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Manhunt for Brussels Bombing Suspects; France Foils Terror Plot; Turkey Claims Europe Ignored Warnings; European Ministers Call for Airport Plan. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired March 25, 2016 - 04:30   ET

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[04:30:51] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight. Six new arrests in overnight terror raids and intense manhunt for the surviving Brussels bombers as investigators in Paris say they have foiled a new advanced terror plot.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Victor Blackwell. Half past the hour now. And we're starting this morning of course with the breaking news in the battle against terror in Europe. Overnight and this morning, new raids in Belgium leading to at least six new arrests as we learn investigators now know of several additional ISIS plots in Europe. Possibly linked to the Brussels and Paris terror networks. Meantime, the manhunt intensifying for two suspects who survived the Brussels bombing. One man who dropped the bomb off at the airport and ran, the other who police say participated in the metro bombing.

Now this is happening as security forces thwart a planned terror attack in France and we learned of new intelligence failures. Top Belgian officials admitting mistakes were made.

We're covering this story the way only CNN can with correspondents around the world. We're starting with senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen live for us in Brussels.

And Fred, I want to start with these six arrests, of course. Are these, according to investigators, directly connected to the attacks on the metro and the airport or part of this larger network?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, Victor. They're saying that these arrests that were made or the raids at least that were made are all in connection with the plots at the airport and the plot at the metro as well. And we've just gotten word I would say about 10 minutes ago that apparently there was an early morning raid that took place here in Brussels in the Forest District where the authorities also say that apparently arrests were made.

We're still trying to gather how many people were arrested in that particular raid. We'll obviously keep you up to date on that when we get additional information. But the six arrests that were made overnight happened in general at three raids that took place here in Brussels. One of them right where I am right now in the Schaerbeek area, which took place overnight. It was a very big raid. A lot of streets cordoned off.

This is also the same area where just a couple of blocks down from here was the apartment where the plotters of the airport bombings built their bombs, also took a taxi from there to get to the airport.

Now there was another raid in the Jette area of Brussels where apparently two people were arrested there. Again, unclear whether these people are going to be charged, unclear whether anything is going to substantiate. Unclear how long these people are going to remain in detention. But that is certainly what the police has been doing overnight.

There certainly has been a lot of activity but as you say, the police is still trying to find those people who are unaccounted for on that surveillance tape from the airport and also from eyewitness accounts from the metro as well of at least one person who seemed to act strangely, eyewitnesses said, before that blast go on -- went off.

So the authorities here very much working hard to try and see not only where these people are, but also to see what sort of wider web might have been behind all this -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right. Fred Pleitgen of course there in Brussels. Fred, thanks.

ROMANS: All right. Let's go to France now. Overnight in France, a terror plot foiled. A Paris suburb on lockdown. As police conduct a major raid. Police arrest a high level militant who officials say was in the advanced stage of planning an attack.

New details coming in by the minute. For the very latest, I want to bring in senior European correspondent Jim Bittermann in our Paris bureau.

Good morning, Jim. What can you tell us about this arrest? What can you tell us about this imminent attack?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine. The arrest took place yesterday morning in fact. It was a gentleman who's been searched for some time now actively since the police has been actively searching for him since January of this year. He was convicted in abstentia last July in Brussels for helping to send young people off to Iraq and Syria and because he wasn't in custody at that point in time, he'd been on the loose since then.

Police have been searching for him and they found him yesterday morning in the southwest suburb of Paris. After some interrogation, he said he'd been using in a northwest suburb of Paris.

[04:35:01] So there was this raid that started yesterday at about 5:30 local time with the police going in -- very gingerly going into this apartment because they believe there could be explosives or arms or something inside. They weren't sure who was inside but they did send in the bomb squad. According to reports, they found a weapon, an arm and perhaps some small amounts of explosives. And the Interior minister here did a rather unusual thing of appearing

on television last night at about 20 minutes to 11:00 local time to explain what was going on, to reassure the nation and to say that in fact they had foiled this major plot. He did not say what the plot was exactly, what the target was or anything like that. We're expecting to hear more today from the Paris prosecutor who specializes in terrorism -- Christine.

ROMANS: All right. Jim Bittermann for us in Paris. Thank you for that, Jim.

BLACKWELL: And Belgian authorities admitting mistakes were probably made leading up to Tuesday's deadly terror bombings. This morning, there are new questions emerging about how suicide bomber Ibrahim el- Bakraoui managed to slip through the cracks. Now the terrorist was deported by Turkey which warned European officials he was a militant. But after Bakraoui arrived, The Netherlands and Belgium set him free.

The Turkish president blasting the intelligence failures and saying it was not the first time Turkey warned European officials about a terrorist only to be ignored.

Let's go live now to Turkey and bring in CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon.

Arwa, what are you learning about Bakraoui's time in Turkey and what led them to issue this warning, that he was possibly involved in terror?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're in the city of Gaziantep, very close to the border with Syria, and it is here that something in Bakraoui's activities raised suspicions of Turkish authorities because he wasn't previously on any sort of list and prior to coming here, interestingly he went and spent time in a tourist resort and actually the Turks say that they have seen this type of behavior in a number of people who they suspect are coming here to transit to then go on and fight in Syria.

People will come, trying to pretend that they are tourists, visit a couple sights, take a few tours and then eventually try to make their way across the border. Now Bakraoui picked up in Gaziantep on suspicions, according to the Turks, of again as I was saying wanting to cross into Syria, and according to Turkey, joined ISIS. The Turks say that they took him in custody and then notified The Netherlands because that is where he was going to be deported, too, as well as Belgian authorities, that they had this man in custody and that they believed that he was trying to join ISIS if not a member of ISIS already.

Now The Netherlands say they were aware of the deportation, but did not know the reasons why. The Belgians admitting that this was something of an intelligence failure and a missed opportunity to assert a degree. Turkey is saying that it was very clear on both these issues that it informed both Belgium and The Netherlands that this was potentially a very dangerous man. And this has been something of a source of frustration for the Turkish authorities because they have been coming under a lot of criticism from Europe and the United States because of the porous borders that exist between Turkey and Syria, because of the back and forth flow of foreign and other fighters.

And Turkey is saying look, we're doing the best we can. We are providing Europe with vital intelligence as well. When they give us the name of someone we're tracking them. It's Europe that's not following up properly on its end either because this is at least the third time that the Turks have provided the Europeans with vital intelligence about an individual that has not been acted on and that individual has then gone on to carry out violent attacks in Europe.

And Turkey, also, let's remember, is facing its own war on terror. Whether it's ISIS that is carrying out suicide bombings, targeting tourists, targeting busy shopping thoroughfares in Istanbul or whether it's against the Kurdish separatist group the PKK. So the president, the Turkish president's message to Europe at this stage is look, I warned you that you could not insulate yourself from the violence. And now is really the time for our intelligence apparatus to begin cooperating on a greater level because if Europe is to try to even begin to tackle its own terrorism issues and issues of fighters coming from the battle field of Syria and going to Europe, it is going to have to cooperate and partner with Turkey.

BLACKWELL: All right, Arwa Damon for us there in Gaziantep. Arwa, thank you so much.

ROMANS: All right. Mistakes were made. But what can Europe do to fix its intelligence failures? We're breaking that down next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:43:50] BLACKWELL: Forty-three minutes after the hour. More now on the intelligence failures, leading up to this week's deadly terror bombings in Brussels. European leaders trying to figure out how to plug those security gaps once again agreeing to implement a plan to share airport passenger data. I mean, it's the same plan they agreed to but failed to implement after the Paris terror attacks.

ROMANS: Let's go live to Washington and bring in CNN military analyst, former deputy director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colonel Cedric Leighton.

So nice to see you again this morning. And we've said it again and again. I mean, terrorists have managed to use a united Europe with porous borders between the countries to their advantage. But intelligence -- the intelligence community has not. Have they begun to break down these barriers even within their own countries? Even within Brussels, there are barriers between sharing information between different mayors and different neighborhoods and different police departments. Let alone, you know, the entire Europe.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, absolutely. That's right, Christine. I mean, in Brussels, for example, you have at least six police jurisdictions that are responsible for local policing plus you have the national police. In all of Europe, you've got about 600 police agencies among the 28-member European Union nations.

[04:45:03] And that's really a tall order. So they have this bureaucratic super structure that they're dealing with. They do have organizations that ostensibly should be handling intelligence fusion. But to put all those information from all those 600 police agencies together and then also put information in there from intelligence services, which are another set of agencies, that becomes a huge, huge issue.

And when you look at them being able to integrate things, they're clearly not where they need to be. They have the political pronouncements, but the political will and the ability to actually follow through on those pronouncements are two different things.

ROMANS: Right.

BLACKWELL: Colonel, let me ask you about something. We know that Fred Pleitgen reporting of course these six arrests overnight and those raids, more raids in the Forest neighborhood is reporting this morning. Still getting details on that. But after the Paris attacks in November, there were scores of arrests across Europe for several days. Why aren't we seeing that now? Because is this a lesson that authorities learned about those mass arrests and the residual impacts across some of these communities? Are there fewer targets? What do you make of that?

LEIGHTON: Well, Victor, that's a very interesting question because what you're looking at normally when there is an attack like this, there is exactly the kind of reaction that we had after the Paris attacks or that we saw after the Paris attacks where there is that roll-up of a lot of different suspected terrorists or possible fellow travelers in the terrorist world.

I think the police are trying to be very, very careful in both France and Belgium. So what you're going to see are many high-profile raids or at least, you know, maybe half a dozen or so high-profile raids. And when you look at how they're going about this, they are trying to go after the biggest possible terrorist targets. At least that's what the public pronouncements seem to indicate. And so if that is their way of operating, then we will see many of these types of raids in neighborhoods that like Argenteuil and other parts near Paris and parts near Brussels like Schaerbeek, where you're going to bring a lot of different police elements together and then we'll see a lot of arrests in those areas.

How many I don't know. But what you're going to find is an effort to really tighten the noose and find more of these terrorists. More for political purposes I think at the beginning.

ROMANS: Right.

LEIGHTON: Than for actual operational purposes.

ROMANS: You mentioned Argenteuil, that's where there was that big arrest last night of someone who had been wanted, actually convicted in absentia in Brussels for a terrorist activity. Now in custody in France. And terror attacks thwarted according to the French officials. A terror attack was being planned -- actively being planned, was imminent, and was thwarted.

We heard yesterday that ISIS -- U.S. officials saying ISIS has multiple attacks in the works. There are teams right now plotting across Europe. We've seen these new raids overnight. We still need to see better sharing of information among the authorities.

Do you think that they have the capacity at this moment to prevent those attacks that U.S. officials say are being planned?

LEIGHTON: I think what they need is a combination of luck and effort. And yes, I think they have the capacity to prevent some of them, but I think it would be a very tall order for them to prevent all of them. And that's unfortunately the world that we're living in right now. So people have to be prepared for there to be more terrorist attacks. Hopefully they will be thwarted or at least minimized, but it's a very difficult thing for the police and the intelligence services to do. Because frankly they are playing catch-up and they don't have the institutions or the skill sets needed to capture all of these people.

BLACKWELL: We know that Secretary of State John Kerry will be heading over to Brussels to, of course, mourn with the people there, of course to reaffirm the U.S.' commitment to this investigation and to offer support to, quote, "counter violent extremism." We are getting that from the State Department. What likely, tangibly, does that look like? What is that support?

LEIGHTON: The support in -- besides all the diplomatic niceties that, you know, obviously have to happen in a case like this, will involve more information sharing between organizations like the FBI and probably the CIA, helping them with the kinds of information that may be lacking. One of the other things that the United States can do is if they have a better relationship with, for example, a country like Turkey, then they can help funnel information from a service like Turkey's service or some of the other Middle Eastern secret services into the European system.

So that might be an area where the U.S. intelligence community can be of great assistance to the Europeans. It might not be using our sources, but it will be using sources that we're familiar with and to perhaps trust a bit more than the European do.

ROMANS: I got to tell you, Colonel, I mean, I'm just haunted by what you just said about how they won't be able to prevent all the terror attacks.

[04:50:05] I mean, there will be terror attacks that make it through. And that even as -- we haven't even identified all the people yet from this horrible, horrible double bombings in Brussels. It's just really hard to get your head and your heart around something like.

Colonel, thank you so much. Will talk to you again very, very soon.

Fifty minutes past the hour. More companies threatening to take their business out of the state of Georgia. We're going to get an EARLY START on your money next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: The war of words over wives. Call it the war of wives. Escalating to outright hostility between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump. Cruz lashing out at the Republican frontrunner at a campaign stop in Wisconsin. He called Trump a bully for attacking Cruz's wife Heidi. Trump had tweeted, he'd, quote, "spill the beans" on Cruz's wife after a super PAC, not related to the Ted Cruz campaign, ran a negative ad in Utah featuring Trump's wife Melania showing a picture of her on "GQ" saying, "You want this your future first lady?"

[04:55:12] Cruz angrily telling the billionaire, hey, back off.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have to say seeing him go deeper and deeper to the gutter, it's not easy to tick me off. I don't get angry often. But you mess with my wife, you mess with my kids, that will do it every time.

Donald, you are a sniveling coward. Leave Heidi the hell alone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Vice President Joe Biden is fighting back against Senate Republicans calling them ridiculous for trying to use his old remarks to support their efforts to block Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland. Biden maintains they're taking a 17-page speech from 1992 out of context. The Republicans argue it shows he supported blocking high court nominees during a high stakes election season.

President Obama nominated Garland earlier this month to fill the opening left by Justice Antonin Scalia's death.

ROMANS: Hillary Clinton getting a little coaching on her campaign speeches from none other than Jimmy Kimmel. The late-night host offering to be the Democratic frontrunner's secret weapon during her appearance on his show last night. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY KIMMEL, HOST, "JIMMY KIMMEL LIVE": Just talk and I'll correct you whenever I feel the need.

(LAUGHTER)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, thank you. It's wonderful to be here with all --

KIMMEL: OK. Hold on one second.

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: Already? KIMMEL: You're shouting. You're too loud. You're -- you don't have

to shout like that. It hurts my ears. It comes off as a little shrill for men. You know what would be nice? If you smile then you put a little bit of, you know, some teeth. Yes.

CLINTON: OK. All right. America is the greatest country on --

KIMMEL: OK. Don't smile like that because it's too forced. It looks like you're faking it. Ask yourself, do I want to be president or do I want to be a Lakers girl?

(LAUGHTER)

CLINTON: It's like nothing I do is right.

KIMMEL: Exactly. You're not doing it right.

(LAUGHTER)

KIMMEL: I can't quite put my finger on it but there -- something is not -- you're not --

CLINTON: A man?

KIMMEL: Yes. That is it. You aren't a man. But that was really cute the way you did it, though.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Yes. Kimmel's good at this. Kimmel's good at this. Well played.

All right. We're coming up on Easter, but it's going to be a rainy start to the weekend. All along the East Coast. Got the latest now from meteorologist Allison Chinchar.

(WEATHER REPORT)

ROMANS: All right. Allison, thank you.

Let's get a check on your money this morning. The market is closed today for the Good Friday holiday. Three-day weekend for investors. Yesterday the Dow had a 13-point, snapping a five-week winning streak on the short trading week. Fresh talk of an earlier-than-expected rate hike and rising oil prices cooling sentiment a bit on Wall Street after a very good run.

Brand new housing report out today. Very interesting here, folks. Homes are worth more than ever in more than a quarter of American housing markets. Homes in the south were most likely to see those record highs. Across the country, home values rose 4.3 percent compared to last year. The average value of a home in the U.S. just over $184,000.

Now it's not all good news. The report says home prices in San Francisco, Seattle and San Diego are overvalued and approaching bubble conditions.

21st Century FOX and the Weinstein Company say they will take their business out of Georgia if the governor signs a bill which would give faith based organizations the option of denying services to gay people. Proponents say it would protect religious freedoms, you know, gosh, the Weinstein Company is threatening to end plans to shoot a film in the state later this year. Time Warner, CNN's parent company, also issued a statement against the bill.

The state offers tax credits to lure the television and movie industries. 248 production shoots took place there last year. That added $1.7 billion in direct spending to the state economy. Those breaks can cover up to 30 percent of production expenses. And now you've got major film companies, Hollywood saying we are going to pull our filming out of Georgia if this continues.

The NFL said earlier this week the bill could hurt Atlanta's chances of hosting a Super Bowl at a new stadium there.

BLACKWELL: All right. Breaking news this morning. We're going to start EARLY START right now.