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Erin Burnett Outfront

Manhunt On For Eight Suspect in Paris Attacks; ISIS Threatens Washington in New Video; Attacker's Family: "Coincidence They Were Near Shootings"; ISIS Threatens Attack on Washington. Aired 7-8:00p ET

Aired November 16, 2015 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:11] ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight, live from Paris, we begin with the breaking news tonight. A massive manhunt. Officials tonight believe one of the suspected terrorists behind the deadly Paris attacks is still alive and on the run at this hour. French police stopping and questioning Salah Abdeslam, a Belgium born French citizen for hours after the attack. Hours but then police released him. Another new development tonight, we are learning the Paris terrorists rented an apartment in the Paris suburb for a week before launching their attack, now this is according to French media reports. Now this comes as ISIS, in a new video, promises a major terror attack on Washington, D.C., vowing to strike America's capital as they did Paris.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through a translator): We are coming with car bombs and explosives. We're coming with explosive vests and silencers. You won't be able to stop us because today we are much stronger than before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: The attacks in Paris killing at least 129 injuring more than 350. Tonight, scores remain in critical condition. There's been a day of very fast moving developments here in France. Heavily armed forces conducting more than 150 raids around the nation. Twenty three people are under arrest. Now, French authorities have seized a cache of what is being described as weapons of war. And on that list, combat gear, bullet proof vest, even a rocket launcher. There is rear fear of more attacks. And we are learning more tonight about the suspects. The first to be named Ishmael Omar Mostefai. Authority say, he was one of three terrorists who stormed the Bataclan concert hall and was ultimately killed. Mostefai spent a lot of time, in a suburb about an hour outside of Paris. And I went there today, I met a relative of his who says the Mostefai family was eating dinner very close to the concert hall on the night of the attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a coincidence. It's coincidence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Much more of my reporting ahead. But first, I want to begin with Jim Sciutto who is here with me in Paris. We have been here together over the past two days. And Jim, the breaking news at this hour, we're learning that the attackers had rented an apartment just outside the Paris in the days ahead of the attack.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And we're also getting increasing signs, increasing evidence that there were missed warning signs frankly on this attack, that several of the attackers were known to French authorities before this. But in addition to that, they are getting more details as to how they managed to carry this out. One, that they staged in effect across the border in Belgium where they have frankly less capability of tracking terrorist suspects. But that the trail of direction, coordination support goes all the way back to Syria, to a mastermind who has ties directly to the leader of ISIS itself.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO (voice-over): ISIS' latest propaganda video vowing a major attack on Washington, D.C., a threat all the more chilling in the wake of the deadly attacks in Paris.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through a translator): I swear to God, as we struck France and its stronghold Paris, we will strike America and its stronghold Washington.

SCIUTTO: With security beefed up at potential targets across the U.S., CIA Director John Brennan made it clear that the U.S. is being extra vigilant.

JOHN BRENNAN, CIA DIRECTOR: This is not something that was done in a matter of days. This was something that was deliberately and carefully planned over the course I think of several months. And so I would anticipate that this is not the only operation that ISIL has in the pipeline.

SCIUTTO: Across Europe today, a massive manhunt under way for Salah Abdeslam, believed to be a surviving member of the Paris attackers. Just hours after the attack, police stopped and questioned him but he hadn't been identified as a suspect and was released on a road heading to the Belgian border. And French officials are now looking back at potential missed signals in the months prior to the attacks. At least two of the attackers were known to police. Six believed to have travelled to Syria, only to have returned to Europe. One slipping into the continent with thousands of Syrian refugees who entered through Greece. French officials say that this man, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian national, heard on this video saying, he enjoys spilling the blood of infidels could be a ringleader of the attacks. He's thought to have ties to ISIS' leader.

JEAN LOUIS BRUGUIERE, FORMER FRENCH COUNTER TERRORISM JUDGE: This guy is actually very close to the chief, to Baghdadi himself. For me, for me, this huge attack has been issued or approved by Baghdadi himself. (END VIDEOTAPE)

[19:05:05] SCIUTTO: We learned today that there are some 11,000 Jihadi suspects across France today. Just imagine that figure in the U.S.

BURNETT: Because this weekend it was 5,000.

SCIUTTO: Well, it was 5,000. Here's the categories. There are 5,000 people suspected of being involved in terrorism or thinking about terrorism and a further few thousand people who have been radicalized, whom might had been in touch with a Jihadi website, this kind of thing. So you have several gradations here. But still numbers that they frankly don't have the capabilities to track. But there is now a push from some politicians. We talked to presidential candidate today from the conservative party who says it affects -- you have to detain some of these people even before they commit a crime. Imagine that. It's effectively preventive detention. And we got a little taste of that in the last 24 hours. You have 104 people under house arrest in France tonight who haven't committed a crime, necessarily.

BURNETT: Right.

SCIUTTO: But they are considered risks.

BURNETT: The deputy of the mayor of Paris is going to be with me in a moment and talk about that. But that is something that is a very serious thing to consider. They were not able to catch these individuals. So now they are looking at, all right, well, if you're under a certain age and you're Arabic and your male, we're going to take you in for questioning.

SCIUTTO: Or even as simple as if you were on a Jihadi website or simply -- and we saw this is several to people arrest in the last 24, 48 hours, if you happen to be a relative of or a brother or father or a wife.

BURNETT: Right.

SCIUTTO: Of someone who has been detained.

BURNETT: Right. I saw that today. I was actually one of the brothers of one of the attackers who is still answering questions with the police. One of his relatives had just come from the police station when I saw them. So, they are questioning everyone. Jim Sciutto, thank you so much.

And we are learning new details about the ISIS members now who are thought to have masterminded these attacks. Another significant development today. It's just how much orchestration actually came ISIS headquarters in Syria.

Nic Robertson is OUTFRONT live outside the Bataclan Theater where 89 people were killed. And Nic, what are you learning about the suspected planners, the masterminds. NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Abaaoud is a man who is

believed to have had connections to several attempted terror attacks here in France already. We remember in August that attempted attack on a train that was coming from Brussels in to France, the attacker armed with a Kalashnikov got onboard a train in Brussels, then tried to spray the people on the train, the passengers with bullets. He was tackled by three Americans on the train, brought to the ground before he could cause any more death and injury. Now, he's believed to have been in contact with Abaaoud who is believed to be in Syria. There was another attempted attack, another Jihadi in France in April this year. It was targeted or told to attack a church. He failed to do that.

He killed a yoga teacher, shot himself in the leg, was picked up by French authorities. But this is about the time the French began to realize that there might be a French ISIS connection whereby ISIS was trying to direct attacks here in France. And what we have witnessed here now on Friday is perhaps this deadliest effort yet. The information is still being flushed out, if you will, about Abaaoud and his connections but is also believed to have been connected to a terror cell in Belgium who had a massive gun battle with police in Burbea (ph) about a week or so after the "Charlie Hebdo" attacks here in Paris in January. So this is a man who is well known, it appears, to the French. Now they have to decipher and figure out what kind of involvement, if he had, how much, what was his role and how was he doing it from that distance in Syria to control and influence these men here -- Erin.

BURNETT: Nic, thank you very much. And Paris Deputy Mayor Patrick Klugman joins me now. And Mayor, thank you so much. I know that you have had a horrible, horrible few days as a citizen, as mayor of this city as it has been so horrifically attacked. What can you tell us about the raid? I know that there have been a lot of raids in just the past few days. Hundred fifty raids is what we understand at this time. More than 20 people arrested. What can you tell us about those raids?

PATRICK KLUGMAN, PARIS DEPUTY MAYOR: You mean, the arrests?

BURNETT: The arrests, the raids. There's been so much police activity.

KLUGMAN: Yes. It's going over in France first and also Belgium. There's been many arrests in Belgium because apparently at that -- planned from Syria, of course, where there are training camps of ISIS. Those are from Belgium which sometimes appears to like in the back for radical Islamists. So, it's still going on. And we don't have all the results of the arrests that went so far.

BURNETT: So you don't yet know if any of them were planning anything, doing anything. You're not sure. We do know at this time there was at least one place that police went that had bulletproof vests, automatic weapons, a rocket launcher.

KLUGMAN: Of course.

BURNETT: A rocket launcher.

[19:10:15] KLUGMAN: Of course. And also you know that in the car they found other Kalashnikov guns. But you know, in every attacks we've had so far in the past, we find a lot of heavy war material not used. So we know that it's easy to find weapons in France, in Belgium to commit attacks and we know that they have the capacity to cause major damage.

BURNETT: Yes.

KLUGMAN: They did on Friday and probably they can --

BURNETT: Again?

KLUGMAN: Again. That's why intelligence is so important.

BURNETT: How concerned are you? There's two issues with the intelligence it seems thus far. One of them is that at least two of these attackers seemed to have already been known to French intelligence and they were not able to see this coming. The other is that the others were not even known and we're planning something like this. Both of those things are terrifying.

KLUGMAN: Well, first, I don't see as a failure, that's how we identified that the two of the attackers were known from our intelligence service. Of course, nor are we considering how we have to look at people who show signs of radicalizations and the President today announced and the strong measures to arrest, to put into custody anyone and to investigate on anyone who shows very early signs of radicalization.

BURNETT: Let me ask you though a difficult question. Why isn't it a failure that two of these individuals were known to intelligence and still were able to do this?

KLUGMAN: Well, I prefer that our services are enough -- strong enough to look after these people even though not enough to avoid these attacks. But you know, many attacks have been avoided, really, about ten, maybe more. So of course it's a failure but I mean, that means that we know where to look to find these people, so we have just to change the logic. And now with the means that have been announced, the measures, the war in Syria, the mobilization of the international community, the European Union and France, I think we can make it. This is not a French battle. This is not a Parisian war.

BURNETT: Much bigger than that.

KLUGMAN: Of course.

BURNETT: Deputy Mayor Klugman, thank you very much.

KLUGMAN: Thank you.

BURNETT: All right. Next, I went to the neighborhood, one of the suburbs where one of the attackers grew up and I found his brother's house. I talked to his relative who shared new details with me about what happened on Friday night.

Plus, ISIS threatening Washington, D.C., and how serious are these threats? How specific are they?

And backlash against refugees. A Syrian refugee tells me how easy it is to get a fake passport.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:16:34] BURNETT: Breaking news, we're live in Paris tonight where officials are admitting that they knew of at least two of the attackers before Friday's massacre. Now, this comes as we learn the identities of six of the eight attackers, including 29-year-old Ismael Omar Mostefai. Today, I went to the neighborhood where Mostefai's family lives. It's a suburb about an hour outside of Paris. And while I was there, I spoke with the Mostefai family relative named Said who would only give me his first name because he says he is now the target of death threats. Here's how Said described Friday evening to me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAID, RELATIVE OF PARIS ATTACKER (through a translator): Friday night, I was with members of my family. The Bataclan was very close to me. In a theater in Paris where we went to see a show when, unfortunately, we heard of these terrible attacks. Very difficult, very heavy and terrorized by what has happened.

BURNETT: And at that time, you were nearby out on a Friday night, you had no idea, no one in the family had any idea that it was Ismael that was a part of this?

SAID: Listen, what you're telling me is really terrible because this people could have killed his own brother. We were about 300 meters of the shooting. We were less than a kilometer from this attack on the Bataclan. And it's really crazy, unbelievable. What a coincidence that two brothers would be so close to each other geographically. For us, it was impossible to understand. What happened is terrible for us to be honest with you.

BURNETT: The family, I know, has had to talk to the police, that the family and we just saw -- what has it been like for the family?

SAID: What I can tell you is that it's terrible for the victims and I see all of the suffering and I share their pain. I want to ask them for forgiveness. Yes, forgiveness sincerely for what has happened. But also the families of these youngsters who have unfortunately committed these barbaric acts, it's horrible. There's no words to describe their suffering, their humility, their shame.

BURNETT: I'm sorry. I know it's very hard for you to talk about it. What happens now for you?

SAID: For me, I don't live in fear. For me, I don't live afraid because perfect love vanishes fear. Perfect love banishes fear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And now our terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank joins me along with Jean-Charles Brisard, a terror expert here in Paris and thanks very much to both of you. You just saw a family relative, the police right now, he has been questioned all day yesterday, Ismael Mostefai's brother being questioned still all day today. When I went there, there's still a police. Jean-Charles, they are still trying to run this down. There's still trying to talk to every relative, every friend.

JEAN-CHARLES BRISARD, TERRORISM EXPERT: Of course. That's usual, I mean, they're trying to get the big picture of what happened and what the relatives knew about the involvement of the individuals. They are also trying to recover belongings or evidence of the various homes that have been searched. This is usual.

BURNETT: It is usual, Paul, but it is frightening. We're now learning two of the attackers were known to French intelligence. Damning in the sense that they were known but still managed to pull this off. Perhaps what's more damning is that six of them were not known and none of them were known to American intelligence which is now raising fears in the U.S. that they don't know who to watch for either.

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: The staggering numbers of people who have been radicalized or difficult to sort of know all of them given the numbers. We're talking thousands in France who have become radicalized. We're talking about 6,000 from Europe who have gone over to Syria and Iraq and joined various Jihadi groups. Fifteen hundred who have comeback. And we've seen several cases in Europe over the course of this year where

people were known in one shape, form or the other to authorities but they still managed to sort of try to carry out attacks or carry out attacks. I mean, we saw that with Mehdi Nemmouche, French ISIS fighter who carried out an attack on a museum in Belgium in 2014 and the train attack just a few months ago in the summer, Ayoub el- Khazzani. He was also known to authorities but managed to get back through Albania (ph) into Europe to launch that attempted attack.

[19:21:25] BURNETT: So Jean-Charles, how could the Mostefai family, we were with them today. How would they have not known? I mean, there were so many questions here about were red flags missed about a young man? Is it possible that they would have had no idea that their son or brother had gone to Syria, had been radicalized in the past few years?

BRISARD: The process of radicalization as we see it in France. The first step that they've learned on the internet is secrecy. Secrecy vis-a-vis their family, their friends. They are really captured by the propaganda of these groups and really the first thing is how to be secret, we need to be secret about what you are doing, et cetera. And so there's no real change, apparent change for the families and this is an issue in every case, almost every case of jihadists. The family doesn't see it coming.

BURNETT: The family doesn't know. BRISARD: No.

BURNETT: Now, in this case, Ismael Mostefai, the French intelligence were aware of him. He had a low level. They were worried about radicalization. Paul, we're now hearing about mass incarceration isn't the right word. But taking people into custody. So, basically, if you're a young Arab male in France, already a very disenfranchised group, they can take you into questioning. They can go door to door if they need to do it. That's how afraid they are but that's also something that they could have very severe repercussions.

CRUICKSHANK: Well, it's an extraordinary sort of preventative measure. These are kinds of forms of controlled orders where you have to check in with your local authorities sort of day by day. But of course, we've seen people who have gone off to Syria despite the fact that they have been in these control orders.

BURNETT: Yes.

CRUICKSHANK: And in France they don't always, unfortunately, work. And, you know, the numbers as I've been saying are really staggering. And Jean-Charles was talking about secrecy. And the other aspects of secrecy here Erin is the communications.

BURNETT: Yes.

CRUICKSHANK: I mean, they are increasingly using encrypted apps and they are going dark. They are also really doing kind of innovative things like using video consoles and messaging with one another and it's very difficult for police officers who have no real idea of how these video console games work to even figure out where these messages are. And they are going dark -- is worse here in Europe and the United States because with the Americans it's easier for them to get access with all of this internet traffic. A lot of it gets rooted through the United States, the Europeans also have to ask -- the Americans time and time again for help. That slows everything down.

BURNETT: Thank you very much. Paul, Jean-Charles, thank you both.

Well, up next. President Obama on the defensive over his ISIS strategy. What did he mean when he said ISIS was contained and what did he mean today when he said his ISIS strategy was working?

And my conversation with a Syrian refugee. He describes just how easy it is to get a passport. You'll see that later on this hour.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:28:12] BURNETT: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. We have breaking news at this hour here in Paris. New details tonight's about the attackers involved in the massacre here in Paris. We now know that the terrorists rented an apartment in a Paris suburb just north of the city. For a week before they launched their attack. Now, this is according to French media reports we're getting in at this hour. The apartment reportedly specifically rented by Ibrahim Abdeslam, that is one of the suicide bombers who detonated outside a cafe. The massive manhunt is underway for that man's brother.

At this hour, he has been now on the run since those attacks. Even though he was detained and released. Here in Paris, a city on edge. Heavily armed forces conducting more than 150 raids around the nation since the attacks. Twenty three people under arrest. The deputy mayor telling me moments ago they don't have an update on those individuals, if any of them were involved or not. They have found caches of weapons, though, including a rocket launcher. Now, President Hollande is promising to do whatever it takes to defeat ISIS.

Clarissa Ward is OUTFRONT. And Clarissa, whatever it takes means something that we have not seen in modern times here in France and in the United States, almost anywhere.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, we haven't. And you have to remember, Erin, that France really has embraced these liberal values. It's very important here. And some of the measures that President Francois Hollande was talking about adapting, you know, changing the constitution, possibly being able to extradite people, foreign nationals or dual nationals who are suspected of terrorism. He also talked about, you know, the possibility of launching constant searches without arrest warrants, of putting people under house arrest. Something that's necessarily doesn't sound radical to an American audience but for a French audience it's certainly a change from the norm.

And he really emphasized that this needs to be a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, you have the military approach. He talked about continuing and intensifying those air strikes in Raqqa, moving an aircraft carrier into the gulf. And on the other hand, you have the approach here at home. Five thousand more police being hired. And perhaps most importantly, trying to improve communication within Europe to try to crack down on this network of arms trafficking, all of these people moving around so freely and so little information being shared between all of the different countries.

BURNETT: All right. Well, Clarissa, thanks very much.

I mean, Clarissa, just to give context here -- we had 5,000 people who they said of concern this weekend. They are going to expand that list to 11,000 people, to give you a sense of how quickly the scale has changed.

There is increased security in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States, after a new video from ISIS made a direct threat to Washington today. This comes as the White House faces growing calls to admit that its strategy to beat ISIS is not working.

President Obama, though, defiant in the face of those calls, saying there is no reason to change course, that his strategy is working.

Deborah Feyerick is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Emboldened by the recent attacks in Paris, ISIS is now making more threats, releasing a web video, again putting the United States in its terror crosshairs.

ISIS (through translator): We will strike America in its own stronghold, Washington. God willing, we will open Rome as what the honest man promised.

FEYERICK: In Washington, D.C., metro transit police saying they are ramping up security despite any current, credible threat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's something that we have to do to, again, reassure our riders.

FEYERICK: In Europe, a show of force at busy landmarks like Times Square and Grand Central Station, the NYPD's top cop deploying 100 heavily trained elite counterterror officers as front line forces respond to potential threats, a force that will ultimately total 500 tactical units.

BILL BRATTON, NYPD COMMISSIONER: You will be equipped to go in to harm's way and equipped in a way to protect yourselves, protect each other, and to protect the citizens of this great city.

FEYERICK: Defensive measures across the country preparing for the worst, absent any existing, credible threat.

The U.S. president he insisting the ISIS plan is the right one within Syria and Iraq.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have been fully aware of the potential capabilities of them carrying out a terrorist attack. That's precisely why we have been mounting a very aggressive strategy to go after them.

FEYERICK: That strategy includes airstrikes, going after their oil and money and hitting high-value targets, like Jihadi John, responsible for executing several Americans. Many critics, like Republican Lindsey Graham, say it's not enough.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm trying to protect America from another 9/11. And without American boots on the ground in Syria and Iraq, we're going to get here at home.

FEYERICK: Obama pushing back.

OBAMA: If they think that somehow their advisers are better than the chairman of my Joints Chief of Staff and the folks who are actually on the ground, I want to meet them. And we can have that debate.

(END VIDEOTAPE) FEYERICK: And, of course, the ISIS threat against Washington is

aspirational, not operational at this point.

But authorities there are really frightened because they are concerned that what happened in Paris could in fact happen elsewhere because this was a small tactical unit. Some of its members were able to stay off the radar, completely dark and help create this total chaos that has now affected Paris and by concealing their activities, the fear is that others may either cross the border somehow, either legitimately or by other means and execute a similar kind of attack. And so, it's a big concern that they were able to stay so quiet.

BURNETT: Deborah Feyerick, thank you very much.

I want to go now to my national security commentator and the former chairman of the House Select Committee on Intelligence, Mike Rogers, and presidential historian Douglas Brinkley.

OK. Thank you both very much for joining me.

Mike, let me just start with you -- the president is standing firm and defiant in the calls -- certainly in this country, people were now, people were talking to on the streets say they are open to ground troops and they want ground troops. The president of the United States says, no, ground troops don't make sense. He has the right strategy, just give me time, it is the right now, there is no better option.

MIKE ROGERS: Our Arab League partners aren't aware of this brilliant. It concerns me a lot.

You know, here's the thing. He's very good at the strong man argument. If you're not for what I'm doing, you're for massive troop invasion of Syria. There are so many more options, Erin, than that, and it's disappointing that he would go there.

If you get a robust Arab League coalition and we use the same kind of tactics that we did to decapitate al Qaeda elements in the tribal areas of Pakistan, going after their command and control, going after their logistic systems, that might mean you have combat service support troops helping our allies become more impactful on the battlefield.

[19:35:16] I don't know why we wouldn't take that option. That doesn't mean you're having the 101st Airborne Division kicking in doors in Raqqa. But if we don't have some effort in Raqqa and Ramadi at the same time to try to degrade their ability to recruit, to train -- remember, social media is touching these recruits in Paris, France, and the United States almost simultaneously. That we have to break that up and disrupt that model and right now, his strategy just doesn't do that.

BURNETT: And, Douglas, what I think a lot of people don't understand is why the president would be so defiant, insisting his strategy is working, insisting that he's right to say ISIS is contained. In fact, saying I meant geographically in Syria, they are contained.

Yes, of course, there may be some truth in that, but when you see an attack like what happened in Paris, to be defiant about that seems at the least tone deaf.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, I think that we need to honor what the president of the United States and armed forces are doing right now. I mean, it would be very easy to get very knee-jerk here and start saying, you know, use a lot of hyped up war rhetoric and give these terrorists more dues than they deserve.

We cannot, you know, just send in troops willy-nilly into Syria or into Iraq again and have a worse situation like we did under George W. Bush. Remember, in 1983, we had 299 Americans and French military personnel blown up in Beirut. We had to be there inside the Lebanese civil war and we lost 220 marines then.

What did Ronald Reagan do months later? Pulled out of Lebanon because the mission was not going to be successful staying there.

So, the reason the president is being calm and reassuring right now, in my view, is saying we're doing this. But it's going to take time walking on water wasn't made in a day and don't let each pipe bomb that goes off ajar the American spirit.

BURNETT: Certainly, all those points may be true but, Mike, when you look at what Dianne Feinstein said today, of course, Democrat, she's on the Senate Intelligence Committee, ISIS is far from being contained but also says it is expanding. And I raise that to make the point that this is not as simple as Democrat versus Republican.

ROGERS: No, exactly. And there's huge bipartisan support.

I guess the notion is to call France's 9/11 a setback is somebody who looked at this in a bipartisan way, as you know, Erin, is a bit offensive. Could you imagine if somebody had gone to our 9/11 and said that's just a setback for the United States? They slaughtered 3,000 people. They slaughtered 129 people.

ISIS now is operating in excess of 12 countries. We had a very significant and obviously now coordinated attack that brought down the Russian airliner, an attack that killed 46 in Lebanon and now, they've attacked in Paris. We've had arrests across the United States on almost attacks from ISIS from New York to Mississippi.

And so, some notion that we're just doing just fine, nobody worry about it, is really troubling. It tells me, if you're not willing to deal with the threat as you face it -- and I think Dianne Feinstein said that very same thing -- we're going to be in for some trouble. We need a change in strategy. In fact, we just need a strategy to go after them in a more robust way.

And it doesn't mean willy-nilly troops on the ground. Nobody is really even saying that.

BURNETT: All right. Well, thank you both very much and, of course, this does come after -- not long after the president admitted the strategy in Syria was still being figured out.

Well, one of the attackers slipped in to Europe with thousands of Syrian refugees. This is now causing a massive issue across the United States, state after state after state deciding to ban them today. Well, today, I went to find some of those refugees and talk to them about fake passports. You'll see what they had to say.

And a remarkable story of survival, this woman literally hanging on for her life.

And later on, I'm going to talk to a doctor who ran to the sound of gunfire, trying to save that young American woman's life and she died in his arms.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:43:20] BURNETT: Tonight, the backlash against refugees. One of the suicide bombers in the Paris attack used a fake Syrian passport. He hid among the refugees to get into Europe. He was allowed in to Greece on October 3rd. He then traveled to Macedonia and crossed into Serbia.

The suicide bomber then registered at a Syrian refugee camp in Croatia and then, of course, as we all know, he then came to Paris.

I visited a refugee center here in Paris where there's so much frustration and anger now at the refugee crisis and I spoke to a Syrian refugee.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: When you heard that at least one of the attackers had a Syrian passport, had come in to Europe with refugees, what did you think?

SAKHER EDRIS, SYRIAN REFUGEE: Well, frankly, because I know how easy it is to get a Syrian passport, I knew -- yes, I knew this kind of message they were not Syrian but they just want to mislead the -- this passport to mislead the investigation.

BURNETT: So, you knew it wasn't real?

EDRIS: Frankly, I'm not saying that. If you read my articles about this, even on social media, you will read the same, that I know this is kind of Syrian fake Syrian passport to mislead the investigation. It's very easy to get a fake passport now.

BURNETT: When you heard it was a Syrian passport, though, were you afraid? Were you angry? How did it make you feel as someone living -- Syrian passport is all you've got in this country?

EDRIS: I felt angry. I felt anger. I know the society here -- I mean, I'm talking in France, especially in France.

[19:45:01] I know that society, I know here, they have values, they have human values, kind of liberal values, they support liberties.

So, myself, I did not feel that scared.

BURNETT: So this is a Syrian passport. I want to show it to everyone. How easy is it to get one of these fake?

EDRIS: Now? It will cost you about 700 euros.

BURNETT: Seven hundred euros?

EDRIS: Less, maybe. It depends on negotiation.

BURNETT: And I could have one of these --

EDRIS: By your name, an American name, even an Arabic name, or any name.

BURNETT: Anything I want?

EDRIS: Your photo, your name, anything you want.

BURNETT: So for the terrorists who want to do this and hide amongst the refugees --

EDRIS: I tell you something --

BURNETT: -- it sounds incredibly easy.

EDRIS: I tell you something, nobody knows that and it's very important, when ISIS came to Raqqa and they got 5,000 passports, 5,000 original passports without names. And you know what I mean, 5,000 -- this is nobody I knows that. Nobody talk about this.

They got 5,000 -- sorry, 5,000 passports. So just imagine what is going to happen with 5,000 passports.

BURNETT: So how do you feel as a Syrian, you can't go home, you cannot renew your passport. You have -- it's your identity. You're living in a country where it's not your country. How does that feel?

EDRIS: Well, sorry, like I'm lost in the middle of the ocean, without a boat or a piece of wood and that's all. I'm trying to survive and that's all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BURNETT: You see just a human aspect of this. There's such desperation and at the same time, 700 euros to get yourself a Syrian passport. Anything you want. Any face, they said, any name.

OUTFRONT next, amid the horror stories of heroism, this woman, pregnant and hanging from a window at a concert attack. Miraculously, she was pulled to safety.

And next, I'm going to talk to the doctor who tried to save the young American woman killed by the terrorists. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:51:05] BURNETT: As the world mourns, the 129 people killed in the horrific attacks here in Paris witnesses have been coming forward, to share their stories. They are just two of the harrowing ones that I've heard here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLARK WINTER, WITNESSED RESTAURANT ATTACK: When I got there, there were six people laying on the ground and many more inside. Everybody was trying to help. There was a rumor there was a sniper upstairs in the restaurants. So, we all took cover again. We tried to take cover and take care of the people. There was nothing to do.

MASSIMILIANO MATELUCCI, SURVIVED BATACLAN CONCERT HALL ATTACK: The terrorists, they have been shooting for 15, 20 minutes nonstop so it was even difficult to move on the floor and move.

BURNETT: Because there were so many bodies.

MATELUCCI: So many bodies, yes, yes, bodies everywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: And tonight, just before this show, I went to speak to Dr. Michel Bonnot. He ran from his apartment to help to tend to the lone American who was killed in the attack, Nohemi Gonzalez. He lives near the restaurant where Nohemi was killed. She was with her friends.

He ran down to help. He tried to save her, but she died in his arms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. MICHEL BONNOT, TRIED TO SAVE AMERICAN VICTIM OF PARIS ATTACK: I look at eyes, you know, for this lady to see if she was alive or not.

BURNETT: You looked into her eyes?

BONNOT: Yes, of course, and in France, fireman came and I said send me a doctor to help me but we have no more doctor, just bring me oxygen and she died.

BURNETT: And when she died you had been trying to save her life for 20 minutes, you had been trying everything. You had a chance to look into her eyes and see her face.

BONNOT: She was very white. She was not -- she was not -- I don't know where she was when the guy was in the back. I don't see but she --

BURNETT: Was she in pain? She --

BONNOT: She was not scared or afraid. She was very cold indeed. She died very softly.

BURNETT: Very softly, but you saw this young woman die right in front of your eyes as you tried to save her life. How is your life changed?

BONNOT: I was not so much shocked by what I saw. I felt so depressed. It was so horrific for me because it's my job and I was unable to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: We also are learning more about those who risked their lives to help others and one of these acts of heroism was caught on camera. This pregnant woman was trying to escape the massacre at Bataclan concert hall and you see her hanging off a window ledge begging for help. Well, help came. Another concert-goer risked his own life to pull her back into the building. Local media reports both the woman and her rescuer survived.

OUTFRONT next, how this city and its proud people are coping with the horror of the terror attacks.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:58:44] BURNETT: Tonight, Paris in mourning. A minute of silence was held across the city earlier today to remember those who lost their lives just three days ago. Here is President Francois Hollande at parliament.

A poignant moment at Versailles.

And at the Bataclan memorial where 89 were killed, silence ultimately gave way to the French anthem.

And here at the Place de la Republique, people gathered to hold in solidarity.

And then a moment that so many around the world can look to for a great symbols and Americans, as well, in solidarity with France on the red, white and blue, as we say good night from the City of Lights, a look at the Eiffel Tower this evening, eliminated by the colors of the French flag, of the American flag.

Thank you so much for joining us. We'll see you again tomorrow night live from Paris.

CNN's coverage of the Paris terror attacks continues now with Anderson Cooper.