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Erin Burnett Outfront

New Arrest in Connection to Paris Terror Attacks; Terrorist Shared Room with Underwear Bomber; Double Agent Met With Key Al Qaeda Operative; International Manhunt for Female Terror Suspect; As Many As 2,000 Killed By Terror Group

Aired January 12, 2015 - 19:00   ET

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

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT tonight, breaking news in new arrest in connection to the Paris terror, this as officials warned a more accomplices on the loose. OUTFRONT tonight, the French's ambassador to the United States.

Plus new surveillance video shows one of France's most wanted terrorist entering Turkey on her way to Syria. The international manhunt is on.

And my guest tonight, a jihadist turned CIA double agent. His meetings with the American Muslim cleric who inspired this attack. Let's go OUTFRONT.

And good evening, I'm Erin Burnett. OUTFRONT tonight, the breaking news. A new arrest in connection to the Paris terror attack. Reuters is reporting tonight that a Frenchman suspected of having ties to one of the Kouachi brothers, was arrested in Bulgaria. The brothers of course, are behind the deadly attack against Charlie Hebdo magazine.

Also breaking at this hour, the man described as al Qaeda's recruiter in Europe now directly tied to two of the Paris terrorist. A western intelligence source tells CNN his whereabouts tonight unknown. France on its highest state of alert searching for more possible accomplices of the three terrorist from last week's attacks. More than 18,000 troops and police are deployed across the country as France's prime minister say, there is no doubt more accomplices are out there. And an international manhunt is on tonight for Hayat Boumeddiene, she is the wife of the kosher supermarket shooter Amedy Coulibaly. New surveillance video shows her entering Turkey.

This is her going for her visa, she was on her way from Paris in Madrid five days before the attacks. And from there, it's believed she crossed into Syria the day before her husband was killed by French forces in a shootout in the kosher supermarket. On Sunday, an estimated 3.7 million people rally for peace against terrorism across France. Forty world leaders joined the march in Paris notably absent though President Obama and after heavy criticism, the White House acknowledged it made a mistake.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH EARNEST, PRESS WHITE HOUSE SECRETARY: I think it's fair to say that we should have sent someone with a higher profile to be there. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Unusual for them to come out like that. They did, though, admitted they thought it was a mistake. Jim Sciutto is outfront in Paris tonight. And Jim, I want to start though with the breaking news. What more can you tell us about the hunt right now for accomplices?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'll tell you it's been a burning question since the moment that those gunmen stormed into the Charlie Hebdo officers on this street last week. Were there others involved? We got that answered with certainty today. The French prime minister telling CNN, a highly likely there was another accomplice. AP reporting, quoting, "Police sources," perhaps as many as six unclear whether that's accomplices or associates of the attackers but now we have another name, this is a Frenchman who was trying to cross from Bulgaria on his way to Turkey, perhaps to Syria. He is now arrested, there is talk that he may be extradited to France as part of the investigation. But this shows that there was a web behind these attacks still at large and that helps explain why you have such a massive police presence, military presence around France tonight.

BURNETT: And Jim, you know, incredible that there is just this, as you point out, a fear that they don't even know how many there might be just in this one group, never mind other groups that I know that they are concerned about. We've been hearing to that effect about a key al Qaeda recruiter who recruited many and has been connected to two of the terrorists in last week's attacks and now officials say, they don't know where he is either, right?

SCIUTTO: I know. It's incredible. This is Jamal Beghal. He was well known to authorities here, why was he well known? Because he was arrested for a plot to blow up the US Embassy in Paris. He was then put on house arrest unclear where he is right now. This firms up the ties to al Qaeda. We already knew that the attackers here at Charlie Hebdo claim ties to al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. US officials believed that they trained in Yemen with al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. This now draws a connection to core al Qaeda in Pakistan, which is again, alarming certainly not just for France showing these groups active here but also for the U.S. because these are the groups that the U.S. considers most likely to attempt to carry out on attack on U.S. soil.

BURNETT: As you said, pretty stunning that of course the punishment for such a planning when you talk about the embassy attack was a house arrest. Jim Sciutto, thank you very much, reporting live from Paris.

And also tonight, new details about the man who carried out the deadly attack at a kosher supermarket and his companion. All right. This is the woman police initially thought could have been with him during the attack. You remember that they thought perhaps she have fled after the attack with some of the hostages but now they say, she actually was thousands of miles away.

Miguel Marquez has our report. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hayat Boumeddiene, girlfriend of Amedy Coulibaly, armed, dangerous and now believed escaped to Syria. This picture taken January 2nd days before the coordinated attacks in Paris shows Boumeddiene in Istanbul. A former lawyer of Amedy Coulibaly claims Boumeddiene was the more radical of the couple. He told CNN's Jake Tapper French intelligence agents recorded a 2010 telephone conversation in which she called Coulibaly not a serious man, he only thinks about having fun.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

Coulibaly seen here in the final moments of his life killed while rushing at police after murdering four Jewish men at a kosher deli in Eastern Paris. Prosecutors say evidence points to Coulibaly shooting a jogger the same night of the attack by the Kouachi brothers on employees at Charlie Hebdo. Coulibaly also suspected of killing policewoman the following morning.

PAUL CRUIKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Everything is pointing to the fact that this was coordinated beforehand between Coulibaly and the two brothers. Coulibaly had all these weapons ready to go.

MARQUEZ: Amedy Coulibaly the only boy in his family of ten children. His parents Muslim but not deeply religious. Coulibaly distanced himself from his family in recent years. U.S. officials are reviewing this video of Coulibaly for possible investigative leads. In this undated video, Coulibaly declares his allegiance to ISIS.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

"You attack ISIS, we attack you," he says. "You can't attack and not get back anything in return." Coulibaly who had a string of robbery and drug charges was according to his former lawyer introduced to the Kouachi brothers by this man Jamal Bagel (ph) convicted of plotting to blow up the U.S. Embassy in Paris. In 2010 Coulibaly and the Kouachi brothers were involved in a failed attempt to free now Algerian terrorist from prison. Coulibaly spent the last four years in prison and got out in 2014. Coulibaly's radicalism seemingly home grown unlike the Kouachi brothers who trained in Yemen. The only foreign travel here appears to have undertaken was a trip to Malaysia with his girlfriend, Hayat Boumeddiene.

CRUIKSHANK: There could be more Coulibalys out there, people who are radicalized in their home country. There could be more Coulibalys out there and there could be more Kouachi attackers out there. People have trained in Yemen and Syria.

MARQUEZ: So, this is the big question out there right now. Erin, are there more Coulibaly out there just waiting to strike? Coulibaly, while he was holding hostages in that deli did call someone try to encouraged them to strike. That person didn't but now police agencies around the world are on alert for just such another attack -- Erin.

BURNETT: Miguel, thank you very much. Pretty chilling when you look at all the signs here, so many things that were known and yet, they were not able to stop this.

OUTFRONT tonight, French ambassador to the United States, Gerard Araud, our condolences of course to you sir. I know that this has to be a horrible shock for you as you're going through the mourning process of this horrible event at your home. I know you went to the White House today, you met with President Obama's top counter terror official. Do you know at this point who ordered or orchestrated these attacks?

GERARD ARAUD, FRENCH AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED STATES: No. One of the questions that we have is to know whether al Qaeda or the Islamic caliphate towards assault of a professional headquarter for the attacks or simply that they gave some moment assault of general guidance to attack French interest. At this stage, we don't know what was the network and where, whether there was a network, how the network was working.

BURNETT: Now the French prime minister today said, and I want to quote him, he said he has quote no doubt that there are accomplices to the attacks and they are still at large tonight. I know obviously, that is something that is very terrifying. Do you think another attack is possible?

ARAUD: Well, you know, we -- the president -- the French president said that we are not over with this threat. In a sense, we have been fearing such an attack for some time. We have hundreds of young French who have come to Syria or to Yemen who have been military trained, so we have thousands of people who were radicalized, so at any moment we're fearing that somebody could go, we say in French (SPEAKING FRENCH) and it happened.

BURNETT: And let me ask you about that. I know that French authorities were watching both Kouachi brothers at some point. The brothers were also of course on the American terror data base, they were on the American no-fly list. Did the United States, I guess this is the first question, did the United States share all of its information with you in advance? Did you know everything that the United States knew?

ARAUD: Well, by definition I don't know, you know, because I'm not working in the intelligence field, but what I know and what actually President Obama told me is that the intelligence sharing between the two countries is working very well. So, I guess there is always room for improvement but we have been working very well.

BURNETT: So, let me ask you about the key question. I know you just heard our reporter alluding to it. But part of the problem here of course is that both brothers were known to French intelligence of course under surveillance at some point in time, you know, in part because of involvement in trying to free a terrorist and also perhaps because of their travels. I mean, and they went off the radar because they weren't blatantly violating the law but they were traveling reportedly, possibly to Syria, also to Yemen. But they dropped on the terror priority list. So, they weren't under direct surveillance. Tonight we have more than 18,000 French police and troops that are trying to protect sensitive locations. I know that you and France believe in free speech just like here in the United States, but I guess the question is when you're aware of people going to places like Syria or Yemen or somehow who tried to free a terrorist, you know that they did those things, are you considering just detaining them, saying, you know what? Yes. This free speech thing is great but if someone is involved, we're not going to detain them, we're not going to risk this happening again?

ARAUD: So, first, if you remember with the 9/11, you know, afterwards it's very easy to see, to say, well, actually you should have seen the attack coming. You know, afterwards it's always easy to put the pieces of the puzzle together. So maybe some mistakes have be committed. There will be an investigation of that. You have to understand that basically, we have a thousand of radical youth in France and you can't arrest them because of their opinion. We are democracy. And at the same time, you can't monitor them 24/7 because it would mean those are thousands of policemen. So it's very complicated in this type of threat how to face the challenge.

BURNETT: I mean, I guess it's hard. I understand what you're saying but in a sense that it's admitting that there is no way. You have to accept that this could happen again.

ARAUD: Well, I think, you know, I think it was the head of the MI-5, the British secret service who said that an attack against the UK is highly likely. I think that every head of secret service throughout the world could say the same right now.

BURNETT: Today the White House Spokesman Josh Earnest, it was an unusual move. I know you heard it at this point but he admitted the Obama administration should have sent someone with the higher profile. Those are his words to that march in Paris yesterday. It was a big deal for the administration to admit a mistake. Did they apologize to you directly, Ambassador?

ARAUD: No, and they didn't need to do it. You know, the president came to the French embassy, the secretary came to the French embassy, they made several or very moving from the decorations.

BURNETT: Yes.

ARAUD: You know, the controversy is very real but the French's newspapers are reporting the controversy as an American controversy because in France it didn't really create any out feeling towards the Americans. We have failed this report of the Americans and that matters.

BURNETT: And finally, Jewish schools and synagogues are now getting extra protection from French forces. I know last year we've been reporting 7,000 Jews left France for Israel, that's twice the number of the year before in response to a rise in reported anti-Semitic acts. Prime Minister Netanyahu of course was in Paris this weekend and said to French Jews, quote, "the state of Israel is your home." That's got to be something that sort of hits you both ways. It's, you know, in a sense it's a slap to France and whether Jews can be safe there. Can you protect the Jewish population? ARAUD: Well, I think I'm going to be a bit personal because I've been

ambassador. So, I can say that personally I'm devastated by the idea that some of my compatriots are going to Israel, not that going to Israel because they shows to go to Israel. But are going to Israel because they feel they don't feel safe in France. It would be a major political human failure of the French republican if you are not able to protect the Jewish compatriots and the president said it to the prime minister, for us, it's a major challenge. And we'll do our best to face it.

BURNETT: All right. Well, Ambassador, I really appreciate your time and thank you so much again. I know, an incredibly difficult time for you.

Next, CNN's exclusive video of where one of the Kouachi brothers lived in Yemen, his roommate, the underwear bomber who tried to blow up an American jet. And a former Jihadist turned double agent, his many meetings with the al Qaeda leader who may have inspired the Paris attacks.

Morten Storm is OUTFRONT. Plus, we're hearing from people trapped inside that kosher supermarket. Their terrifying eyewitness accounts, the ordeal in their own words, OUTFRONT.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Now a CNN exclusive, tonight we're learning new details about the life of one of the gunmen involved in the terror attack in France. Said Kouachi, the older Kouachi brother involved in the massacre of Charlie Hebdo was a student in Yemen. Authorities say, he's befriended a Nigerian man who later became known as the underwear bomber after attempting to blow up an American bound plane on Christmas day. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh obtained video of the dorm where the two terrorist lived.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The streets of Yemen where Said Kouachi and his brother Cherif perhaps learned the brutal ways at the same time. CNN has learned from one senior Yemeni security official that both perpetrators of the Paris shootings were in country for about three months from April 2011. Here Said over multiple trips from 2009 studied Arabic at a local institute, played football with children sometimes and made some very high-profile friends. Briefly, sharing a room with Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab who tried to blow up a plane to Detroit in December, 2009. This is where in 2011 Kouachi met this researcher. Muhammad al Kibsi.

MUHAMMAD AL KIBSI, RESEARCHER: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE) just little bit down there and he lived at that place.

WALSH: He shows our producer the institute lodgings where he says the Paris gunmen and the underwear bomber shared an apartment for a week or two probably in 2009. But at lodgings that close to us that Kipsi remembers what Kouachi told him about the underwear bomber.

KIBSI: Very quiet person and he rarely talked to people. WALSH: Those former lodgings are now office space, the school closed

down. Despite this link to one of the most famous attempted bombers of the last decade, somehow quiet Kouachi later fell off the French intelligence radar.

KIBSI: He was very nice guy. Very cheerful.

WALSH: The senior Yemeni official thinks younger Cherif didn't study here but instead travelled north toward Saada and may have attended an Islamic school there from which they fear he attended al Qaeda training camps. Serious and dazzling warning signs coming to light far too late for the 12 Parisians they murdered.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH: Erin, I should point out Yemen officials we talked to are at times struggling to present a unified -- picture of the time the brothers, yes, the brothers plural spent in Yemen. It is after all a failing state but it is remarkable to see the volume of warning signs, Said there between 2009 and 2011 briefly the roommate of one of the more noted failed bombers of the past decade, the underwear bomber and now Cherif there for a number of months potentially attending training camps. A lot of warning signs, a lot of questions for the French and western authorities to be answering -- Erin.

BURNETT: That's for sure. Nick, thank you very much. Of course, you heard the French ambassador say, you know, in hindsight all of it pieces together but it's much harder leading in. Those of course are the questions that will be under investigation but now Morten Storm is OUTFRONT, he's a former jihadist, he worked for western intelligence services as a double agent. Storm helped the CIA locate the American terrorist cleric Anwar al-Awlaki who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Yemen in September 2011. Awlaki is believed to have inspired the Kouachi brothers, their attack in Paris, they said was to avenge his death. He also directed the Christmas Day underwear bomber to blow up that Detroit bound airliner, and inspired the Tsarnaev brothers to carry out the Boston bombings among many other attacks.

Storm co-wrote the book, "Agent Storm: My Life Inside al Qaeda and the CIA." He's the subject of our documentary tonight, "Double Agent." Because Storm remains a target for al Qaeda, I want to be clear tonight, we're not disclosing exactly where he is in the United Kingdom.

I appreciate though you are taking the time to be with us, to come out and speak. I know you met with al-Awlaki many, many times in 2006, you were part of a close circle that he had at that time. We have video of you when you met him, when you were working as a double agent. Given that you met him so many times, you knew him, what was it about him that made him so effective at recruiting people?

MORTEM STORM, DOUBLE AGENT WHO LED CIA TO ANWAR AL-AWLAKI: Anwar al- Awlaki had, first of all, a Danish language, and he masters the language and he had that charisma in him, that very few people have. I mean, he could connect with people and was humble and when he did talk about something related to Islam, he would refer back to the -- use the references from the Koran, from the Hadif, you know, the profit sayings and all that. So, he was a very scholarly person and he knew what he was talking about and he knew how to reach people's minds.

BURNETT: It's interesting when you talk about his charisma. Now, when you were with him and he was trying to have you operate for him to go recruit people, how specific was he? Did he want you to try to help recruit people, Europeans like the Kouachi brothers?

STORM: Yes, indeed. When I was working as an agent, he obviously wanted us -- he ask me specifically to recruit brothers from Europe who had clean passports and send them to Yemen so they can receive the training and then return back again to the European countries and become sleeping cells, and that is exactly what happened in France is what he wanted to do. And he had to be people or brothers who are not known at the authorities and who had to act like normal as if they were just normal citizens when they return back again. So, that's the way that they operate.

BURNETT: Do you think that there are others, Morten right now who are doing the same who may have been trained by or even inspired by post his death, Anwar al-Awlaki who are waiting to attack?

STORM: Absolutely. We know there are many hundreds of them who returned back to Europe and possible even North America and the only problem some of them have is to prepare themselves for this attacks. So maybe to get the weapons is difficult for them in Europe. So it has been a longer time but there is no doubt that once they become desperate and run out of time they're using calves and knives and, you know, we've seen that even for the last few months in France.

BURNETT: And Morten, you know, what would he have promised recruits? I mean, obviously, in all of these cases they have to be willing. I mean, these brothers seem to want to get away but they were ultimately willing to die for their cause as they saw it. How did he get recruits to be willing to die?

STORM: It's a part of the faith. It's a part of what they believe in. They believe that there is no other thing that can reward them higher than to die as marchers. These people were not running away, they were actively running away maybe to carry on more attacks, to create of course more destruction for France and more death. So basically, they wanted to die at the end. They knew that. That's why they ran into the bullets and they never give in or give up, so.

BURNETT: And Morten we have a video of you in August of 2013, an ISIS video. They are firing at enemies of Islam is what this is saying. I know you helped lead the CIA to al-Awlaki. Clearly what that means, you are a major target. Now we've sewn what happened to Charlie Hebdo, to people whose names are in this case, on al Qaeda's list or "Inspire" magazine. How fearful are you for your life?

STORM: I can't live in my own country. I can't tell you or anyone elsewhere where I live. Only very few people in this world know where I live and my life is in danger. There is no doubt about it. BURNETT: Morten, we appreciate you taking the time to talk to us and

to tell your story. Morten story is an incredible one, how he went down the path for Jihad and believed in it and then saw the light and helped the CIA and western intelligence take down one of the world's most dangerous terrorist. His story, "Double Agent" inside al-Qaeda for the CIA airs tonight at 9:00 Eastern. We hope that you will watch it.

And next, amazing stories of survival from people held hostage in that kosher supermarket including the story of the young Muslim man who risked his life to save others.

Plus, Cherif Kouachi, one of the Charlie Hebdo's shooters, here as a young rapper.

Ahead, a report on how Jihadi rap is actually it's not just something he did. It's not being used to recruit extremists. Our special report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BURNETT: Tonight, an international manhunt is underway for France's most wanted fugitive, the wife of the kosher grocery store attacker. Police initially believe that Hayat Boumeddiene was a suspect in those attacks.

But new evidence is emerging that shows the 26-year-old was not actually in France at the time -- which is raising questions as to how Boumeddiene was able to leave Paris five days before the attack, get to Spain, and then as you see in this video, it's a surveillance video actually, at Turkish customs, make her way to Turkey. From there, she would likely we believe cross into Syria just hours before the deadly siege.

Frederik Pleitgen is OUTFRONT live in Paris.

And, Fred, you know, the more we learn in hindsight, you say, well, gosh, this connects to this, to this, how could all of this has been missed? But in her case, specifically, how could French intelligence get her story so wrong?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, to list her as a suspect even though she'd been out of the country for several days, in fact, out of the country before all of this even happened. There really is no explanation for it, and certainly one of the things that the French authorities are saying is that they say, yes, there were big intelligence failures in all of this. Otherwise, none of this would have happened.

I think one of the things that really troubles them most is that at no point in time did they actually know where she was, after -- even after Amedy Coulibaly committed those acts at the kosher grocery store, they still thought that she might be with them. And that's certainly something were they are saying they just simply lost track of this woman. The other thing that is quite troubling is that while the French seem to have lost track of her, the Turkish authorities immediately latched on to her, because we have to keep in mind that once she landed at Istanbul airport, she was immediately tracked by Turkish counterintelligence. She was tracked all the way from Istanbul to the Syrian boarder where then they finally lost trace of her.

So, there is a lot of tough questions that French intelligence are going to have to be asked and certainly something where the government is already saying they might be in need of some reforms here to make sure something like this doesn't happen in the future.

BURNETT: And, Fred, you know, how certain are authorities are actually that she's even in Syria? I mean, that's a big question here, even with the Kouachi brothers. They say, well, we know they were in Yemen now, maybe they were in Syria. We don't know.

I mean, do they know she's even there? Are they even able at this point to find her?

PLEITGEN: Well, I think at this point in time, that their assumption is she is in Syria. But I don't think they can be 100 percent sure. The Turkish government has said they believe, or pretty certain that she went into Syria. She was last spotted in a town close to the Syrian border, one from which many people leave to Syria from Turkey, so that is their assumption she would go there.

And, of course, if she has gone to Syria, it would be virtually impossible for any sort of intelligence service to get hold of her, for French law enforcement to get hold of her, simply because she's in an area that presumably is controlled by ISIS and it would be very difficult to reach her. And even if they could reach her, they would certainly see whether the risk is really worth the reward, Erin.

BURNETT: All right. Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much, reporting live from Paris tonight.

And now, our national security analyst Bob Baer, also former CIA operative.

Bob, you know, Hayat Boumeddiene, the woman we're talking about, you know, she was with a man, married to a man who had links to terror groups. She herself had over 500 phone calls with one of the companions of the Kouachi brothers. So, there was a clear link.

You know, we understand that these are links they could have been aware of because of the excellent French surveillance of phones, how was it that she was able to leave France for Syria really undetected?

BOB BAER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, first of all, it's unclear to me what sort of watch list she was on. She hadn't committed a crime. She hadn't gone to jail. She wasn't identified as somebody who would carry a gun for the French.

She was probably a secondary target and having talked to the wife to one of the Kouachi brothers, you know, it doesn't really make you a suspect. And what she apparently did was very quickly change cell phones. When she got to Turkey, I understand she bought a new cell phone. It's a signal, may not be for certain, they detected in Syria. No one had told the Turks she was on the way.

What we have to remember, Erin, all this metadata really is only good after the crime has been committed. You talk to anybody who deals with this, and it's just -- it's a fire hose of information, and yes, you can algorithms to it, and yes, contractors are making billions of dollars in the software. But the end of the day, you really can't predict who's going to commit a crime and who's not. That's really the problems with police.

And I'll say it again -- the French police are the best in Europe. They know how to wok the metadata. They got great surveillance teams. They worked against me. I've worked against them. They are fantastic police force. And I'm sure they still are today.

So, I don't think we should lay the blame at the steps of the French but rather in our faith in the computers and metadata which just isn't enough to catch these people.

BURNETT: Right. And, you know, Ambassador Araud made that point. He said, you know, look, when you look back 20/20, you know, hindsight is 20/20. You know, he said, look, we're going to investigate it because it looks bad now but, you know, hindsight is 20/20.

But I guess the question I have, though, is -- you know, and we know this. France has one of the best counter intelligence programs in the world, but when you look at these brothers, it raises a broader question maybe about policy, right? When I asked him look why not detain anyone whose been in Yemen or been Syria or is doing, you know, involved in trying to free a terrorist, as these brothers were.

And his answer was there are thousands of young radicals in France, because of the freedom of ideas, we can't detain them all, but they've got 18,000 people sitting around for a possible attack. You know, in a sense, you feel like a sitting duck. Is it time to say, look, we have to give up freedoms, detain more people even though we don't know what they are going to do?

BAER: Look -- look, Erin, my opinion is and this shooting from the hip is a couple more of these attacks is exactly what they will do. They have a terrible immigration problem in France. It's a very insular society. North Africans are not able to be assimilated.

My children went to school in France, and they were Americans, of course, but they were considered second class citizens. So, I understand what the North Americans face there and I don't see how the French can turn this around on a dime and they have a real problem, and I think the fact they there are 10,000 French troops out in the streets tells me that they are very scared and with reason.

You do have to wonder whether they can defend their Jewish population. I mean, it's a real problem. Terrorism has hit the shores of Europe in a major way.

BURNETT: And, of course, as you point out, horrific anti-Semitic angles to it. Thank you so much, Bob Baer.

And that kosher supermarket where five were murdered, we have dramatic stories of survival, from some of the hostages that were held there for hours. Their acts of bravery helped end the standoff that paralyzed Paris and it saves countless lives.

Alexandra Field is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We are all witness.

They are survivors.

Rudi Hadad recalls the terrifying moment Amedy Coulibaly stormed the store.

"I saw him enter with the Kalashnikov. Without pity, he was there to kill people.

(GUNSHOTS)

MARIE, PARIS MARKET HOSTAGE (through translator): He was holding two Kalashnikovs, a knife and a handgun. We were sitting and at the right there were two corpses, two customers who died at the very beginning. As soon as he got inside, he started shooting. He scared us because he told us, "I'm not afraid to die".

FIELD: After killing several customers, Coulibaly can be heard talking to the hostages when a radio journalist calls the store. Coulibaly wouldn't answer questions but he didn't hang up.

(INAUDIBLE)

FIELD: The kosher grocery store is under siege for hours. Inside, people hide for their lives.

LASSANA BATHILY, PARIS MARKET HOSTAGE (through translator): When people came downstairs running, I went toward the cold room. I opened the door and many people got in the cold room with me.

FIELD: Lassana Bathily, a Muslim employee, becomes a hero among them.

BATHILY: I switched off the light and switched off the freezer. He asked us to all come upstairs, otherwise, he would kill everyone who is downstairs.

FIELD: While some hostages stayed hidden in the freezer, he follows the instruction and manages to escape through a freight elevator. The hidden hostages will be rescued by police.

He says, "They asked us to come out with our hands on our heads they said to climb up stairs and not look on the floor because there was a lot of blood on the floor. I tried not to look, I looked straight ahead. I took the lady with the baby and I left with her." The gunman dies in a shootout with police but four innocents are already dead, Yohan Cohen, Yoav Hattab, Philippe Braham, Francois- Michel Saada.

The horror of it all unfolding on television screens.

"It's a miracle that we're all still here, me and the people in the fridge."

The world witnessing it.

Alexandra Field, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: And next, Cherif Kouachi was one of the shooters at the "Charlie Hebdo" magazine. But he was once an aspiring rapper. And this is not just a small aside, a point of interest. It's central. And next, we have a special report on how jihadi rap is a key recruiting tool for terrorists.

And one of the most vicious terror groups in the world, their latest attack almost too horrific to even contemplate, killing as many as 2,000 people in one town, strapping a child, a young girl with bombs and detonating her.

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BURNETT: With disturbing new details about the terrorist brothers behind the "Charlie Hebdo" massacre, years before the attacks in France, Cherif Kouachi was an aspiring rapper.

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BURNETT: Cherif's hip-hop career never took off, but tonight, we are learning about a dark and growing underground world of jihadi rap that uses hip-hop culture to radicalize young men in the West like Cherif Kouachi.

Jason Carroll is OUTFRONT with our special report.

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JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Years before Cherif Kouachi became radicalized before he took part in the murders that "Charlie Hebdo's" offices in Paris, he was a petty thief and an aspiring rapper.

In 2005, France 3 Television featured Kouachi in a documentary about recruiting young Islamic extremists. In it, the narrator says Kouachi prefers rap and pretty girls rather than attending mosques. Not clear if he rapped about jihad, but what is alarming to security analysts are rap videos supporting jihad popping up all over the Internet.

RAP MUSIC: Peace to Hamas and Hezbollah, OBL pulled me like a shining star. CARROLL: They have named such as "Dirty Kuffar" or "Blow By Blow", created by Alabama native Omar Shafik Hammami, one who ended up on the U.S. most wanted terrorist list.

While some of those posting videos may not be from organized terrorist groups, security experts say terrorist organizations do post and use the videos as a recruiting tool.

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: This is an effort, I think, to make these groups more approachable to potential recruits in places like Britain or France or America who are susceptible to rap videos but who might feel that the beheading videos we've seen in the past are too extreme.

CARROLL: One man officials think may be connected to a beheading video is Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, a former British rapper known as L Jinny, who may have traveled to Syria to join ISIS. His father currently in U.S. custody held on terrorism-related charges.

And then there's Denis Cuspert, a former German rapper who went by the stage name "Deso Dogg". He changed his name to Abu Talha-al-Almani after converting to Islam and has been featured in extremist propaganda material.

Amil Khan has written extensively on the subject of rap music and jihad.

(on camera): Why do you think rap music seems to be the music of choice?

AMIL KHAN, FORMER INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIST: They are saying that they are the good guys. They are fighting for justice for people who are oppressed. And rap is also and has been historically a form of getting that idea across to people.

CARROLL (voice-over): Music industry insiders say jihad rap videos are on the very extreme edges of the genre.

L. LONDELL MCMILLAN: Whether jihad rap or gangster rap, I'm very upset about how rap is being used in any way that is harmful and hurts people.

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BURNETT: Jason, to many people, this just seems to go against anything that they would expect from recruiting -- especially when you think about what people think about the sorts of lyrics, violent sex acts and things that are depicted in some rap.

CARROLL: Yes, well, certainly Islamic teaching would not be in support of many rap videos or music or Western pop music for that matter. But what you're seeing here, Erin, is you're seeing these people in their own ways interpreting Islam for their own purpose posts, getting around the religion so they can then rap and post videos. And as for the terrorist organizations that are using these rap videos, they are essentially basically doing the same thing. Remember, they're going to do whatever they can to recruit people anyway they can.

BURNETT: Jason Carroll, thank you very much.

Pretty incredible. I mean, you heard he was a rapper, maybe you did think it was the side bar to the story, but obviously part of something bigger.

OUTFRONT next, one of the most feared terror groups in the world, Boko Haram. Their deadliest attack yet, killing as many as 2,000 people, using children as human bombs. We're live in the scene.

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BURNETT: One of the world's most terrific groups is turning to a disgusting new tactic to murder. At least 20 people were killed this weekend when a young girl, strapped with explosives, was sent in to a crowded market, and detonated, using remote control, detonated by a militant from the Nigerian terror group Boko Haram. Boko Haram terrorists kidnapped 276 school girls last year. They have not stopped butchering and murdering innocent people in indescribable ways, including a new attack in northern Nigeria that took the lives of up to 2,000 men, women and children.

Nic Robertson is OUTFRONT live. He's in the capital of Nigeria, Abuja, for us tonight.

And, Nic, when I saw this tactic, I had to read it a few times, because I couldn't believe that even this group would be capable of doing something so vile, strapping children with bombs and the militants a safe distance away, detonate the children in the midst of a crowd.

What can you tell us?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is horrific, isn't it? There's no getting away from it. How can anyone even conceive this type of idea?

But the terrible thing about this is, it gets worse, because this happened to a girl who was believed to be about 10 years old in a market on Saturday. On Sunday, Boko Haram did it to two more girls in a market in a nearby town and there, three people were killed, 43 wounded. The same tactics -- young girls, bombs strapped to them, they get close to the security checkpoint at the market and somebody remotely detonated the explosives.

Security sources in the area believe that when Boko Haram goes into the nearby villages, when it attacks those villages, it kills some of the sort of older men and women, but captures some of the young girls and young boys to use them in these types of attacks because they can't get into those markets themselves. So, they stoop to this level of depravity, absolutely horrific. And you had the attack, you know, that took place just into the New Year, that we're only beginning to get details of now, hundreds of Boko Haram, overrunning a town, residents there witnessing deaths, witnessing looting, witnessing the burning of the towns, tens of thousands of people forced to flee, several thousands people believed to have been killed according to eyewitnesses, Erin.

BURNETT: I mean, Nic, you're talking about three little girls in just two days. And what it sounds like, you're reporting, I know in some of the conflicts in Africa, you know, you hear about young boys who get brainwashed, are too young to understand, but they get brainwashed and they participate -- it's hard to use these words with children of this age, a free will.

But in this case, that does not seem to be what's happening at all. These are basically prisoners, they kill their families, take them hostage and then just send them in.

ROBERTSON: Unwitting and unwilling human bombs, absolutely, there's no other way to describe it. They've treated these children as just sort of walking vehicles to deliver an explosive. It's hard to imagine how people can come up with that. Let alone come up with it, but then carry it out, push the button and kill these children. Never mind the people around them.

BURNETT: Lack of any kind of humanity in that.

Nic Robertson, thank you so much. As he said, live on this evening in Abuja, Nigeria.

We'll be right back.

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BURNETT: Tomorrow on OUTFRONT, she ended up on al Qaeda's most wanted list after drawing images of the Prophet Muhammad. That was four years ago. She's an American cartoonist. She's now in hiding, her story is an incredible one. Who is she? We have a special report tomorrow night.

Thanks so much for joining us tonight. Be sure to set your DVR to record OUTFRONT, so you can watch us anytime. We'll see you back here at the same time tomorrow.

"AC360" begins now.