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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Millions March Against Terror; Divers Retrieve One Flight 8501 Black Box; Controversial Call Helps Packers Edge Cowboys

Aired January 12, 2015 - 05:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Where was the president? Where was the secretary of state? The event here very, very peaceful. Despite the enormous size and renewed threats of terrorism here, French police sources tell that CNN terror cells were activated over the weekend. But I don't believe there were no serious arrests made in the march of millions.

Well, that's happening here. In the United States, the New York Police Department and other law enforcement, they are on alert after an ISIS video was re-released. That video calls for followers to rise up and kill officers, police and soldiers and civilians. New York police officers taking precautions. The security presence in Paris is beefed up.

I'm joined by senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen. Fred was here for the march.

You've seen the security.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and it was absolutely amazing, that march yesterday. And I think there were several messages from that march. One of the most, of course, that, you know, the great sadness here in this nation after everything that transpired.

But then, also, there was that message of defiance, where people are saying, we're not going to allow our way of life to be tampered with by a bunch of terrorists. There were people were screaming, I'm not afraid, for instance, or Je Suis Charlie, of course, that big rallying cry that has been happening.

It was a message of defiance and also one of unity, because one of the things that people were saying is that Christians, Muslims and Jews in France need to come together and find a new way to live together. That is something we saw yesterday.

I keep saying that one of the great things that happened to me. I had a group of Muslims, including an imam come up to me and say, we want to send a message that we stand with the Jews. They had a sign saying, "Je Suis Jewish", I am Jewish, which is absolutely amazing. It was an amazing site to see an imam have that, and he said he's absolutely sicken by what happened and wants the world to know that this did not happen in his name.

BERMAN: Several people I've spoken to say they've never seen anything like this, not just the numbers, but the unity. Not only -- they compared it to the French World Cup win. That was the last time people from all walks of life came together like this.

PLEITGEN: I was here at the French world cup. It was one of the few times that the nation really comes together in all of its facets, because this is a very diverse nation. Certainly it was like that. The interesting thing, it was impromptu. They all had the same message.

And that's something that I think showed great unity in this nation and it also showed how these people see and realized that they need to find a new way to deal with each other. That is something they have not thought about in a long time.

BERMAN: No, they're about thinking about it. Now, in fact, the new day, now is when they look to the future.

Frederik Pleitgen, thank you so much.

Even as they have this unity, there are signs today that they are beefing up security. Prime minister just announced that there would be some 4,000 police officers deployed to Jewish schools and synagogues, some 700 sites around the country. This morning, the hunt this morning is still on for the last remaining suspect in last week's terror attacks here. Police say Hayat Boumeddiene. She was the wife or girlfriend of Amedy Coulibaly. He killed, of course, four hostages at the supermarket, the kosher supermarket before he was shot to death by police.

Both Boumeddiene and Coulibaly had also been named as in the killing of a police officer on Thursday. But now, officials believe she is on the run and could, in fact, be in Syria already. Also this morning, investigators are trying to trace all the threads that led to the attacks right here. They going through the apartment that Boumeddiene and Coulibaly shared outside Paris.

They found a number of things. They found ISIS flags, automatic weapons and cash. They are also taking a second look at the public park that was a crossroads for jihadists, including the Kouachi brothers who attacked the officers behind me. Intelligence believe the Kouachis were inspired by an American born cleric in Yemen, perhaps even with the American-born cleric Anwar al Awlaki. But they have not been able to connect the dots on that yet.

We want to get all of the details, all the latest in this investigation.

Our senior European correspondent Jim Bittermann is here with me.

Good morning, Jim.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

I think a couple of things that come out this morning. One of the things is from the prime minister himself who said that he cannot believe that Coulibaly could have pulled off this attack without having an accomplice. He hasn't specified whether he is talking about the girlfriend, Hayat Boumeddiene, or somebody else.

And, of course, we've got Christiane Amanpour. She's going to be doing an interview with the prime minister later this afternoon. Maybe she will get more out of him than we have heard so far.

The other thing that came out of the prime minister's interview this morning is I think there is a lot of backing and filling going on from the French government. They clearly missed a lot of leads. Even the prime minister is saying there should be a parliamentary investigation and commission established to look into this and find out what was missed and why the security services missed the various leads and whatnot.

They had all of these guys.

BERMAN: They were on these guys.

BITTERMANN: They were on these guys up to a point. Then at some point, somebody made the decision they will not be so dangerous. So, we can scale down. We have other priorities. There were other people they wanted to follow more closely.

BERMAN: And this morning, the announcement of about 8,000 law enforcement personnel will be devoted to security around the country, half of them at Jewish institutions. I was talking to someone in law enforcement here and they said, you know, they can handle this heightened alert for now, but they cannot do it indefinitely without changing the system.

BITTERMANN: It takes a whole lot of people. And the prime minister also said this morning that there might be need for recruiting new security agents, new police, new investigators, that sort of thing. I'm sure that is another budget item for him, as he tried to figure out what --

BERMAN: Finally, we got word this morning from the semi official Turkish agency. They say Boumeddiene, the wife of Coulibaly, had been through Istanbul in January. And they believe has now already moved on to Syria.

BITTERMANN: Right. They think she arrived just after the attacks here. That she arrived in Syria.

So, that's another thing that they want to check out, but there is no way that they're going to catch her in Syria. So, I think they are looking now and concentrating now on what may still be left in France, what sleeper cells are around and how they can find connections.

They clearly had been doing a lot of phone tapping. The prime minister said they want to do more phone tapping. I'm sure that's going to help as well. There are a lot of things they missed.

I mean, for one thing, the prime minister said that surprised me, he said, we want to expand the no-fly list European wide. Well, I thought that would have been in existence.

BERMAN: I think that's surprising it wasn't already in existence given that the E.U. and the porous borders here. Jim Bittermann thanks so much. Great to see you here.

The city of Paris still reeling. You can see it by the presence here of people behind me coming to the offices here at "Charlie Hebdo." I drove by the kosher supermarket this morning. The four people were killed there. Police tape all around that.

The video of Amedy Coulibaly who was killed during the rescue operation at the supermarket. In the video, he says the attacks were synchronized, which raises concern that perhaps followers of ISIS are working with followers of AQAP, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Serious, serious questions here.

I want to bring in Jean-Charles Brisard. He is a terror expect and author of "Zarqawi: the New Face of Al Qaeda", thanks so much for being with us this morning.

So, here you have Coulibaly, this man who claims to be a follower of ISIS. Pledges allegiance to ISIS, has ISIS flags in his apartment.

Then, you have the Kouachi brothers, who have been to Yemen, presumably tried to make contact with al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, perhaps even U.S. officials are looking if they met with Anwar al Awlaki.

So, you have people with AQAP, you have a guy with ISIS, at least followers presumably working together. Have we seen anything like this before?

JEAN-CHARLES BRISARD, TERROR EXPERT: No, not before it. This shows that friendships are more stronger than any other allegiance to a group. We don't know yet if they were inspired by certain group or if they were directed to acts by a specific group. We see these people moving around in Yemen and Syria for some of them.

This is a group of 15 individuals who went all over the world, including in Malaysia, we learned from court documents. It is still the investigation pending and hard to get a clear picture of what happened and where the others, if any others, happened were coming from.

BERMAN: We got word today that the French are putting 8,000 additional law enforcement personnel at secure locations around the country, including half of them at Jewish schools and synagogues. Do you have a sense of a specific threat? Do you think they could do that out of general concern?

BRISARD: There are specific threats that we have seen elsewhere in the world against specific targets, especially Jewish targets, especially against the military and police. This is obvious. This is obviously inspired also from the Islamic State appeals by the spokesman in September, calling to kill by any means members of the coalition. We have seen that active in Australia before and Canada. So, now, the

fear is not only the same that happened, meaning an old group reactivated, but also some lone wolves attackers that may be activated or inspired by the action, unfortunately.

BERMAN: Of course, there is the ongoing fear that the French citizens, people born in this country, are going to the Middle East and fighting and coming back here. Do you suspect the French government and European Union will have to institute new measures, stricter measures to try to fight terror in the coming days?

BRISARD: Obviously, obviously. What has been done by each country today establishing a sort of patch work defense against these jihadists. It is not enough. We need to be united. We need to have a European policy.

There is more than 4,000 European Union citizens or residents who traveled to Syria and Iraq since 2012. All services, whether intelligence, police or judicial are overwhelmed by this situation, this is probably also explaining why we can't put civilians on everyone. We had them on our scope, of course. They were known, but unfortunately, we cannot search everyone.

BERMAN: Jean-Charles, we had three days of terror in this country, you had two days this weekend of unity, with enormous demonstrations yesterday. Today is a new day as they look forward.

What unanswered questions do you have about these attacks and how they happened that could perhaps inform the changes they make going forward?

BRISARD: Partly what needs to be done is new measures, especially international cooperation to better fight this threat. We also have to have new measures in France to better follow these individuals that we know. For example, the network they belonged to, Coulibaly and Kouachi brothers. There are other 50 individuals. We need to follow these individuals 24 hours a day. That's obvious.

So, new measures and new resources needs to be devoted to the fight.

BERMAN: We will see that the discussion starts now.

Jean-Charles Brisard, great to see you. Thank you so much for being with us on EARLY START. I appreciate it.

And, Christine, even as you see these enormous displays of unity all across the city, you see the continuing aspects of the investigation. I was talking to a law enforcement official who said they are trying to figure out what the Kouachi brothers were doing with that rocket- propelled grenade launcher. They didn't use it here at "Charlie Hebdo". Where did they intend to use it?

They were awfully near the airport. Everywhere they went was sort of near the airport. Did they want to take a shot at a plane? That's one of the unanswered questions they have this morning.

ROMANS: That's certainly intriguing.

All right. John Berman for us this morning in Paris. Thanks, John. We'll talk to you again very, very shortly.

Sunday's march in Paris echoed around the globe as thousands of people rallied behind France following the deadly terror attacks. Here in the U.S., demonstrators from Boston to Los Angeles gathered to show support. In the nation's capital, people came together for a march at French embassy.

In Los Angeles, people held signs with "Je Suis Charlie", the rallying cry now for this movement. In San Diego, members of the French community there gathered at the International Houses in Balboa Park. They held a vigil and sang the French national anthem. In New York City, the Empire State Building was lit up in the tri-color, the colors of the French flag.

A touching moment at the Golden Globes as, too, as George Clooney acknowledged the huge march in France, and pronounced solidarity with the victims of the attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR: Today was an extraordinary day. There were millions of people that marched not just in Paris, but around the world. And they were Christians and Jews and Muslims. They were leaders of countries all over the world.

And they didn't march in protest. They marched in support of the idea we will not walk in fear. We won't do it. So, Je Suis Charlie. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Clooney, Helen Mirren and many other actress wore "I am Charlie," "Je Suis Charlie" pins at the awards.

We are following latest in the Paris terror attacks all morning.

But, first, breaking news in the search of AirAsia Flight 8501. Divers recovered the flight data recorder and they located the cockpit voice recorder. Investigators are now close to figuring out why this plane suddenly crashed. We are live with the new developments next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: Happening now: people around the world standing with France opposing terror. Officials in France say more than 3.7 million people marched in rallies across the country on Sunday following last week's terror attacks on "Charlie Hebdo" and a kosher supermarket. Forty world leaders linking arms ahead of the march in Paris, a remarkable, remarkable optics against terrorism. Yet, there was no top level U.S. official among them.

The final suspect in last week's attacks still at large. An international hunt underway this morning for Hayat Boumeddiene, the girlfriend, the wife of the man who police say killed four hostages in the Jewish supermarket before police shot and killed him. Officials say her last known location was on Turkey's border with Syria.

Now to the breaking news in the AirAsia Flight 8501. Divers have retrieved one of the jetliner's two black boxes. It was discovered under part of the plane's wing. And now, efforts underway to recover the critical cockpit voice recorder.

I want to bring in David Molko. He is tracking the very latest developments for us. He is live from Jakarta, Indonesia.

Really, really -- maybe the most important clue so far. They have one of the boxes.

DAVID MOLKO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Christine. A major breakthrough here on day 16, more than two weeks after the plane went down in the Java Sea.

We've got some brand new video just coming in, if we can bring those pictures up, giving us a closer look at that flight data recorder that they recovered this morning from the sea floor. You can see a helicopter landing on the tarmac. What you see is the black box being lifted out of one bin and transferred into another filled with saltwater.

Two things here. The saltwater, the same environment to help minimize any damage that may have occurred when the plane crashed into the water. The other thing that is interesting, it looks like the entire flight data recorder, from these pictures is intact. What that means according to the head of the NTSC, basically the equivalent here of the NTSB in the U.S., he is saying that he is confident it will take two or three days, once the box gets here to Jakarta, two or three days to get the data, analyzing it, that is putting it together and coming up with the picture of what happened on board that flight. It should take a little more time.

There has been some criticism and some questions whether Indonesia can handle an investigation like this. He says absolutely. We pulled the data off more than 100 black boxes. Absolutely we can do this.

The search for the cockpit voice recorder underwater continuing. What is hampering efforts to reach that location, they know where it is and they are 100 percent confident, but it is once again the weather, Christine. Strong underwater currents preventing divers from getting into the water. They've located the wing as you mentioned, and, of course, the search continues for the fuselage of the plane.

It is believed that more than 100 bodies are still there. Families, of course, still waiting for answers and news of their loved ones -- Christine.

ROMANS: Agonizing wait for them as new developments for investigators. Thank you for that, David, in Jakarta, this morning.

Nineteen minutes past the hour. Time for an early start on your money. Stock futures pointing higher

right now to start the week, after stocks fell on Friday. A look at last week, the Dow closed down 170 points on Friday, 1 percent. The S&P lost about 1 percent as well.

It has been a bumpy year so far for stocks. They made up for early losses until Friday's selling put stocks down again for the year.

Hackers declaring war on terrorists for the attack on "Charlie Hebdo." Members of the group Anonymous #opcharliehebdo. They hijacked a French jihadist web site which redirects to the search engine duck, duck, go. The group also named dozens of Twitter accounts it says belonged to terrorists.

The Green Bay Packers moving on to the NFC championship game. But a controversial fourth quarter call may have prevented the Dallas Cowboys from winning the game. Andy Scholes, he's got the "Bleacher Report", next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: For the second straight week, a controversial call played a huge role in the Dallas Cowboys playoff game. This time, it was not in their favor.

Andy Scholes live at the AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas, the site of tonight's national championship game. He's got more on this morning's "Bleacher Report".

Hey, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, BLEACHER REPORT: Hey, good morning, Christine.

Yes, I was watching the Cowboys game with the fans in north Texas. And let's just say they were not very happy about this play. They still can't believe what happened. Now, this controversial play, it happened in thing fourth quarter.

Let's take a look. It was fourth and two for the Cowboys. Tony Romo throws it up for Dez Bryant. He makes an amazing catch, one of the best catches in NFL history.

But the officials reviewed it and they said Dez did not maintain possession of the ball as he completed the process of making the catch. It was ruled incomplete. The Packers would hold on to win. Dez and the Cowboys are left in disbelief over what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEZ BRYANT, COWBOYS WIDE RECEIVER: How can you lose a catch? I felt it was a catch. They took it away. It is because of them. I have possession, the ball coming down. That's possession, right? One, two, three. That's possession. That's possession.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SCHOLES: So, the national championship, it will be the Packers versus Seahawks. In the AFC championship, we're not going to get another round of Manning and Brady. That's because Andrew Luck and the Colts went into Denver and shocked the Broncos. Peyton Manning had a rough day, throwing 20 incompletions as his playoff woes continue.

This is the ninth time Peyton has gone one and done in the playoff. After the game, Peyton would not say whether or not he's going to come back next season.

Back here at AT&T Stadium, we're gearing up for history tonight as the Oregon Ducks and Ohio State Buckeyes are going to faceoff in the first ever college playoffs national championship. The ESPN, they dished out $7.3 billion for the playoffs for 12 years. It is already paying off.

The semifinals games were the most watched programs in cable television history. Tonight's game will likely surpass those. This match up is one we would not have gotten if it wasn't for the new playoff system. These teams are happy they and not the BCS computers are getting to decide the national champion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

URBAN MEYR, OHIO STATE HEAD COACH: I heard our players say thanks for the college football playoff. That is real. We would not be in it. Neither would Oregon. I think the other schools, Alabama, Florida State would be playing.

TONY WASHINGTON, OREGON LINEBACKER: I'm sure people does not expect this to be the two teams in the national title. It changes the dynamics of college football in general.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Christine, all eyes on the quarterbacks tonight for the Ducks. You got the Heisman trophy winner Marcus Mariota. Then for Ohio State, you got the third stringer, Cardale Jones making his third career start. But he is 2-0 in the first two starts beating Wisconsin and Alabama. So, we should have another exciting game. Can't wait.

ROMANS: Can't wait. All right. Andy Scholes, thanks for bringing it us.

Twenty minutes past the hour. We are following latest on the Paris terror attacks all morning long, and the new developments. Also, the unprecedented unity, the search for one possible suspect still on the loose and investigation into what inspired these gunmen in the first place.

Live team coverage after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: World leaders joining millions marching against terror. France reeling from terror attacks that killed 17 people. Trying to figure out what led up to this violence and trying to locate one possible suspect still on the run. This as ISIS warns the West about new lone wolf attacks.

We're live on the ground, breaking down the developments overnight. Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm Christine Romans. Nice to see you.

BERMAN: And I'm John Berman from Paris. Great to see you this morning. It's 5:30 a.m. in the East. It's 11:30 here Paris time.