror but also in defending the free press. And as we've said, this is a very different attack than other terrorist attacks that we've seen in London several years ago, that we saw in Madrid several years ago which were against civilians. Other attacks against military targets.

This was specifically aimed at this magazine and at these reporters and cartoonists, and France has had a very heightened anti-terror alert over the last several months, the highest ever now it's raised it to. But over the last several months, certainly just before Christmas, there were a number of attacks by what were described as Islamist militants shouting "God is great," plowing into a Christmas fair, plowing a car into people in police station.

All of these in regional big cities. So this is something that's incredibly frightening for the French people right now.

And in Europe in general and especially in France, hundreds and hundreds of people have been going from various nations to fight with ISIS in Syria and Iraq. So all of this confluence, whether this is directly ISIS related or not, comes in an environment of extreme fear, tension, and heightened worries about radical and militant and violent Islam.

COOPER: It's also interesting, Christiane, I mean, just the confidence of these gunmen, you know, in the middle of the day essentially in Paris on a street, to drive up. They obviously have some level of training. They're able to use Kalashnikovs, executing a police officer there as we see, right there on the street, executing these journalists, these cartoonists, we believe in their offices.

And then to make a getaway and to calmly pick up a shoe as you're leaving to not leave anything behind. It's an extraordinary act of terror in broad daylight.

AMANPOUR: Well, I mean, you're absolutely right. It is and we really do await to see if they manage to capture these people, who they are and what or who has sent them, and the French president will hold another more formal press conference later this evening that amounts to about 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time, 8:00 p.m. Paris time, and we wait to see whether they have any further information on who these attackers are.

It is worth mentioning that "Charlie Hebdo" has had sort of round-the- clock police protection, or at least as far as we know, since the last few years because as we've reported it was fire bombed several years ago after one other event, cartoon and covers enflamed passion so much that actually at that time the French government had to close down schools and consulates and other French government facilities in various Muslim countries.

And there has been loss of life engendered by a lot of the resistance to some of these cartoons. If you remember in 2006 "Charlie Hebdo" reprinted cartoons that had first been printed in the Danish magazine, the Danish newspaper, again, poking fun of Islam and the Prophet Mohammad. That, over a period of time, led to a lot of violence and a lot of deaths in the Middle East, and so this is something that "Charlie Hebdo" has stuck to its mandate if you like.

It has carved out a place for itself, where it says we abide by a long time tradition in the West, in our free democracies, especially in France where we have this freedom to poke fun at whoever and whatever.

This is to insult or shock, they say. This is simply to point out absurdity and to point -- and to point fun.

I interviewed Luz (ph), one of the main cartoonists who was in, you know, deep trouble over the last several years for one of the previous more controversial magazine covers, and I asked him whether he felt that this was sort of going over the top so to speak. And he said look, you know, this is our right, this is what we do. It's meant to -- it's meant to shock. It's not meant to be violent or to cause violence.

But, look, the French president himself several years ago criticized some of their magazine covers and so in fact did the White House. So it's very, very, very difficult situation.

COOPER: Christiane, the --

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Christiane, the French Interior minister is speaking out. I just want to go to him.

BERNARD CAZENEUVE, FRENCH INTERIOR MINISTER (through translator): To undertake all precautions concerning railway stations, cultural institutions, a certain number of public institutions to reinforce national security. That's to say police and armory and the military, in order to ensure and provide this protection. Moreover in order to favor the neutralize as soon as possible of the

three criminals who carried out this barbarous act, all means will be carried by the ministries of the Interior and Justice in order to ensure that as quickly as possible we can identify the actors and to lead to their arrest so that they'd be punished with the severity that their barbarous acts is worthy of.

All the services in the Interior Ministry and then Justice have unleashed this following the events, the prime minister and I activated the interministerial cell which I will carry out throughout the following hours in order to ensure the coordination of the action of the services of the state and distributing useful information so that French people are constantly informed of the development of the inquiry and that they can be informed also of the conditions of which the entire administration of the state can act and provide security of French people throughout the territory in these particularly grave circumstances but also to neutralize as quickly as possible the three criminals who were at the origin of this barbarous act.

COOPER: The -- excuse me.

France's interior minister speaking about the security precautions that are being taken, a manhunt now under way for what are believed to be certainly at least two gunmen who are involved in this attack several hours ago on the offices of "Charlie Hebdo" the satirical newspaper magazine in Paris, in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, in the northern part of Paris.

Christiane Amanpour is back with us.

France now at the highest state of alert. Certainly this is something that France has seen in the '70s. There were Algerian terrorists objecting to France's involvement in Algeria, but they haven't seen this kind of attack in the city of Paris for quite some time.

AMANPOUR: Well, frankly, never. I mean, I covered Paris for a long, long time during the '90s. There were terrorist attacks but nothing of this scale.

Just to point out, I believe the interior minister said three criminals. I believe that's what he just said. If I'm incorrect, I'm incorrect. But I believe twice he said three criminals that they're looking for.

Yes, this is the worst terror attack that Paris has seen in many, many, many years, and they have now raised their terror alert to the highest it's been in many, many years.

So, this is brazen, as we've been reporting ever since it started. They went directly to the location of this weekly satirical magazine. They apparently according to one eyewitness who spoke to CNN initially went into the wrong office and were told, no, that's not what you're looking for. We don't know what they looked like when they went into the office, whether they were directed somewhere else.

But apparently, they went into the wrong door first before going on to "Charlie Hebdo" which has had for the past several years a fairly rigorous round-the-clock police protection because of the controversial magazine covers and cartoons that they have publishing for many, many years now, and because of these threats and attacks that they have endured in the past.

So, this is a very, very serious situation as you can see the French are taking it massively seriously. Again, different to others terror attacks that we've all covered over the last few years in Europe, this is not directed against random civilians on public services, transportation, et cetera, as we saw in London or in Madrid, but it is directly against the press and against this particular vein of satirical cartoons against Islam and against radical and violent and extremist Islam -- Anderson.

COOPER: And, Christiane, there have been a number of small incidents in France throughout France, not in Paris but through throughout France over the last several weeks and months. Two incidents, I believe, were cars were driven toward civilians. There was one other incident as well, but nothing of this scale, nothing of this kind of organized operation.

AMANPOUR: Well, that's exactly right. Just a few days before Christmas on December 23rd there was an attack in a police station shouting "God is great", "Allahu Akbar", a guy went in, slashed a policeman and wounded several others before he was, in fact, shot dead. Shortly thereafter, there was yet another crazed person shouting of, you know, "God is great", plowing a car into a group of people and also a separate incident a Christmas market was attacked.

Some of these have been -- you know, terror has been ruled out. Others are being investigated, and this is also goes to the very heart of what is preoccupying law enforcement all over the world right now, especially in Europe but also in the United States. The blowback from the violence and rise of ISIS in Syria and Iraq and the number, the alarming number, hundreds and hundreds from each individual European capital heading or European country heading off to fight for ISIS, you know, several thousand Europeans have gone over to fight for ISIS.

And people in law enforcement and in intelligence have been incredibly worried about backlash and about blowback and about them coming to create this kind of havoc and pandemonium in European capitals. Look, we don't know whether this is related to that. We know this follows ate trend whereby "Charlie Hebdo" has been under assault for several years because of the cartoons that it has been publishing -- Anderson.

COOPER: Christiane Amanpour, we'll continue to check in with you as well. We're going to take a quick break. We have a new statement from President Obama, we'll give you that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

COOPER: Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the terror attack that has taken place in Paris. At least 12 people dead at this hour in what France is calling a terror attack. In video, we see at least two gunmen, though we just heard from France's interior minister they're searching for three attackers who hit the offices of "Charlie Hebdo", a satirical magazine in existence since the 1970s.

President Obama has been briefed on the attack. The gunmen still at large. The White House has just released President Obama's statement.

I want to bring in senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns.

What is the president saying, Joe?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, that statement just hitting our e-mail a few minutes ago. I'll just read it for you.

The president saying, "I strongly condemn the horrific shooting at the offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris that has reportedly killed 12 people. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of this terrorist attack and the people of France at this difficult time. France is America's oldest ally, and has stood shoulder to shoulder with the United States, in the fight against terrorists who threaten our shared security and the world. Time and again, the French people have stood up for the universal values that generations of our people have defended."

The president goes on to say, "France and the great city of Paris where this outrageous attack took place offer the world a timeless example that will endure well beyond the hateful vision of these killers. We are in touch with French officials and I directed my administration to provide any assistance", the president says, "that is needed to bring these terrorists to justice."

So, the question is when and if the president will have an opportunity to speak publicly about this? We know he's headed out to Detroit to talk about manufacturing and the automobile sector in advance of his State of the Union Address. That would be a person time for him to speak publicly about this. However, no indication from the White House that he plans to do so, Anderson.

COOPER: Joe, appreciate that. Thanks very much.

Obviously, there's a lot that U.S. intelligence, intelligence agencies around the world are looking at as well. Obviously as French authorities the manhunt still under way for what French authorities are now saying are at least three attackers.

We want to bring in -- and as you look at the video clearly there's a number of things, a police officer lying on the ground there to the right, we're blurring that image. We're not showing the assassination of the police officer which takes place directly on the street.

But you see the attackers. This is them making their getaway. You may notice as one of the gunmen gets into a vehicle, there's a shoe, a sneaker that's been dropped on the street. He takes time to pick up that shoe, put it back into the vehicle.

I want to bring in our Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr, who is joining us.

You have new reporting on U.S. intelligence looking for any signs of this attack in Paris.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Anderson.

Behind the scenes there's now some very urgent, practical intelligence work going on between the U.S. and French authorities.

U.S. intelligence agencies are combing through every frame of this video for any clues that they can find. They're also combing through all the intelligence they have, telephone intercepts, imagery, any reports that they have any threat that might have indicated an attack was eminent in Paris.

We are told at the moment they just simply don't have any intelligence that matches to something like this, and the something like this has really grabbed the attention of U.S. intelligence authorities.

We're talking, according to French interior minister, about three gunmen. That means this was a preplanned conspiracy that people got together, planned out this attack, knew what they were going to do, knew how they were going to make their getaway.

That's very concerning to U.S. officials. They're telling me that the most urgent priority, no surprise, is to find these people. But it may be very tough. As you well know, moving across borders in Europe can be relatively easy still today. They could have hopped on a train, a bus, gotten in a car and driven to the border.

So, time is of the essence to find these people and get to them. What we know that is that French intelligence authorities are sharing with the United States, U.S. officials telling me they have a close relationship with their French counterparts and they are now working with them. But when you look at this video, what grabs you frame by frame, multiple gunmen, preplanned attack, they knew what they were doing. That means a lot of concern about finding these guys as quickly as possible -- Anderson.

COOPER: And, Barbara, as you look at the video, is it clear there's more than one getaway vehicle? Because of the camera goes down, it's hard to tell if there are just those two attackers and already somebody in that vehicle or if there's a third attacker if there's somebody else in another vehicle parked ahead of where that video shows.

STARR: Yes, I think that's a really good point. We have a very limited camera view.

When the interior minister talked about three gunmen, did he mean one was the driver of one of the getaway vehicles? There's been some wildly different initial first reports as there are in these crisis situations. You know, eyewitnesses see different things, they report different things.

But the interior minister said a short time ago they are looking for three gunmen. How many cars they came up to the site in, did they grab any other cars on the way? Were any of the cars stolen? Where were they from? What is the registration on these cars? Anything that could lead to the identity of these people.

And just as a side note, a senior U.S. official was telling me a short time ago, they are not sure what to make it, but they are interested in the fact that the gunmen appear to be wearing masks, because there had been some intelligence indicating that ISIS was telling its followers to stop wearing masks in their public attacks to show their courage and conviction and show their faces.

So, not at all clear what that means but just to tell our viewers that U.S. officials are finding the notion that these guys were in masks very interesting.

And as you watch the video, Anderson, these are people who are very comfortable, the attackers, around these heavier weapons that they're carrying. Reports there were Kalashnikovs, AK-47s. These are people comfortable moving around with the types of weapons, know how to use them. That could give some indication of what their background is.

Again, we want to be careful. Very early reports, a lot of different eyewitness accounts but it is the forensics now, looking at this, frame by frame, that is going to be so important in had trying to figure out how to find these guys and what exactly did happen here -- Anderson.

COOPER: Yes, you know, the other thing about that shoe is in this video at least, nobody is missing a shoe. Just an odd little detail but the fact that this person stopped as they are trying to make their getaway to pick that up, it indicates just a level of control or level of thought in the midst of this attack when adrenalin is flowing.

STARR: The cars don't appear to go careening away at top speed. They pretty calmly go on.