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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Deadly Gun and Grenade Attacks in Indonesia; Winning Powerball tickets sold in CA, TN, FL; The Race for President: Republicans Debate Tonight; Cruz Fails to Report Loans to FEC; Housing Hit by Oil's Crash; Al Jazeera America Shutting Down. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired January 14, 2016 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Our breaking news this morning, a deadly terror attack targeting Westerners in Jakarta. A series of bombs set off. Police caught in a gun battle with those terrorists. Good morning, everyone. It is 30 minutes past the hour. I'm Christine Romans. This is EARLY START.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm John Berman. The breaking news this morning, a series of coordinated gun and bomb attacks in the heart of the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. It happened overnight. Seven people are dead. The latest information we have from Indonesian officials is that of those seven people killed, five of them were attackers. Two civilians. So far, there has been no claim of responsibility but there are a lot of questions this morning if there was any ISIS involvement. CNN's Kathy Quiano is in Jakarta for us and joines us. Kathy, what's the very latest?

KATHY QUIANO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, police have just confirmed that indeed five people, or five attackers were killed in the attacks and two civilians including a Dutch national also was killed in the attack. More details of this horrific and shocking terror attack in Jakarta, the first major one in six years in the capital from the police.

They said that the first attack happened about 10:55 am inside a Starbucks coffee shop in an office building with a commercial establishment attached to it. There were two other attackers who then dragged two foreigners, a Dutch national and an Algerian, brought them to a parking lot and shot them there. Police responded and another two attackers responded by throwing grenades at them. That's why we're seeing multiple numbers of casualties and victims in this really horrific and shocking attack that's put the city on edge here. The police are also on a manhunt, on the search for more suspects maybe involved in this terror attack in Jakarta. John --

BERMAN: There could be people still on the loose. Kathy, just set the scene for us about exactly where this happened in Jakarta? The area itself, I know there was a Starbucks, a Burger King, a police stand, is this an area where there are frequently Westerners, possibly where you would go if you wanted to hit Western targets?

QUIANO: Well there is a building across the Starbucks which houses some U.N. offices, the U.N. headquarters here. It's just right across from Starbucks. If the attackers were doing any surveillance, they would have known that foreigners frequented this place. A lot of Indonesians as well go to this area. It's a very busy intersection. A lot of commercial establishments, restaurants open 24 hours, so any time of the day it's very, very busy but this was in the middle of the day and certainly very shocking. And now police confirming that Westerners were indeed targeted in the attack. This is something. It's another wake-up call for Indonesia and the Indonesian president is very serious about this. He has already ordered security officials to go after this network, the perpetrators of this horrific attack. John --

BERMAN: Five attackers killed at this point. Obviously the response did appear to be very quick. Kathy Quiano for us on the streets in Jakarta. Thank you so much.

ROMANS: Christian Hubel works in a skyscraper with a clear view of the site of the attacks. We spoke to him a short time ago from Jakarta. This is what he told us.

CHRISTIAN HUBEL, WITNESS: We heard a big noise, like it sounded like an explosion but at first, we thought it was from the construction site next to our building. But then we realized that there was a huge smoke cloud on the street, like 500 meters away, and then there was a second and a third and up to five or six explosions we heard within a few minutes, and then we realized, oh, there must be something going on and it must be really serious.

ROMANS: How long did this go on? Was this a period of minutes? Was it a half an hour? How quickly were authorities on the scene?

HUBEL: The explosions were maybe within 30 minutes but the whole scene looked like it was going on for at least two hours because when the police arrived and a lot of people were standing around the scene, suddenly everybody was running away. So it looks like maybe there was still one terrorist or something like that. And then after, it took maybe two hours until the police now is cleaning up the whole scene.

ROMANS: -- the breakdown the developments in Jakarta. I want to bring in CNN military analyst Cedric Leighton, former member of the joint chiefs of staff, former deputy director at the NSA. Thanks for joining us this morning with this breaking news. New details, seven dead. We are told five are the attackers. What does that tell you, the numbers we are looking at here right now, tell you about this attack and all five attackers, we think it's five attackers, they are looking for others but they think it's five attackers, all five attackers are dead?

CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, Christine, it tells you that there's a very significant police response there and it's interesting to note the number of minutes that your eyewitness on the ground there spoke about. There probably were a lot of things going on that he couldn't see but it tells me that there was a very rapid response by the Indonesian forces that the death toll was kept as low as it is. And as tragic as this is, but it was still managed in a way in which the terror attacks were isolated and their effect was isolated which is really the most important thing in such a crowded area.

BERMAN: Now what about the methods themselves, Cedric? What did they tell you? A coordinated gun attack, with explosives as well, multiple attackers, multiple targets.

LEIGHTON: Well what they say, John, is that this is, in essence, the start of a complex attack. So when you talk about a complex attack, you're putting together different elements. So you've got bombs, you've got small arms fire, you may have automatic weapon, grenades; those different types of weapons that may have been used in this attack point to the fact that ISIS or whoever did this is trying to use different methods at the same time. So that makes the attack more complex. It also is designed to increase the shock value of the attack and actually maximize the impact, psychological impact, on the civilian population and on the specific victims.

ROMANS: Colonel, let's talk about the region. Indonesia, the Philippines, too, we know that ISIS has aspirations for expansion there. It's interesting; there have been long elements opposed to the very moderate nature of Islam that people practice in that region. These radicals who have been long operating before ISIS, ISIS seems to -- some of these original groups seem to be glomming onto the ISIS message; it's almost as if ISIS is growing, not organically, but by acquisition in this region.

LEIGHTON: That's right. In essence, Christine, it's M&A activity in the terrorist world and what you have is all of them coming together. The basic idea is to get as big as possible. And just like corporations would do, ISIS is expanding. And the reason that the groups in the Philippines and Indonesia are coming together like this is because they see ISIS as a winning brand and they want to affiliate themselves with this winning brand. So when you have that issue with a more moderate form of Islam as it's being practiced in Indonesia, you have a willingness by some more radical elements in Indonesia, to grab onto a group that is not only radical, but also willing to take the law, in essence, into their own hands. And when you have that, there is this promise of action.

There are quite a few Indonesian fighters fighting for ISIS in Syria, for example. So probably around several thousand is, 1,000 or 2,000 people, is definitely a possibility. When those people go back, they've already been radicalized beyond what would happen locally. They influence the other organizations that are there, the existing organizations, and that then feeds that flame of acquisition and that willingness by those groups to adhere to the greater ISIS brand.

BERMAN: Cedric, one of the things we heard from the Indonesian officials, this looks like a Paris-style attack. What does that mean and what are the implications at this point?

LEIGHTON: Well, John, the basic idea behind the Paris attack was, find as many popular venues as you possibly can and use multiple attacks simultaneously. So what the Indonesian authorities are referring to is this idea of simultaneity. The idea of doing things at exactly the same time. So you have the attack, in the case of Indonesia, at the Starbucks, you have this area that is basically frequented by shoppers and by commercial businesses, there's a U.N. office there. All of those things come together and there's a lot of symbology attached with that as well as impact on the population centers. So the Paris attack was studied, not only by law enforcement, but also, of course, by the terrorists themselves. And every time they conduct an attack, what they're trying to do is find the most effective way to do that, to conduct those attacks. And so when they talk about Paris attacks, they're talking about that multiplicity of effect and the maximization of terror as much as they possibly can.

BERMAN: Cedric Leighton for us. Thank you so much. Again, the latest news from Jakarta. It looks like seven people killed. Five of them, attackers, in this deadly overnight terrorist operation.

ROMANS: We're going to keep up today on all of the developments of that terror attack in Jakarta, all morning long, but first, the race for president intensifying. Republicans get ready to take the debate stage.

BERMAN: Plus, breaking overnight, were you one of these people? At least three big powerball winners. But they have to split the jackpot. What a letdown. They have to split $1.6 billion. We're going to take you live to where one of these tickets was sold.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Breaking overnight, no more suspense. There are at least three winning powerball tickets. One was sold in Tennessee, one in Florida, and one at a 7-eleven in the suburbs of Los Angeles. Lottery officials confirm that those tickets, the numbers on those tickets, match all five numbers plus the powerball. Good for a piece of the record shattering $1.6 billion

jackpot. Oh, but they have to share. CNN's Sara Sidner standing by live at the 7-eleven in Chino Hills, California, where one of the tickets was sold. Sara --

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well it means that each of the winners would get about $528 million if my math is even close to right. So, that's still quite a bit of money. But already powerball, the numbers way down from $1.6 billion to just a mere $40 million. However, there's a lot of other winners that we should mention. There are a lot of millionaires that are being made because of this and the thing is, you have got to check your tickets because a lot of people say, oh, I didn't win the jackpot. I'm not in one of those states. But you could still end up winning a million if you got five of the six numbers correct and if you happen to own one of the stores that sold the ticket, here in California, like the gentleman here in Chino Hills did, you'll get $1 million.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: What do you think about the crowd that just showed up here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, I just love them and they love me.

SIDNER: What does this selling the winning ticket mean for you and your store?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's feeling really, really good. Whoever the lucky person comes here, I'm thankful for that person. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And we'ave never seen this before. We showed up just to see if we could talk to someone here. There were dozens of people out here for hours after the announcement was made that Chino Hills was one of the places that sold a winning ticket. People just kept coming and coming and coming from the neighborhood, some of whom had shopped here or who had bought tickets here and they were just kind of excited that Chino Hills was put on the map by this. A great community out here who were cheering on the owner of the store, as well

ROMANS: Very cool. I tell you, so I've done the math a thousand different ways and in California, the state income tax is 12.3 percent, so your winner, assuming there aren't any more winners, we don't know, but if they share that three ways, your winner there is going to get $149 million in a lump sum after taxes. 149 million. Now if you invest that right into a treasury bond yielding 2.84 percent, that would spin off about a little over 4 million a year in interest. Could you live on 4 million a year? I could live on 4 million a year.

BERMAN: I'd squeak by.

ROMANS: Keep the money. Don't spend it, live on the interest, and change your cell phone number, right, John Berman?

BERMAN: That's my advice. Sara Sidner in Chino Hills. Thanks so much, Sara. Let's take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY". Powerball loser Alisyn Camerota joins us now.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": How do you know that, John? I haven't checked the numbers yet.

BERMAN: You're here. That says it all.

CAMEROTA: I will be checking. Don't count me out yet. Actually I do think we won $36. Honestly.

ROMANS: Your state tax is 8.82 percent in New York. It's going to really bite into your winnings.

CAMEROTA: Into my $36. All right, I will get back to you guys on that. Meanwhile, on "NEW DAY", of course, we will begin with that breaking news out of Jakarta, at least six people killed in a series of attacks around the Indonesian capital. The attack looks similar to the ISIS spree in Paris in November so we will get the latest from our terror experts. Also, are you a billionaire this morning? At least three of you out there are. Bad news, though, you'll have to split the $1.6 billion powerball jackpot. Good news, dozens more out there will become instant millionaires so we'll show you the winning numbers, where they were bought, and Michaela and I will check our tickets as well.

ROMANS: Could you live on $4 million a year, just the interest your piece of the lump sum?

CAMEROTA: I mean I'll cut back, but yes.

ROMANS: I could make some sacrifices and live on 4 mil.

BERMAN: All right, we need to do our jobs which means we have to get to the commercial. Alisyn, thank you so much. Republicans running for president, they will debate tonight just hours from now. You can bet there will be sharp words, some stern comments, some cross looks. The polls getting very tight in early states.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: This morning, republican presidential candidates, they are preparing for tonight's debate in North Charleston, South Carolina. On the main stage at 9:00 Eastern, Donald Trump in the center flanked by Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Ben Carson, Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, and John Kasich. At 6:00 pm, the undercard debate with Carly Fiorina, Mike Huckabee, and Rick Santorum. Rand Paul, he qualified for the undercard, but he declined to participate unless he is invited onto the main stage.

Joining us now to preview tonight's debate, CNN politics reporter Tom LoBianco in our Washington bureau. And you talk about the different tiers of candidates, this sort of middle tier really trying to claw up there to get close to Ted Cruz and Donald Trump.

TOM LOBIANCO, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Right, absolutely. They have to punch through in a certain way, somehow. And this debate is a little bit different, too, in another sense because in the early debates, you can get little bumps out of it. We saw the surge that Carson had, we saw the surge that Fiorina had after that second debate. Rubio always did well after each one of his debate performances there. But increasingly, the field is getting away from that so it has to be almost something drastic, really, to build up and really have some lasting effect coming out of this.

BERMAN: There's a "New York Times" story out overnight, Tom, that's getting a lot of attention this morning. It talks about Ted Cruz and his financing of his senate run a few years ago. He had bragged about the fact that he liquidated all of his assets, or he used all of his liquid assets along with his wife, to pay for his campaign. Now it turns out that there were loans from Goldman Sachs and Citibank that were not disclosed in FEC paperwork. This is how Ted Cruz explained it last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Those loans had been disclosed over and over and over again on multiple filings. If it was the case that they were not filed exactly as the FEC requires, then we'll amend the filings. But all of the information has been public and transparent for many years and that's the end of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: Yes, the only thing apparently he did wrong in legal terms was not filing with the FEC. There's also this issue, though, this guy who goes after the big banks and criticized Donald Trump for his New York values, if he was depending on Goldman Sachs and Citibank to run for senate.

LOBIANCO: Absolutely. The damage here might not really be, as you said, anything legal, but really to the narrative. Every presidential candidate, any political candidate, especially the presidential candidate, it's built on the narrative; who they are, what's their story, and Cruz's story is the outsider, the guy fighting the big banks. Especially in this cycle where the base really wants someone taking on the establishment, taking on the big powers, and this story cuts right at that because, it does a number of things. It talks about his wife's ties with Goldman Sachs, her work there. It gives the impression of some privilege. It talks -- these are not things that ordinary people can do. And it really cuts right against his story and right at the worst time, too. As we said before, with the debate coming up and just a few weeks out from Iowa.

ROMANS: Speaking of Iowa, Cruz, Ted Cruz still there at the top of the polling, mostly, but that gain is narrowing a bit. Donald Trump, is it working, what he's been talking about, is it working the birther part two?

LOBIANCO: Yes. Absolutely. It's been, it's cut into that lead. The lead was so much stronger just a few weeks ago. Cruz, as we talked about a little bit earlier, Trump has this floor/ceiling. His support is stable. Cruz, other candidates, they're growing but there's room to cut into them. And Trump is just still hammering away at this topic continually. So between that and the Goldman Sachs, there is some real trouble out there for Cruz right now.

BERMAN: It will be interesting to see, maybe all eyes on Senator Ted Cruz tonight, including Donald Trump. You saw him right there. Tom LoBianco, thanks so much.

ROMANS: Have a great day. Let's get an early start on your money this morning, everybody. Fear and alarm spreading around the globe. The DOW down more than 1,200 points now for the year. Half of the stocks in the S&P 500 are in a bear market. Now futures are higher here, right now, a little bit, but look at Europe, look at most of Asia, lower overnight. Lower right now in the early going for Europe. China and oil prices have investors worried about the global economy. Plummeting oil prices reeking havoc on stock markets, reverberating through corporate debt, through housing markets, and even a television network. North Dakota posted a 387 percent increase in foreclosures last year. That's according to new data from realty track. Look at Oklahoma, foreclosures in Texas also up 15 percent. Now those three states were relatively unscathed by the 2008 housing bust. That means this activity, this foreclosure activity is not because of a backlog of foreclosures leftover from the crisis. Lower oil prices have led to tens of thousands of layoffs which can strain local economies with close ties to the energy sector like those.

Another victim of oil's crash appears to be Al Jazeera America. It's a cable news channel shutting down after a little more than two years on the air. This was an ambitious venture by Al Jazeera Media Group, owned by the government of Qatar which relies heavily on oil revenues, which relies all on oil revenues. It wasn't just the price of crude that sank the network. Anemic ratings and expiring cable contracts also factoring into that decision. Al Jazeera America has around seven hundred employees. But when Al Jazeera America went on the air, I think oil prices were like $108 a barrel. Now they're $30. You think about what that means for the budgets of the ruling family and how much less disposal income there is.

BERMAN: I'm thinking about (ph) the bite just a lot of good journalists, right, a lot of them are friends, so our hearts go out to them this morning. All right, a couple minutes before the hour. A deadly terror attack targetting Westerners. "NEW DAY" picks up right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, welcome to your NEW DAY. We do have two breaking stories for you this morning. The first one is good news. There are three powerball winning tickets. We have all the details about how much money is to be shared and by whom and from where. But first, we have a much bigger story. There has been a series of deadly coordinated attacks in

Indonesia. It was once again a team of terrorists setting off simultaneous explosions at a police station and at a Starbucks cafe, the attackers hurling grenades and exchanging gunfire with police in a very busy shopping area.

CAMEROTA: Workers in office buildings watching the horror as the Paris-style attacks unfolded. Amateur video like this one on your screen right now capturing one of the explosions outside that Starbucks and bodies on the street. The attacks rocking the capital there and they come after several warnings that Islamic militants were planning something big. So let's get right to CNN's Kathy Quiano. She is live from Jakarta with all of the breaking details. What do we know at this hour, Kathy?

QUIANO: Well what we know from police officials here is that five attackers were killed and two civilians in this attack, this horrific attack that happened in central Jakarta that shocked the city. Certainly now that even more horrific details are coming out from the police, they said that the first explosion happened at a Starbucks cafe inside an office building that's attached to a commercial establishment. Two other attackers, two foreign nationals, one a Dutch national and the other an Algerian, and shot them in the parking lot.