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Erin Burnett Outfront
Stadium Bomb Plot Forces Evacuation; Brother of Suspect on the Run Speaks Out; U.S. Intel Report Warned of Paris Ringleader; Interview with U.S. Congressman Ryan Zinke; 31 Governors Say They Won't Accept Syrian Refugees. Aired 7-8:00p ET
Aired November 17, 2015 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:10] ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening and welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world tonight. I am Erin Burnett reporting from Paris tonight.
We begin with breaking news. A soccer stadium in Germany evacuated tonight after officials uncover what they are calling, quote, "serious plans for explosions." German media reporting that, again, I want to quote them, "critical and solid intelligence came from the French" alerting German authorities to what they say was an Iraqi sleeper with concrete plans to attack during the game today. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other top government officials had been expected at that game. Remember of course Francois Hollande, President of France was at that game here in France that was struck on Friday.
Here in France tonight, officials announcing that a possible second suspect linked to the Paris attacks is at large, on the run. This as the massive manhunt for this suspect Salah Abdeslam intensifies. There are more than 100,000 French security personnel searching for him right now. It is an unprecedented display of force. I went to Brussels today in Belgium. That is where Abdeslam is from. I spoke to his brother Mohammed Abdeslam. And I asked him if he could speak to his brother right now, his brother who's on the run, what would he say?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MOHAMMED ABDESLAM, BROTHER OF SALAH ABDESLAM (through a translator): I would tell him to surrender. That it's best solution. To contact the authorities, but he must not be afraid to surrender to explain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: New images tonight of French's fighter jets launching air strikes against ISIS hitting a command post and a training camp. That's what they say in the Syrian City of Raqqa. We have a lot of fast-moving developments today as the story continues to move by the hour.
We begin with Max Foster on that foiled plot to attack a soccer stadium in Hanover, Germany. And Max, I mean, this was very serious. This wasn't just a rumor or a suspect or a false alarm, this was specific intelligence of a striked plan at this game today.
MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, serious enough to have a stadium cleared an hour-and-a-half hours before the match started but serious enough for that. And this is something that no one wanted to see. They wanted to show defiance in the face of this threats seeing while you are in Paris. So, the local police chief put it like this to the public broadcaster there in Germany. He said, the authorities had concrete intelligence that someone wanted to set off an explosive device inside that stadium. So where did this intelligence come from? Well two very well-regarded publications in Germany, that's legal and -- both say came from French intelligence, but ultimately, there was no device found there. So, the threat wasn't there, but they did feel there was a credible threats. And what French intelligence have told those publications was that it was in relation to an Iraqi sleeper cell --Erin.
BURNETT: Max Foster, thank you very much. I want to bring in our chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto on this. And Jim, you've been learning new details about the possibility that there could be -- we have this massive manhunt going on right now. That there could now be another suspect at large.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right. This helps us to understand why there is such a level of alert right now and nervousness among French security. One, we know about Salah Abdeslam. You have interviewed his brother. This is an international rest born. What we learned today from French security officials that there is another unnamed suspect out there that they want to find and they want to find because they think this person has direct involvement in the task. And one clue could be this. There was video shot by a witness to the shooting outside La Belle Equipe, the restaurant where 19 people were killed. It appears to show a third person in this black Fiat car that has been so central to this investigation. They know that one of these people in the car later died in the attacks. They believe that one of them might be this alleged eighth bomber. So, there is a third person in there that they are trying to identify. And that could be the secret behind this other suspect that they are looking for.
BURNETT: Right. And keep in mind, of course ISIS at the very beginning here, and they claimed credit mentioned eight --
SCIUTTO: Yes.
BURNETT: And there were only seven. So, that would fit with the numbers that they had. You've also been reporting on a crucial breakthrough here which is that they found passports. We've heard they found passport and they didn't leave their cell phones behind or at least one of them didn't. They found a cell phone.
SCIUTTO: This has been an issue from the beginning. In fact, it goes back months. Because U.S. counterterrorism officials have been warning from months that we are losing track of these guys because they are going dark. They are using encrypted communications. Even the great power of the NSA cannot intercept their communications to stop these kinds of attacks. So, at the scene of this bombing, they found just one but several cell phones, the reporting of my colleague Evan Perez tonight. And on those cellphones, this is crucial. They found evidence of encryption applications, apps on those phones used for encrypted communications. And these are not complicated things to find. You or I could download those on our phone tonight. But they are widely used.
And the trouble is, as simple as they are, they are largely invisible, almost completely invisible to security services. And there is evidence now tonight of that. One more detail that Evan Perez reported was that, there was a text message on one of those phones that said something to the effect of, we are ready to go, are ready to go. It seemed to be perhaps the go order for these attacks on Friday night.
[19:05:30] BURNETT: All right. Jim Sciutto, thank you very much. Pretty frightening when you think about this -- all this complain about all the surveillance that we're facing. That it is simply so easy to avoid it if you want to. We are learning much more tonight about the first suspect on the run. That is Salah Abdeslam. He has been on the run. He was the one on the Belgian border. Remember, he was driving there. They brought him on for questioning. And they let him go that night. He has been on the run ever since and could be very central to this attack. I went to his hometown today in Brussels, that's in Belgium and talked to his brother about where Abdeslam could be, and whether he was indeed behind these attacks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Mohammed, what would you say if Salah is watching this interview somewhere? What do you say to him about what you want him to do and about what he's done?
ABDESLAM (through a translator): I would tell him to surrender if he has something to do with it. He must face his responsibility.
BURNETT: Do you have any idea where Salah would have gone, where he would have wanted to go? Did he ever say anything that makes you think this is a place they should be looking for him?
ABDESLAM: No. We obviously have no idea of what he's actually doing, but we are very worried.
BURNETT: When is the last time you spoke to him, to Salah?
ABDESLAM: The last time I saw my brother Salah was the same last time I saw my other brother Brahim, that was about a week ago. They left without saying good-bye.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: You are going to hear a lot more from him. He had to say some pretty fascinating things, including talking about all the people in his neighborhood who he knows are in Syria right now, perhaps training for ISIS. I mean, pretty stunning right now. U.S. military intelligence veteran retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton is with me. Along with Paul Cruikshank of course our terrorism analyst.
Paul, you know, we have this massive manhunt going on right now for Salah Abdeslam. His brother says that his family is very worried, worried he could go out in a blaze of glory sort of a thing. Of course, they are terrified he could do something else and harm innocent civilians. What is the concern and the risk here? I mean, do you think that this is for sure they are going to find him?
PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: I mean there is a huge risk that he will try to go out in a blaze of glory. We've seen these people who get recruited into these sort of plots craving martyrdom, craving paradise. Counting down the days until they're able to become a martyr. For some reason he wasn't able or didn't detonate his suicide vest that night. That suicide vest hasn't been located. So, he could still have it. He was driving back into Belgium. Apparently probably got into Belgium. The biggest concern is in Belgium right now that he is somewhere there. Clearly the Belgians suspect that he could be back in Molenbeek, this district of Brussels that was kind of raided yesterday.
They didn't find him. They are very, very worried and nervous that he could go out in a blaze of glory. And we've seen with so many of these plots that 48 hours, 72 hours later, with the Boston bombers, remember, after those attacks, they wanted to go and drive to Times Square and blow themselves up over there. And so, you know, there's a lot of concern this isn't over yet.
BURNETT: They just don't know where he is. I mean, Colonel, do you think he is -- we are now hearing, you know, there could be more people, and we know the network is bigger than this, right? All of the supplies that they got.
CRUICKSHANK: Absolutely.
BURNETT: So, do you think that he's alone? Do you think that someone could be helping him? I mean, this is a crucial question because you could have more innocent lives right now at risk.
COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET): Absolutely, Erin. And I think he probably does have some help. It is certainly possible that he could be doing a lone wolf act but I think it's highly unlikely. And I think what he is doing with right now Erin is he is actually using a supply system and in essence an Underground Railroad type's system that will allow him to go from one area to another, one safe house to another. And that's what the police need to look for in this case.
BURNETT: So, Paul, where do you think he could be? Obviously, we know he was driving back to Belgium. That says a lot. That says that whether he was too afraid to blow up his vest or he had another plan, it didn't work. Whatever it might have been that his first instinct wasn't to run away, his first instinct was to go home.
CRUICKSHANK: First instinct to go home. You know, the people that he knows. That's his comfort zone. Molenbeek which is a district which unfortunately, you know, there is a huge problem of radicalization as you were founding out today.
BURNETT: Yes.
CRUICKSHANK: A lot of the young man they just disappeared off to Syria. And so, he may have people very sympathetic to him who may be hiding him in Molenbeek. I think that's probably the most likely scenario here. If he starts getting in a car, if he starts trying to cross borders, he becomes vulnerable.
[19:10:06] BURNETT: So, let me talk about that. Because when I went to Belgium, they interview him today. I went, you know, through the train stations across the border. If France is in a state of emergency, you have these horrible attacks, you have a lot of civil liberties suspended to look for people. You have had recently an attack on this, on a train. And yet, I didn't have any bags checked, no passport checked either way. Absolutely nothing at all, Colonel.
LEIGHTON: And, you know, in my case I came from London. And no out of the ordinary passport checks. Everything was if it had been done a few months ago. And there is no visible rammed-up security that would really make a difference.
BURNETT: Isn't that concerning? I mean, there was racial profiling, I will say. There was someone who looked Arab and that person got pulled aside and searched.
CRUIKSHANK: Europe doesn't have borders any more, Erin.
BURNETT: Yes.
CRUIKSHANK: I mean, for 20 years we had this system. The borders went away. There are hundreds and thousands of roads across the border. There are no border fences. There are no borders anymore in Europe. So, you cannot fully protect the borders anymore. Those days are gone. They are never coming back.
BURNETT: Pretty shocking. When Francois Hollande said he was closing the borders, it was just something he couldn't actually even do.
Thank you both very much. And OUTFRONT next, more of my interview with Mohammed Abdeslam, our exclusive conversation. He is the brother of two suspects in the attacks. They are close. They all live together.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ABDESLAM (through a translator): But my brother who has participated in this terrorist attack was probably psychologically ready to commit such an act. These are not regular people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: You are going to hear much more. Plus, as ISIS threatens to attack Washington, we have new details tonight about just how close officials were to tracking down ISIS key figures. In our special report tonight on the explosive that was strapped to the suicide bombers. It's called the float "Mother of Satan." So just how easy was it to build these homemade vests?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:15:20] BURNETT: Breaking news, French police now searching for a second man who may be connected to the terror attacks here in Paris. On the run tonight. There is a massive manhunt right now. Also for Salah Abdeslam, one of the most wanted men in the world right now. He was questioned by police. He was released though in the hours after the attack. Abdeslam's brother also took part in the massacre blowing himself up outside of a cafe.
Earlier today, I went to Belgium where the brothers are from. And I spoke with their other brother Mohammad. Now, Mohammad was very close with his two brothers, he told me. He lived with them in a small home. That's something that made police hold Mohammad for questioning for 36 hours. But he was released and he met me in Brussels today. We talked for a long time about an hour. And his lawyer Nathalie Gallant was with him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: My people find it hard to understand. They say you and your brothers are so close in age, you lived together. You're close. They say, how could you not have known something?
ABDESLAM (through a translator): I think that people do not quite understand what we've been through, but my brother who participated in this terrorist act must have been probably psychologically ready to commit such an act. These are not regular people. You cannot have the slightest doubt they are ready. They must not leave any trace which would arise suspicion that they are about to commit such acts. And even if you saw them every day, their behavior was quite normal.
BURNETT: Your brother who participated in the attacks who is dead, Ibrahim, I understand that some around him and your mother perhaps was even aware, was aware, knew that he had become radicalized. He had stopped drinking. He had changed his behaviors. Were you aware of that? Had he changed?
ABDESLAM: Yes, of course, but the word radicalization may not be the right one. My mother has indeed seen changes. I had seen changes. When you have a son who quits drinking, it does not necessarily mean he will commit a terrorist attack.
BURNETT: As a brother, when you look at all those people who are dead and your brother who you've known for a long time, what do you think about your brother then? Do you still think, I love my brother?
ABDESLAM: These are my brothers. I love them. That's for sure. After all they've done, do I admire what they've done? No. My family and I do not. The victims are innocent. We are deeply shocked.
BURNETT: Mohammed, were you aware of your brothers traveling at all? Did they leave the house for any extended period of time? And were you aware of them going to someplace like Turkey or even to Syria?
ABDESLAM: My brothers went on vacation, yes. Like many people do. And I went, too. Some brothers would go on vacation and travel to a country and there was no reason to be suspicious, but after when you hear what happened, something goes on in your mind. You start asking questions.
BURNETT: When you say the pieces came together, can you tell me something that came together when you heard this? What did you look and say, oh, now that makes sense that he went here or he did this?
ABDESLAM: Well, when I think back and remember this trip to Turkey, I think, well, this may be why he went there. Maybe he made contacts in Turkey.
BURNETT: What happened, do you think, that made your brothers change? That made them become radical. You live in the same house. Did they ever approach you? Did they ever ask you to come to them in mosque, pray in a different way, do something different? How do you think this happened?
ABDESLAM: No. Many people know me. Many people know how I am. They know who I am. It's difficult to get close to me. Nobody can radicalize me. I have my own ideas. Now, to know how they could be radicalized, I think that the internet has a lot to do with it.
[19:20:05] BURNETT: Do you have any relatives in Syria that you know of? Anybody, any friends, any connections in Syria?
ABDESLAM: I have people who have studied in the town of Castella (ph), young people of my neighborhood came with us who indeed went to Syria. I know it from their parents. It's important to know that some people have indeed been able to go there.
BURNETT: As a lawyer, do you, did you find it hard to believe this case when you have such a close family and three brothers living in the same house, and just three brothers living in the same house with the parents? Did you find it hard to believe Mohammed when he says he did not know anything was happening?
NATHALIE GALLANT, LAWYER OF MOHAMMAD ABDESLAM: No. Not at all because first, I'm really convinced that he's innocent in that case. I mean it's something when you are a lawyer already a long time, 23 years, I'm not going to say that you become psychiatrist or psychologist, but you learn lots of things. And I really feel the sincerity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Our terrorism analyst Paul Cruikshank is back with me. You know, we are going to show more of this. But, you know, I mean, as I say I spent about 50 minutes with him. And a lot of people may say, look, they live in a small house. We can show people. It's just a little row house in Belgium with his brothers. He knew that they were becoming more and more strict, more and more conservative. But I have to say, even though he was questioned 36 hours, police obviously thought he could have been involved, I believed him when he said he wasn't. He seemed very genuine to me.
CRUIKSHANK: Yes. A tale of two very different brothers or three brothers. One clearly becoming very well integrated into Belgium, working in the community, working for the common goods. And then the other two going down a completely different direction.
BURNETT: In the same house.
CRUIKSHANK: In the same house. And at least with Salah --
BURNETT: Yes.
CRUIKSHANK: The younger brother.
BURNETT: Yes.
CRUIKSHANK: He got involved in gangsterism and was, in fact, in prison for a while it appears.
BURNETT: Yes.
CRUIKSHANK: And then became radicalized and obviously took a very different path.
BURNETT: So, when I was in Molenbeek today, and I took some pictures. Because I think when people keep hearing it's this, you know, people used the word, quote-unquote, "hotbed of terror" or something, they think it's something very different than it is. Okay. There are cobblestone streets. And if you're an American, it's a very quaint, idyllic sort of looking place. It's not a big place. And you think about Mohammad saying, you know, he knows all these other young men who are in Syria, you would think that they could find all these people, that they could know who they are. And since when you're there and when you realize the small scale of that area, it is shocking that they could not see this coming.
CRUIKSHANK: Yes. I mean, and they've known about this, the problems in this area for quite some time. And we saw with al Qaeda that they recruited from this neighborhood. Many of the people even going to al Qaeda before 9/11 living in Molenbeek. And we've seen so many young men from these neighborhoods. And often, the trajectory is that they get involved in street gangs, petty crime, drugs. And in fact sometimes they're kind of drinking, promiscuous, all that kind of stuff. And then the sort of radical preachers and recruiters tell them, well, you know, you can redeem yourselves by joining ISIS.
BURNETT: Yes.
CRUIKSHANK: And they also -- it's a way to sort of explain away all this past behavior. Because the message is they were corrupted by the infidel west.
BURNETT: Right. CRUIKSHANK: And what we are seeing is these youngsters moving
across to Syria in a kind of what one official told me, super gangs. You know, all that friends from around the block all going together.
BURNETT: Right. All going together.
CRUIKSHANK: They know each other when they come back and they are tasked by ISIS in these cases to launch attacks. They know how to work together. They know how to get weapons, they know how to keep things secret.
BURNETT: Yes.
CRUIKSHANK: And that created a very serious threat -- Erin.
BURNETT: Very serious threat. And very terrifying. And again, I think the thing to emphasize being there today was just how small and intimate that neighborhood seemed.
All right. OUTFRONT next, how vulnerable is the United States to a terrorist style attack? Our report on the missed signs by intelligence officials.
And the attackers using a cheap explosive to make bombs. And it's called the "Mother of Satan." We have a special report on exactly what this explosive is. Coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:28:41]BURNETT: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and across the world tonight. We have breaking news at this hour. A soccer stadium in Germany evacuated less than two hours as the game was getting ready to be played. Authorities confirming there was concrete intelligence that someone planned to set off a bomb. An international manhunt also under way for this hour for the most wanted man in Europe, one of the most wanted now. It is safe to say in all of the world. Police in multiple countries doing everything they can to track down Salah Abdeslam, the suspected driver of the Paris suicide bombers.
They think he could have that eighth missing suicide vest. The search is on for the man in Brussels now stretching into Germany, as well. A second suspect is also believed to be on the run. There are growing concerns about how vulnerable the United States may be to an attack of this sort. And a key warning signs slipped past top intelligence officials. As we've been learning, it wasn't -- French officials were aware of some of these individuals. But not all of them American officials apparently were aware of none.
Deborah Feyerick is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With ISIS now threatening to strike Italy and the United States --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through a translator): We will strike America and its stronghold Washington.
FEYERICK: French authorities are scrambling to retrieve data from several cell phones believed to belong to some of the attackers. Officials say, one of the messages sent before the attacks said effectively, okay, we're ready. The CIA director is warning more plots are likely in the pipeline.
BILL BRATTON, NEW YORK CITY POLICE COMMISSIONER: We will seek to understand, what are they retrieving from the seven assailants whose remains were recovered, what type of devices were they using for communication, what type of smart phone, what type of apps possibly on that phone.
FEYERICK: FBI special agents and three NYPD detectives have been dispatched to the Paris command center to learn as much as they can about the suicide bombs and how they were built and detonated.
DIEGO RODRIGUEZ, FBI NEW YORK ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: We are trying to get as much information to tie us back to the city that we might have to conduct any further investigation.
FEYERICK: In May, a U.S. homeland security assessment warned ISIS could carry out attacks in the West. U.S. officials identified Belgian national Abdelhamid Abaaoud as an ISIS ring leader who tried to carry out a plot to attack police officers.
Belgian commandos foiled that alleged plot in Iran, but Abaaoud escaped. He is now suspected as ring leader of the Paris attacks, according to a source close to the investigation. A French source says he was targeted prior to last week's attacks, but authorities could not locate him.
And tonight, there is an international manhunt for suspect Salah Abdeslam who slipped by authorities twice in France and Austria after being pulled over for a routine traffic stop. Both times he was released without investigation.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FEYERICK: And, Erin, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee tells CNN's Wolf Blitzer that, in fact, four of the attackers were known to U.S. intelligence authorities, and the problem is, it does not appear they were known to European authorities. And that has raised some significant questions as to just how much information is being shared by different countries? Information that could be crucial to stopping this kind of attack in the future -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Deb, thank you very much.
I want to go straight to the Republican congressman from Montana, member of the House Armed Services Committee, Ryan Zinke. He is also a former SEAL Team Six commander, the first Navy SEAL elected to the U.S. House of Representatives.
Congressman Zinke, I appreciate you taking the time to be with me.
You were briefed moments ago by the FBI director, also by the secretary of Homeland Security. A lot of that information I know may be classified.
But are you able to give us any sense of what you learned?
REP. RYAN ZINKE (R-MT), HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Well, the sense is their vetting process needs work. There is no database about Syrian refugees. And when they look at the process, there's holes in it and we need to correct that.
I think the prudent step is stop, let's evaluate, let's make sure that we had the right oversight over the vetting process.
The refugees are only one part of it. We also have a porous border. We have U.S. citizens that are overseas fighting with is. Those passports need to be revoked.
What was said earlier is exactly correct -- there's about 5,000 European Union citizens that have been to Syria. They've been fighting. We need to make sure we know who those are and restrict their access to North America.
BURNETT: And, Congressman, do they feel they have a sense on who is coming into the United States? You know, I mean, obviously, I was with Syrian refugees yesterday and they were talking about how easy it is to fake a Syrian passport. Obviously, that's not going to get you in the United States.
But, you know, they talked about how you can actually could buy a British passport, and you don't pay until you get into the U.K. It's proof of delivery. One of his friends was able to do that. I mean, that's pretty concerning. Once you get there, you can get closer and closer.
ZINKE: Well, absolutely. Our southern border remains a threat. We had 250,000 illegal immigrants coming across, we don't know. And, of course, in Syria, we just don't have the database. Europe doesn't have the database. Assad, you can't trust that database.
And so, we just don't no. And I think it's prudent to stop the refugees, secure our southern border, revoke passports and these that are within the power of the administration to do it and we need to act.
BURNETT: Congressman, CIA Director John Brennan said the Paris attacks were not a one-off. He said ISIS is likely to have more attacks in the pipeline. John Kerry, though, called the attacks an aberration and said they are not the new normal. It's pretty concerning I think to the American people -- and there is a lot of uncertainty, everyone understands that.
But when the U.S. government is sending such mixed messages, when you have one arm saying the opposite as the other arm. ZINKE: Well, and this is not new. You have the Department of
Defense saying we have ISIS contained. You have the president saying it's contained. And, clearly, ISIS isn't contained.
And so, there is a credibility issue with our government. And I think Congress needs to step up the plate, make sure we have the right oversight. And, look, this is not a partisan issue.
[19:35:02] This is not a Republican or Democrat issue. This is an American issue and America is at risk.
BURNETT: Congressman Zinke, thank you very much, as we said, House of Representatives and former Navy SEAL Team Six.
OUTFRONT next: we have new details about the explosives. This is a crucial part of this. Terrorists were able to get these explosives and build bombs. How did they do that is next.
An incredibly touching exchange that you will see between a father and son about what happened in Paris. It's been viewed more than 17 million times. That's coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, new details are emerging about how the Paris suicide bombers carried out their carnage. Officials believe all of the attackers wore vests, a vest that were laced with an explosive that's known as TATP. Now, this explosive is more of a street term, "the mother of Satan", that's how unstable it is, which shows that it may have been seemingly simple to assemble, but not really.
[19:40:02] Even more troubling, it's a mix of common household items and it's very inexpensive to make.
Jason Carroll is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The sound of the first explosion echoed throughout France's national soccer stadium. Across Paris, other attackers detonate their suicide vests after killing scores at this concert hall.
And at this cafe where Ibrahim Abdeslam detonates his suicide vest. His younger Salah still at large. Family saying it was unaware what the brothers were planning.
MOHAMED ABDESLAM, SUSPECT'S BROTHER (through translator): My brother who participated in this terrorist act must have been probably psychologically ready to commit such an act.
CARROLL: More questions about the suspects and type of explosive used in their vest.
BRATTON: We want to understand about those vests, as our officer rush in to active shooter scenarios, to the best of our ability, we want to give them intelligence of what they might be up against.
CARROLL: The suicide vests were loaded with triacetone triperoxide, or TATP. It's a homemade explosive with a sinister nickname, "mother of Satan," a name coined by terrorists because it's sensitive to heat, volatile and can potentially cause extreme damage.
Experts say it's also cheap, with ingredients that are easy to come by.
PETER JONES, COO, TRIPWIRE OPERATIONS GROUP: Ninety percent of the stuff we have here, you don't need a license to buy. I can go in a truck right now about a half hour away and come home with 90 percent of this.
CARROLL: Paris is not the first time TAPT has been traced to terrorist attacks.
December 2001, Richard Reid is arrested after he tries to blow up a plane, with an explosive device hidden in his shoe, one component, TATP.
July 2005, bombs explode throughout London, 52 dead, more than 700 injured. Investigators discover the homemade bombs contained TATP.
September 2009, Najibullah Zazi is arrested for plotting to bomb a New York City subway. Zazi gets the ingredients he needs for TATP at a Colorado beauty supply store, a Lowe's and a Wal-Mart.
SETH JONES, RAND CORPORATION: You are going to get these people trying to monitor what they purchase.
CARROLL: Seth Jones specializes at counterterrorism at the RAND Corporation. Jones says since TATP ingredients are so readily available, buying the items may not raise suspicions. That is why intel is key.
JONES: Najibullah Zazi who was identified in 2009 was involved in boiling TATP in his hotel room in Aurora was not identified for the ingredients he was purchasing. He was identified because of good intelligence in monitoring email account where he came up.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And, Erin, a little bit more about what experts say about intel and why it's so important, they say that it's absolutely crucial for investigators to have sources within these communities in question to spot suspicious activities. It could be in a Paris suburb. It could be south London. It could be somewhere in Belgium. It could be in the Bronx.
It all depends upon whether investigators are getting in these communities and stopping these plans by having good sources -- Erin.
BURNETT: Jason Carroll, thank you very much. And OUTFRONT now, our intelligence and security analyst, former
CIA operative Bob Baer, along with U.S. military intelligence veteran, retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton back with me here in Paris.
Bob Baer, you talked about TATP and how concerning this is. In one sense, it seems incredibly easy to do this. On the other, it does seem like these bombers may have had training. Looked like there were syringes left in one hotel rooms. TATP we understand can be highly volatile.
What do you think this is? Is there evidence they were extremely prepared or evidence of how easy this was?
BOB BAER, FORMER CIA OPERTIVE: Well, Erin, it is very easy to make these bombs, very easy to acquire this stuff, boil the peroxide, 100 percent acetone, make the detonators. This is all on the net. None of this is secret.
But what with any of these explosives, I would like people to have test this stuff in an open area in a bunch of times, until they get it right. And this is something the Paris bombers I bet understood, is they were testing this in Syria or Iraq or someplace like that so they could make all these vests go off. That's what terrifies the French. So many of them, six of them did go off.
And I think that's worth looking at is people trained, experienced just as they were in all the shooting incidents where they had the trigger control. This is what told me right away that these people had some sort of combat experience or some sort of training.
BURNETT: Colonel Leighton, the other thing shows the crucial nature of all these young men who are down in Syria right now.
[19:45:03] As we just heard one of the brothers of two of these attackers tell me he knows people right now in Syria.
The big issue, of course, though, is it's also been very easy to get this material. You just heard Seth say, you go to Wal-Mart and you could buy it. You could go to Carrefour and you could buy it. Nobody is going to think twice.
LEIGHTON: Exactly. It's as common as peroxide, as Bob was mentioning. These are the most common household chemicals that you can get. Uric acid is another example.
And these are the kinds of things that because they are so ubiquitous, they're so common, you have to control them at the source, but you can't do that because it is such a common way of actually taking care of our health, taking care of all the things we need to have.
So, the way forward would be for the chemical industry to try to make these chemicals in such a way they cannot become explosive. That is a long way off. Before you can get there, TATP will still be with us. That's a very dangerous thing.
BURNETT: Why won't they do that then? Because there are commercial uses that require explosivity?
LEIGHTON: Right now, there's some commercial uses that require, but they could do it, but they have to be old to do it. It's a regulatory issue. And they haven't been told to do that. The governments have not said that they must -- the chemical industry must do that.
BURNETT: Amazing that you would you need regulation to do that.
All right. Thank you both very much, Colonel Leighton and Bob Baer.
Next, 31 U.S. governors now say they will not take Syrian refugees, setting fears, of course, that a terrorist could easily fake a passport and slip into the country. We have a special report.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:50:16] BURNETT: Tonight, 31 U.S. governors say they will not accept refugees from Syria. Their biggest concern, of course, is a repeat of what happened in Paris. Intelligence officials saying one of the attackers had snuck in among refugees using a fake passport.
And now, another man has been arrested in Serbia. He had been carrying a passport with the same information as the passport found near the Paris attacker. Actually, I was told today it had the same name, all the same details, just a different face.
Just a coincidence? Not likely. I spoke to a Syrian refugee who told me just how easy it is to get a phony passport.
(BEGINV IDEO CLIP)
SAKHER EDRIS, SYRIAN REFUGEE: It will cost you about 700 euros.
BURNETT: Seven hundred euros?
EDRIS: Or less, maybe. It depends on negotiation.
BURNETT: And I could have one of these?
EDRIS: Your name, be an American name, even an Arabic name or any name.
BURNETT: Anything I want?
EDRIS: Your photo, your name, anything you want.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Where am I going?
Kyung Lah is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are not just refugees fleeing ISIS. In them, Dalal Saied sees herself.
DALAL SAIED, SYRIAN REFUGEE: This is a little me. This is a girl that went through the same thing that I went through.
LAH: Saied's hometown of Aleppo, Syria, is ravaged by war. She and her family escaped Syria, now refugees in the U.S.
But leaders from House Speaker Paul Ryan --
REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: This is a moment where it is better to be safe than to be sorry.
LAH: To presidential candidates --
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Refugees are pouring into our great country from Syria. We don't even know who they are. They could be ISIS. They could be anybody.
What's our president doing? Is he insane?
LAH: To a growing chorus of governors.
GOV. ROBERT BENTLEY (R), ALABAMA: We are just not going to allow that to happen. We are not going to allow them into the state of Alabama.
LAH: More than half of America's governors say Syrian refugees are not welcome. The State Department plans to eventually place 10,000 Syrian refugees in the U.S. -- all this coming in the wake of the Paris attacks, one of the terrorists pose as a Syrian named Ahmed al-Mohammad, slipping in with the wave of refugees entering Greece in early October. He lived in camps, until he made his way to Paris, strapping on a bomb and blowing himself up at the Stade in France.
Long forgot, say refugee advocates, the human suffering, and the little boy who drowned, his body washed up on a Turkish beach.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As governors, forgotten for a second. And for them to say they are going to close their state and blame an entire community for something a terrorist did is shameful.
LAH: Counterterrorism experts have warned ISIS will use a refugee wave to infiltrate Western societies.
(on camera): Is this an overreaction by governors?
STEPHEN MOORE, RETIRED FBI SPECIAL AGENT: It's painful to me as an American to see that we would shut the door on refugees, but it is -- my FBI mind says you're going to get a certain percentage of 10,000 refugees are going to be terrorists.
LAH (voice-over): The refugees like Dalal Saied say the acts of one terrorist don't represent the 4 million Syrians fleeing war, that is act has created a growing sense their new home is not so welcome.
(on camera): Are people scared? SAIED: People are really scared. They don't know what to do
next.
LAH: You think it's going to get worse?
SAIED: I think it's going to get a lot worse, unfortunately. I hate to say that.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH: Now, the governors say they would like any decision-making at the federal level. We are seeing some movement on the national level. The U.S. House of Representatives planning to vote Thursday on a bill that would suspend this program, allowing Syrian refugees into the United States -- Erin.
BURNETT: Kyung, thank you so much.
And OUTFRONT next, a very tender moment here on the streets of Paris, a father trying to help his young son cope with his fears.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:58:39] BURNETT: Tonight, French restaurant owners are urging people to dine out as an act of defiance against ISIS, just four days after the attacks. The #everyonetothebar has been trending.
Also, though, refusing to give into the terrorists is a father, a father comforting his young son at a memorial. The young boy fears the bad guys in France are going to force them to move.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOY: They have guns. They can shoot us because they're really mean, daddy.
DAD: It's OK, they might have guns but we have flowers.
BOY: But flowers don't do anything, they're for --
DAD: Of course they do. Look, everyone is putting flowers. It's to fight against guns.
BOY: It's to protect?
DAD: Exactly.
BOY: And the candles too?
DAD: It's to remember the people who are gone yesterday.
BOY: The flowers and the candles are here to protect us.
DAD: Yes.
REPORTER: Do you feel better now? BOY: Yes, I feel better.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: That video has been viewed on Facebook more than 17 million times. Those words of peace and solidarity, a comfort to that young boy all those people on Facebook and perhaps hopefully to all of us tonight.
Thank you so much for joining us.
Our coverage of the attacks continues now with Chris Cuomo on "AC360".