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Terror Plot Targets Taylor Swift Concerts; Anti-Government Protests in Kenya; Hezbollah Poised to Strike Israel?. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired August 08, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:01:02]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer. This is a special edition of the CNN NEWSROOM. We are reporting live from Tel Aviv, Israel, today.

This coastal city and indeed the entire country on alert right now preparing for retaliation after the killing of two leaders of Hezbollah and Hamas. New this morning, concerns are rising along Israel's northern border with Lebanon. Sources are telling CNN that the militant group there Hezbollah is plotting to attack Israel on its own with or without Iran.

Hezbollah is Iran's most powerful proxy, to be sure. Israel estimates the group has 150,000 missiles and rockets at the country's doorstep just north of Israel in Lebanon. One source says the goal of Hezbollah is to strike Israel in the coming days. We're talking about days, they say.

And you can sense that anxiety north of here closer to the Lebanese border with Israel.

Our CNN colleague Nadeen Ebrahim visited the Israeli city of Nahariya -- that's in Northern Israel -- and spoke to residents who are feeling the mental toll of days of bracing for a possible attack. They say they can hear the outgoing artillery and rockets from Lebanon overnight.

But they also say they are not evacuating Nahariya because there is nowhere, they say, to go. Here in the picturesque coastal city of Tel Aviv, Israel's largest city, the economic and technological center of the country, the proximity of neighboring Lebanon to the north adds to the concerns.

Hezbollah can strike with little notice, according to Israeli officials.

Here with me now, CNN's chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, and joining us from Beirut and Lebanon, CNN's senior international correspondent, Ben Wedeman.

Clarissa, first of you. What's the latest you're hearing about a possible strike from Hezbollah or Iran against Tel Aviv and other cities in Israel? CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're

definitely seeing an uptick now in preparations.

We know that the Israeli minister of defense, Yoav Gallant, just held a meeting in the home front command situation room, essentially trying to ensure that the population is ready for any kind of an emergency situation. We also heard that Israeli parliamentarian Benny Gantz, who used to be on the war cabinet, traveled to Haifa, the mayor of Haifa telling him they have prepared parking lots that could act as mass shelters.

They have also taken care to reduce hazardous materials in factories in case some of those factories get struck, and they're carrying out continuous joint exercises between security services and emergency services.

We have heard from the IDF in a space of about half-an-hour, some 25 projectiles coming into Israel from Lebanon. There's no sense that that is the beginning of some kind of a strike, but I think it gives you a picture of what the Israelis are contending with as they go about these preparations.

And I also think it's important to underscore, Wolf -- and you know this well, as we have seen -- that while there is definitely a state of high alert and preparing, people are going about their normal lives. There are people on the beaches. There are people walking. There are people going out to dinner.

So there's a sense that this sort of protracted waiting is becoming the new normal here.

BLITZER: We saw that, you and I. We did some walking around Tel Aviv over the past couple of days and we saw what was going on. Give us a little flavor of the feeling we're getting based on what we're seeing ourselves here in Tel Aviv.

WARD: Well, you definitely have the sense that people are more cautious than usual and that they are taking into consideration every trip that they make.

When I visited one of the rallies that are being held by hostage families, one that was being held near the Kirya, the defense headquarters, they said the numbers were smaller, that some people had elected not to go out because of the place, because of the situation.

But when you look at the beaches, you look at the streets, it's clear that people are getting on with their lives, just as you're seeing across the border in Lebanon. I'm sure Ben will talk more about that as well. There is a sense that any situation starts to become normal. People understand they need to go about their lives and they're putting trust into the authorities that the preparations that need to be made are being made.

[11:05:17]

Let's go up north to Lebanon right now. Ben, what's the latest you're seeing there and what you're hearing on

the ground? How worried are folks in Lebanon that this escalation of tensions could break out into a full-scale war?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, I have been covering Lebanon since October, and certainly we have seen tensions rise and tensions fall, but they have never been quite this high.

What we're seeing is, for instance, many of the hotel tourists have simply disappeared. In this hotel, we're just a handful of people at this point, and we see many people trying to leave the country as quickly as possible. It's not panic or chaos at the airport, but it's very hard to get a flight out.

In fact, my flight, which was scheduled for a few days from now, has been canceled. I'm going to stick around anyway. But many airlines have simply stopped flying to Beirut. Many embassies have urged their nationals to leave.

But, as Clarissa said, otherwise, if you don't have a foreign passport or you don't have the money to leave, you have little choice but to simply get on with your life. And people, of course, are keeping a very close eye on what's going on down at the border.

Now, we're hearing reports that, for instance, there's renewed fire this afternoon, Hezbollah apparently using some very heavy short-range ballistic missiles with payloads of up to 500 kilos aimed at Israeli military positions we're seeing on social media, also incoming rounds landing, it appears north of Nahariya.

Now, what we saw earlier this week was Hezbollah was able to fly drones all the way to Nahariya unobstructed, flying right over a main intersection. And it appears that Hezbollah is using weapons that they have not used in the initial months of the war, for instance, this Shahed-101 drone, which has an electric engine, a range of about 500 miles.

So, Hezbollah -- we have heard the secretary-general of Hezbollah saying that they are going to be using weapons that haven't been used before. And, certainly, what we have been seeing in the last few weeks, that that's certainly the case.

When is it going to happen? Nobody really knows here on the ground, but what is clear from everything we have heard from Nasrallah is that a response is coming -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, that's what everybody here in Tel Aviv suspects as well. It's a matter of days. We're not talking about weeks, not talking about necessarily tomorrow, but days from now. That's what people are bracing for here in Israel as well.

Ben Wedeman, stay safe over there in Beirut. Thank you very much. Clarissa Ward, as usual. We will continue these conversations.

Right now, I want to bring in U.S. military analyst retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. He's a former U.S. Army commander, commanding general for Europe in the Seventh Army.

General, let's talk -- take a quick look at the estimate of Hezbollah's military assets. Israeli officials and others suspect Hezbollah may have as many as 150,000 missiles and rockets in Lebanon, an arsenal barely dented by the cross-border attacks, at least so far, since October.

And Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah says his group can field more than 100,000 fighters potentially. General, to be clear, Hezbollah, even without Iran, poses an enormous, very significant military threat to Israel right now.

How big of a deal is this?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's a big deal, Wolf.

And, first of all, I'm going to reinforce what Ben Wedeman just said. It's not just 150,000 rockets and missiles, which we have known about since the start of this war and prior to the war, but it's the potential new weapons systems.

And I'd add to that the potential for the use of various types of drones that Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran has all seen -- have all seen as being very effective in terms of their capability, which brings me to a point, in that, when you're a military commander, you consider three different things, your capability, the intent to use that capability, and the risk calculation in terms of what goes on.

So when you're talking about Hezbollah that has that amount of massive ammunition and capability and the intent potentially to kill Israelis, the risk calculation is, they're considering what will happen if that does occur.

Clarissa brought up the fact that, in terms of monitoring, you have been monitoring, I have been monitoring what's been happening over the last nine months. Hezbollah has fired rockets and missiles in Lebanon, an average of between 10 and 40 a day.

[11:10:12]

So it could certainly overwhelm Israel's capability to defend, both with the Iron Dome and the Arrow and the David's Sling. All of those air defense capabilities could be overwhelmed if Hezbollah decides to do a massive strike with both rockets, missiles, and the potential additional drones.

So all of those things are important as we consider the potential. And, Wolf, having walked the ground of Northern Israel and Southern Lebanon in terms of looking at what has happened there in the past a few years ago, I will tell you that it's tough territory.

Citizens are right in the middle of all this, as Ben said. And it's a continuing danger for the state of Israel to have that amount of capability to their north. BLITZER: And, as you know, General, the U.S. has vowed to defend

Israel if it is attacked and has scrambled extensive military assets to the region right now, including a carrier strike group, a fighter squadron, additional warships, including five destroyers in the Eastern Mediterranean.

How effective would the U.S. be in defending its ally Israel right now? And if this situation does explode into some sort of full-scale war, do you believe the U.S. would get directly involved as well?

HERTLING: I think they will get involved with both Naval and Air Force assets, Wolf. You mentioned the carrier strike group that's there now. There's another one.

The Lincoln carrier strike group is steaming right now toward the Mediterranean and the Red Sea from Hawaii, going -- it'll be about another week before they get there. But that will add an increased capability. But I think that, if there is a strike against Israel by Hezbollah, and it's massive and it does kill or injure a number of Israeli citizens, it's going to be tough to hold the Israeli government back in terms of striking.

If that's the case, there will certainly be more rocket and missile launches, more drone launches. And that's where not only the U.S., but other Western allies, with their air defense capabilities, with their fighter jets, with the onboard naval assets, they will be able to help stop those kind of rockets.

We're not going to see a so-called, and I hate this term, boots on the ground by U.S. forces, I don't think, but you're certainly going to see a lot of support assets in both Naval and Air Force.

BLITZER: We certainly -- you're absolutely right.

One quick final question before I let you go, General. How likely is an Israeli preemptive strike against Hezbollah in Lebanon right now?

HERTLING: I think Israel is focused primarily on major kinetic strikes on specific targets, Wolf. I don't see them -- I mean, Israel has been in a fight now for almost 10 months.

They're tired. Their forces have been mobilized. They're fatigued. The Israeli population, as you well know, is also a little bit war-weary. So a major incursion of ground forces, I don't think, is likely. But if there is the capability where intelligence is passed to the Israeli government, where they have the potential for striking major figures in either Hamas or Hezbollah, they will certainly continue to do that as they have in the past.

BLITZER: Retired General Mark Hertling, thank you for your analysis. Appreciate it very much.

We're following other important breaking news right now, and this time out of Kenya, as police respond to anti-government protests on the streets of Nairobi. Watch this. This is video from earlier today appearing to show police arresting a protester as they fire tear gas. You can see it's a very, very powerful, dramatic scene.

And CNN international correspondent Larry Madowo got caught right in the middle of the chaos there. We want to show you what happened. But just know this. Larry is, thank God, OK. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... masking their plates are on the streets, applying excessive force on largely peaceful protesters.

And then, as we were just speaking, as they're leaving, they fire even more. Ah! That was aimed directly at me. He's aiming directly at me. He's aiming directly at me. He's shooting directly at me.

Why are you shooting at me? Why are you shooting at me? Why are you shooting at me? There's a flashbang there. Watch out. He is still shooting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[11:15:08]

BLITZER: And Larry is joining us now live from Nairobi.

And, as I said, Larry, thank God, you're OK.

First of all, what can you tell us, Larry, about what happened there and what is the situation right now?

MADOWO: Wolf, I had just been talking about a police truck which had obscured its plates, which is a tactic police use here to evade accountability, because you can't track which department they're from or what was the chain of command there.

And shortly after that, this truck parks in front of us and they aim at least twice directly at me. I was hit with a fragment. Thank God I'm OK. But it's not clear why I was targeted. And several other journalists have also complained today about police aggressively targeting them, throwing flashbangs close to them, targeting tear gas, shooting in the air.

CNN has reached out to the police for understanding exactly what happened here. We have not heard back yet, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, just be careful over there, Larry. Thank God you're OK. Appreciate it.

We will stay, of course, on top of this story as well, Larry Maduro joining us from Nairobi.

Coming up, we're getting new details right now about the alleged terror plot targeting Taylor Swift's concert in Vienna, Austria. What investigators found at the home of one of the suspects.

Stand by.

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[11:20:43]

BLITZER: Welcome back to our special edition of the CNN NEWSROOM. We're live here in Tel Aviv.

Austrian police have thwarted an alleged terror plot targeting Taylor Swift's upcoming concerts. As a result, the singer canceled all three of her Vienna, Austria, shows planned for this coming weekend. According to officials, they found chemical explosives, detonators, and ISIS propaganda at the main suspect's home.

Joining us now is CNN's Nick Paton Walsh.

Nick, what are you learning? I know you have been following these developments very closely.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, it's startling that the three suspects Austrian police are questioning or have detained -- and there's no one else at this point they're looking for -- are all teenagers.

Now, the prime suspect here is a 19-year-old who appears to have pledged allegiance to the new leader of ISIS early in July. And then late July, the 25th, actually, officials say, quit his job, saying he was planning something big and changed his appearance.

Now, police found yesterday at his home at an hour's drive from the Taylor Swift concert venues precursors for explosives, detonators, $21,000 in counterfeit currency, and even a police blue flashing light. Now, they suspect that he was going to use that light to ease access to his vehicle into the crowds around the periphery of the Swift concerts that were supposed to be tonight, tomorrow and Saturday night as well.

They then say, officials, that he was going to essentially lead to his own death, act as a suicide attacker with explosives and knives against the thousands of people who often go to these European concerts of Swift to over here to join in the atmosphere without necessarily having to pay the significant fees for the tickets.

Now, he was joined, it seems, by a 17-year-old. It's not quite clear if they were going to be executing or more involved in the planning, but a 17-year-old to police say recently broke up with his girlfriend, evidence perhaps of a state of mind, all these two individuals Austrian-born, and a third Austrian-born 15-year-old boy, who it says -- says the investigation potentially had knowledge of the plot as it developed, but may not have been necessarily involved in its execution.

So, a lot of detailed planning here, radicalization online, and horrifying, frankly, to see how young these individuals are and how close, it seems, to execution they were, that these arrests were a matter of hours, frankly, before the concerts began and led police to be nervous enough that investigators -- sorry -- that concert organizers canceled all three altogether -- Wolf. BLITZER: Yes, very, very worrisome, indeed.

Nick Paton Walsh reporting for us, we will stay in close touch with you. I know new information is coming in all the time.

Let's get some analysis right now from CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen.

Peter, what do you make of this latest terror plot?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think it's good they canceled the concerts.

As Nick indicated, it seems that the three suspects is that -- that's the full extent of it. But, clearly, this was pretty well advanced with the explosive precursors, the -- all the planning that Nick just described. And, also, it fits into a modus operandi of ISIS attacking concert venues.

You remember, just in March, Wolf, that there was an attack on a concert venue in Moscow where 145 people were killed by ISIS recruits. And we have also seen attacks on an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester in 2017 that killed 22 by an ISIS recruit, and, two years before that, an attack on a concert hall in Paris, where 80 people were killed when they were listening to a heavy metal band, American band.

So this has been a kind of consistent theme. And then, of course, in the U.K., where Nick is reporting from, an attack on a party that was celebrating Taylor Swift, a dance party, in which three kids were killed and lots of -- and quite a lot of others were injured.

And that has produced all these anti-immigrant riots in Britain, because this attack was wrongly blamed on an immigrant online.

BLITZER: At the main suspects' house, Peter, Austrian investigators found chemicals, explosive devices, detonators, as well as ISIS propaganda, 21,000 euros in counterfeit money, machetes, knives, anabolic steroids.

[11:25:04]

What do you make of all of that?

BERGEN: Well, I make it that this was not sort of a maybe plot that was kind of just -- lots of people are talking online. Lots of people get inspired by ISIS or other terrorist groups and may sort of -- there may be chatter online.

I mean, clearly, this plot was pretty advanced if -- the detail about the blue police light that he was going to put on his car. And, as Nick pointed out, it's not that he needed to get into the venue. There were going to be thousands of Taylor Swift fans outside the venue that he could have killed using his car, using the knives that have been described, maybe using some of these explosive precursors.

So he could have done a great deal of damage without actually accessing the concert itself.

BLITZER: And, as you point out, Peter, there is precedent for this type of plot, the 2017 suicide bombing, as you pointed out, at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, as well as that mass shooting at a Route 91 Harvest festival in Las Vegas.

Taylor Swift in 2019 talked about her fears in an "Elle" magazine interview following those two attacks. And let me read to you a quote from her in that interview.

"After the Manchester arena bombing and the Las Vegas concert shooting, I was completely terrified to go on tour this time, because I didn't know how we were going to keep three million fans safe." That's a quote.

Should we expect, Peter, more of these so-called soft target attacks, especially at various concert venues, in the U.S. and indeed around the world?

BERGEN: I mean, I think the short answer is yes.

I mean, if you're a terrorist, it's guaranteed to produce a mass- casualty event if you can pull it off. It's a soft target. And you don't -- sure, there may be a security perimeter get inside the event, but there are people outside the event.

And it's interesting that Taylor Swift mentioned the Las Vegas concert, which was the largest mass shooting in U.S. history. We still don't know the motive of the person who carried out that attack. He wasn't inspired by ISIS. He wasn't a right-wing domestic terrorist. He seems to be a bit like these people that they -- we're always trying to find a why.

And, sometimes, there is no why, and that's very unsatisfactory. But, right now, clearly, ISIS has a long record of either carrying out these attacks or inspiring these attacks at concerts. And I think it's perfectly reasonable to be concerned going forward about the protection of these concerts and the protection of the concertgoers.

And I think the Austrian authorities, in an excess of caution, did the right thing, which is cancel this concert. And, hopefully -- she's got other concerts planned in the U.K. Hopefully, there won't be anybody who is inclined to attack those and that the tour will end peacefully.

BLITZER: Let's hope, indeed. I'm so concerned about all of this.

Peter Bergen, thanks, as usual, for joining us.

And still ahead, there's more news we're following. Family members of the doomed Titan sub crew have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the vessel's operator. What they say OceanGate is to -- why they say OceanGate is to blame and how much they want in damages.

We have details right after the break.

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