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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Police Detain at Least 6 in Brussels Raids; France Foils Terror Plot; Belgian Official: "Mistakes Were Probably Made"; Paris Police Identify Arrested Militant; Bleacher Report. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 25, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:05] VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking news this morning, and we're going to start EARLY START right now.

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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): New terror raids, new arrests across Europe overnight and into the morning. Investigators hunting for the two surviving Brussels bombers as an advanced terror plot is thwarted in Paris.

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ROMANS (on camera): A lot going on overnight and this morning, folks. Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. It is Friday, March 25, 5:00 a.m. here in the East. Breaking news this morning on the battle front against terror in Europe.

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BLACKWELL (voice-over): Overnight and this morning, new raids in Belgium leading to at least six new arrests. And this is happening 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 is intensifying for two suspects who survived the Brussels bombings. One man, who dropped off a bomb at the airport and ran, the other who police say participated in the metro bombing. This is happening as security forces thwart a planned terror attack in France and we learn of new intelligence failures. Top Belgian officials admitting mistakes were made.

We are covering the story the only way CNN can, with correspondents around the world.

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BLACKWELL (on camera): Let's start with senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen live for us in Brussels. And Fred, you've reported that there are raids that have happened in just the last few hours across Belgium. FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes,

absolutely, Victor. There was a flurry of activity here overnight by the Belgian police in the greater Brussels area. The most recent one happened in the early morning hours of today where the police say that they conducted a raid in the Forest area.

Now Forest is quite an interesting area because it was one where last Tuesday an apartment was discovered where also the DNA of Salah Abdeslam, who of course was implicated in the Paris attacks and also apparently had links to the people who now conducted the Brussels attacks, where he apparently his DNA was found there. And of course, only a few days later he was then apprehended by the police.

In the raid earlier this morning apparently several people were detained. It's unclear whether or not they'll remain in custody or whether or not they might indeed be charged. Then there were the raids that happened overnight in various locations in Brussels. Among them, where I am right now, in the Schaerbeek area, which is also where the apartment was where the plotters of the attacks here in Brussels on the airport and the metro went on to those locations from an apartment right here.

There were also arrests in another district called Jette as well. An also, three people were taken into detention in front of the federal prosecutor's office. We're awaiting some more information on the authorities on whether or not these people are going to remain in detention, whether or not they might be let go.

We do know that at this location that we are right here, Victor, that there was a forensic unit that was on site working inside one of these apartments for several hours during the night, Victor.

BLACKWELL: We know that Belgium has lowered that security alert level, but we see that there is a lot of activity trying to penetrate this network across that neighborhood you're in in Brussels.

Fred Pleitgen, thank you so much.

ROMANS: All right, overnight in France, a terror plot foiled, a Paris suburb on lock down as police conduct a major raid. They arrest a high level militant who officials say was in the advanced stage of planning of an attack. We have 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. They've been looking for this guy for some time. He'd been convicted in a (inaudible) - in Brussels. They found him in the neighborhood of Argenteuil. Tell us about it.

JIM BITTERMAN, CNN SENIOR EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, exactly. They found him yesterday morning, actually. He was picked up. He had been on the run since that conviction in Brussels and police picked him up. And then on interrogation, they found out he had been using an apartment in a northwest Paris suburb.

And so, they raided that apartment last night at about 5:30. And while the raid was still going on, the interior minister here did the most extraordinary thing, went on television at about 20 minutes to 11:00 last night to talk about the fact that there was a raid going on, not having all of the details yet of what police discovered. It's been reported this morning that what they did find was a small quantity of explosives and some hand guns.

He said in his television discourse last night that in fact the planning was going on for some kind of an attack in the Paris or French - France area and the exact details of that are unknown. He said also that today, later on in the day, we'll be hearing more from the Paris prosecutor who will talk a little bit more about this.

The identity of the man is not known. He's a 34-year-old Frenchman. But like I say, he was convicted in a Brussels court last July. So, what makes this interesting, I think, although the prosecutor - the interior minister last made it clear that this was not linked to either the Brussels attacks or the Paris attacks, what makes it interesting for investigators is the fact that his conviction last July in Brussels was along with another person who's name - has turned up everywhere, Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who's thought to be the ringleader for the Paris attacks.

[05:05:14] So, clearly he is in this terrorist cell in this terrorist network that the various investigators in Belgium and in France have been investigating.

ROMANS: All right, Jim Bitterman for us live in Paris this morning. Thank you so much for that, Jim.

BLACKWELL: Belgian authorities admitting mistakes were probably made leading up to Tuesday's deadly terror bombings. And this morning there are new questions emerging about how suicide bomber Ibrahim el- Bakraoui managed to slip through the cracks.

The terrorist was deported by Turkey, which warned European authorities he was a militant. But after Bakraoui arrived, the Netherlands and Belgium set him. Turkey's president blasting the intelligence failures, saying it was not the first time that Turkey warned European officials about a terrorist only to be ignored.

Let's go live to Turkey and bring CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon. And this is just the latest, a tragic example of what Turkish officials are calling a lack of urgency on the part of European officials.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And Turkey is very frustrated by all of this, not just because of the potentially unnecessary loss of life, but because Turkey really feels as if the West does not consider it to be an equal or credible partner despite what might be publicly said.

Turkey has for years now, it says, been gathering intelligence on a number of individuals. It has a watch list of upwards of 38,000 names that have been provided to Turkey, and every single time one of those people tries to enter the country, Turkey says that it deports them and notifies the respective nation. Now, in the case of el-Bakraoui, this is what happened. Bakraoui was

actually not on any of these watch lists. He came into the country and then started out by going to a resort town on the coast. And a lot of people who are trying to join the fight inside Syria, especially if they're trying to join alongside ISIS, do first try to pose as tourists because Turkey has been cracking down. Bakraoui himself then ended up where we are right now in the city of Gaziantep, very close to the border with Syria and one of the main transit hubs for anyone who is trying to get into the war zone.

So, intelligence is especially closely monitoring individuals who come through here. We don't know exactly what it was about Bakraoui's behavior that raised their suspicions, but they were raised. They did detain him and then, they say, they notified the Netherlands because that is where he was going to be deported to as well as Belgium about what the Turks firmly believed was his intent, and that was to go and join ISIS on the battlefield inside Syria.

Now, the Netherlands says that, yes, they were informed of his deportation, but weren't given the reasons why. Belgium acknowledging that this was potentially a massive intelligence failure on their part.

But speaking to the bigger picture in all of this, clearly there are severe issues with basic communication and following up on vital information, because, as you were mentioning there, this is not the first time that the Turks say they have provided information to Europeans that has not been acted on.

In fact, there are two other cases that we are aware of, one in which the Turks notified the French of an individual who was actually on the watch list, had been alerted to them by the French authorities. They said he came to Turkey, they deported him, he carried out a knife attack against soldiers in the south of France. And then there was a man who the Turks flagged to the French as being a person of interest who then went on to be one of the main Paris attackers.

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

ROMANS: And Colonel Cedric Leighton said that the problem here is that sometimes they don't trust the intelligence from the Turks, the European authorities don't trust the Turks here. So, that shows some of the - some of the divisions that are rife within the intelligence community.

Officials admitting mistakes were made, but can Europe fix its terror crisis? What European leaders are now planning as investigators warn new attacks could be coming.

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[05:13:20] BLACKWELL: 13 minutes after the hour. Now more 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. This is the same plan they agreed to, but failed to implement after the Paris terror attacks.

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

Colonel, good morning. You know, just to let everybody know, our viewers know, let you know, that they've now identified that man who was arrested overnight in Paris, that man who was arrested who had been convicted in absentia in Brussels for financially paying for and helping recruit young men to go to Syria, to go to the fight in Syria and come back, sort of the money guy here. What does that tell you about what officials and investigators are doing right now to try to pick up these loose ends and thwart any attack that could be happening?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, Christine, if it's the money guy, then that's a big deal because what that does is it shows that they have in essence gotten through to the web of connections, and so they've in essence picked up the bomb makers because of their deaths in Brussels.

Then you also have a situation now where you have the money guy from Argenteuil the Paris suburb. And if that's the case, then what they are trying to do is they're trying to roll up the most important ISIS cells that they can find right now. And if they have the money guy, the hope is that then they can understand exactly where the money is going. So who is paid, how they are paid, what they're paid for and also where the money comes from.

Is it, you know, something that just comes from Raqqa, the reported capital of ISIS in Syria, or is from other sources?

[05:15:07] And that can then open up a real plethora of information that will allow for further analysis and perhaps other arrests may be coming out of this as a result of this.

BLACKWELL: This French suspect shares a commonality with Ibrahim el- Bakraoui. I was reading a bit about his profile that negates this narrative that we hear about disenfranchised, ousted Muslim young men who are looking for some sense of inclusion. In this case, we know that he was known by police for trafficking jewelry in 2013, in 2014. We also know el-Bakraoui, described by the Belgians as being a criminal, but no connection to terror. I mean, it really shows just how thing that line can be between what is seen as general criminal activity and crossing over into terror.

LEIGHTON: That's right, Victor. And that's actually an excellent point because what you're seeing is the underworlds are coming together. So the criminal underworld and the terrorist underworld are finding common cause. They can each use each other for their different purposes and, quite frankly, for the criminal element, this brings about an effort of adventure and ability to go in and do some things for a cause greater than themselves. And when they do something like this, it really allows them to go beyond just petty thievery or doing other acts that are criminal in nature. And when you have this, you have a very, very interesting nexus that really should be followed through by all the law enforcement agencies in Europe because criminal activity of this type can often mask other things, especially terrorist acts.

ROMANS: Right. In this case in particular, when you're talking about Brussels and you're talking about some of these neighborhoods (inaudible) outside of Paris, you hear a lot about lack of opportunity and high unemployment and how this Jihadi narrative just sort of strikes a chord there.

But it's not the whole story. In some cases we've sees educated young men from middle class families. We talked to mothers who have been horrified that they raised their children, they think, the right way and then their sons, you know, meet somebody like this guy who was just arrested over night in Paris and then they're -- facilitated their travel to Syria.

Do law enforcement need to do more on the front end in prisons, in schools, in neighborhoods, do more on the front end? Instead of just solving the crime at the end, do more to prevent the allure of the Jihadi narrative in these young men in the first place?

LEIGHTON: Oh, Christine, I certainly think so because going after crimes and criminal acts is basically reactive and, you know, we're very good at that. We tend to react to stimuli of various types. And that's exactly what the police have been doing and traditionally have been doing all these years and that's not just one nation, that's all nations do that. But it's much more important to get at the root causes.

When you talk about this, it is not just disaffected youth, obviously, but what you are dealing with is people who have the means, but they also are getting an opportunity to lead. And in some cases, that leadership opportunity is what they seek. They don't necessarily care where they're leading, but they care that they lead. And if they can lead an enterprise like an ISIS cell, they ask themselves why not and they do that and that's something that we have to, in essence, prevent that. Perhaps it is a bit of a moral education more than anything else. But it is also an effort to recognize that these things are often based on such intangible factors as desires to lead, desires to have influence and that is one of the major elements in this narrative.

ROMANS: It is certainly complicated and so many different threads to sew together to try to figure out how to solve it. Cedric -- Colonel Cedric Leighton, thank you so much. Nice to see you this morning.

BLACKWELL: All right. We will continue, of course, the coverage of the breaking news overseas in just a moment.

But first, let's come back state side and look to the four teams advancing to the Elite Eight with the last years NCAA champion knocked out of the tournament last night. So who is still standing? Andy Scholes with this morning's "Bleacher Report." That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [05:23:36] BLACKWELL: Four teams punching their ticket to the Elite

Eight last night. The defending champion Duke Blue Devils, not one of them.

ROMANS: Sorry, guys. Andy Scholes has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report." Hey, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Hey, good morning, guys. You know, Oregon won the very first NCAA Tournament back in 1939. But they haven't been back to the Final Four since then. You know what? Now they're one win away from ending that long drought. The Ducks leading Duke pretty much wire to wire last night. They would beat the Blue Devils 82 to 68, knocking out the defending champs. And this is Oregon's first win against Duke in the school's history. Now the Ducks will now play Oklahoma in the Elite Eight. The Sooners, they went on a 34 to 9 run in the first half to pull away from Texas A&M and they never looked back. Their star, Buddy Hield, had 17 points and 10 rebounds as Oklahoma won this one 77 to 63. After the game, Hield got to meet his childhood idol, Kobe Bryant, who was at the arena taking in the game.

All right. The tournament's top overall team Kansas also moving on last night in Maryland, where they kept it close in the second half, but the Jayhawks' Perry Ellis, well he had himself a game. He scored 27 points to lead Kansas to the 79-63 win. Jayhawks will now play Villanova in the Elite Eight.

The action continues tonight on TBS and CBS. Iowa State and Virginia will tip at 7:10 and Wisconsin and Notre Dame are going to hit the court shortly after that. Those games are followed by Gonzaga taking on Syracuse and then the Hoosiers and the Tar Heels.

[05:25:11] All right. You know you've made it when Madame Tussauds makes a wax figure of you. Steph Curry and his family on hand for the unveiling of the reining MVP's new statue that in Oakland. Steph's daughter, Riley, as you can see, not quite sure what to make of the statue as they reach out and give it a couple of feels. They pose for pictures with it. Now it took nearly four months to make the wax figure. And get this, it is worth an estimated $350,000. And guys, cool fact, one of Steph and his wife Ayesha's first dates was actually at a wax museum in L.A. So he says having his own sculpture is pretty cool.

ROMANS: That's cool. It looks good. I have to say -- I prefer watching the real Steph Curry. It's much more entertaining.

SCHOLES: We all do.

ROMANS: Much more entertaining than the wax version.

BLACKWELL: All right. Andy, thanks so much.

SCHOLES: All right.

BLACKWELL: All right. Back to the breaking news this morning. New terror raids and arrests across Europe as investigators hunt for the surviving Brussels bombers. Live team coverage from around the world next.

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