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Twelve Dead after Attack in Paris; France at Highest Terrorism Alert

Aired January 07, 2015 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We want to get to the breaking news that we've been covering all morning, 12 people are now dead after two men, with automatic weapons stormed the offices of a French satirical magazine.

The president of France has called this a terror attack. We know that some police officers have been killed in this attack. This happened in the middle of the day at this magazine. They were having an editorial meeting. There were reporters, cartoonists.

This magazine is significant because it's the same magazine firebombed in 2011 for publishing a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed. They're well known for satirizing Christians and Jews and Muslims and now they've been the target of the attack today.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The president of France says the country is at the highest terror alert level in response to the situation. He also says there have been several terror attacks that have been thwarted in recent weeks.

So the question is, is there an ongoing threat there? It was the middle of the day in Paris when this happened. Two heavily armed gunmen, they supposedly had (inaudible), automatic rifles and maybe a rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

They left, maybe the attack happened from outside the offices on the street in through the windows as you're seeing right now. Police officers responded to the scene. They were fired upon. They took casualties and the two gunmen have fled.

There's no word of their being apprehended at this time or if there's any third or accomplice involved. There's video coming out that shows the assault and process, we'll show it to you as we have a discussion about why this might have happened.

We have Peter Binart and Bobby Ghosh, CNN global affairs analysts with us here. So Gentlemen, let's set the scene for people, it's not a surprise that this happens where it happened in Paris to this magazine. Now that we hear that the shooters supposedly said we have avenged the prophet.

Bobby, let's bring you in here, what is the dynamic that's being revealed in this violence. BOBBY GHOSH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It's a satirical magazine. Often the target is religion or religious people of all faiths, but in recent years, a lot of the controversy around it has centered on cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed.

CUOMO: But very recently.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about this. Let's bring this up for people and show you on the screen this was the cover of their magazine in October and it does show the Prophet Mohammed, but it has a different take on it.

It says at the top, if Mohammed came back and then you see, it is actually the Prophet Mohammed, who is down on his knees and an ISIS fighter who is depicted as about to behead him and you have the prophet saying, I'm the prophet, you idiot and you have the fighter saying -- shut your trap, infidel.

GHOSH: Yes, and so that's the point. It's satire, it's not against religion per se.

CUOMO: Why is it offensive?

GHOSH: Well, to these people, the people who seem to have conducted this attack almost anything is offensive. I don't think their sensibility is particularly interesting. Now to a lot of perfectly peace-loving Muslims, any depiction of the prophet is offensive.

They wouldn't resort to this. There's a huge gap between saying look, this is offensive to all Muslims and these are people who are willing to kill on the basis of the offense.

I think we need to be careful in separating what the vast majority of the population feels or what a small minority of essentially lunatics.

CUOMO: That's what we're dealing with here. You had these two heavily armed gunmen who were supposedly firing from the middle of the street in. We showed you video earlier of the assault in progress, there's more video to show you.

Supposedly the gunmen while making their escape took out a police officer, we will not show you that. But this is video, these are supposedly the gunmen, escaping from the scene in that car that you see waiting in the middle of the street.

CAMEROTA: This was taken as we understand it by an eyewitness. A moment after they shot one at least victim outside and they got in that getaway car and took off. Let's watch it. One more time, we are showing you the moment of the shooting.

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CAMEROTA: That was moments after killing someone, it's very graphic. We're not showing you the most graphic part. It's incredible to watch this unfold in real-time to have so much surveillance video and to be able to watch it. One interesting thing that we learned from our reporter at the scene was that the magazine has been under heavy police protection.

Since 2011, when they were the target of a firebombing of an attack after the cartoon of the Prophet Mohammad, but he says that in recent weeks, police short of backed off. They let their guard down. They backed off and now this happens today. In Paris, it seems hard to believe that anybody would let their guard down.

PETER BEINART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's tragic. And I'm sure we're going to learn a lot more. As in Australia, there will be a lot of soul-searching in France among law enforcement about how this was allowed to happen. So bracingly, mean, as Chris said, in the middle of the day especially with the magazine that has had a long history, had not been backing down.

CUOMO: I mean, you can't have surveillance 24/7 outside your media outlets. You don't have manpower forward. It sends a bad message in terms of what you're worried about. But two trained, let's assume the best for them. Two trained men can do a lot of damage here. That you really can't protect against.

GHOSH: It's true, but I have some other question, which is this is France, not the U.S. is not easy to get your hands on anticipate attacks the ability to pick these things off in the planning stage, that's been a hallmark of French intelligence, who pride themselves at having deep contacts into all communities in the country and the ability to anticipate attacks, the ability to pick these things off in the planning stage.

That's been a hallmark of French intelligence. Something slipped through the cracks here, surely. This is probably the worst terrorist attack in France's recent history. There is going to be a lot of soul searching. People are going to be stunned. There's going to be political question intelligence and security questions.

But also questions about the communities, France unfortunately also has a history, this magazine is not part of it. A far right sort of provocateurs, parties, they no doubt will be heard in the next few days.

CAMEROTA: We're getting more news -- breaking news bulletin are coming fast and furiously as this unfolds. The French president, Holland, says that these assailants will be chased as far as necessary until they are captured.

Obviously witnesses say that there were as many as five gunmen they believe. We haven't that had that confirmed, but that's what witnesses are saying. That would be a different order of magnitude, wouldn't it, Peter?

BEINART: Right, and again, you know, that combined with the level of military sophistication here suggest something that probably was in the plans for worse. So different from what you saw in Australia.

CUOMO: They are fact light right now. We don't know whether or not that man in the street was screaming what we heard that they screamed, which was we've avenged the prophet or was he screaming instructions to somebody? We don't know.

Also the police there are dressed very similar to the way the gunmen were dressed. So we don't know that eyewitnesses were catching the count that was everybody involved in this open gun fight in that open area and not all part of being the bad guys.

The information is developing, but what we already know is that as many as a dozen people lost their lives today to a terror attack in France, in Paris, in the middle of the day. We're going to take a break. There's more details coming in. There is video of what may have gone down right in the eyes of people literally during lunch hour. Stay with us.

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MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: You're watching NEW DAY. We are watching breaking news out of Paris this morning the deadliest attack in France in two decades, at least 12 people are dead after two men you see them pictured here armed with automatic weapons heavily armed stormed a French magazine office, carnage on the streets of Paris.

Let's get in to Jim Bitterman with the latest in Paris. What do we know at this point, Jim?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Michaela, the latest is that the prime minister's office has issued a communique saying that they'll raise the terrorist alert in France to the highest level possible. It means there will be tighter security around transportation hubs, train stations and the like around places of worship around schools and the department stores, just about everywhere.

We'll see more security on the streets here because this is being taken seriously. As you mentioned, the most serious attack in decades back in the '80s there were a series of attacks that killed a number of people here.

But there hasn't been anything seen since primarily because the French intelligence has been very good about detecting the kind of plots that it would take to carry off something like this.

They have foiled any number of plots along the way, but clearly this morning something went wrong and they weren't able to detect this ahead of time -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Jim, we'll stick with CNN as we get more developments. We'll bring them to you. I want to give you a few quick other headlines right now.

Search crews have found the tail of Airasia Flight 8501, the discovery is critical. The hope is it could hold the jet's black box recorders. Another body has been pulled from the Java Sea bringing the total number of recovered victims to 40. The airline will offer family members roughly $100,000 in compensation per passenger.

Here at home we're experiencing a deep freeze affecting most of the whole nation. In Green Bay and Chicago, windchills hovering around the 30 below zero. Minneapolis is about 40 below. Public schools in Kansas City, Minneapolis, Chicago, Des Moines, Indianapolis and Omaha are all canceling school today. Those are your quick headlines. I want to get back to breaking news in Paris.

CAMEROTA: All right, of course, we are following all of the breaking developments out of Paris. There's been a terror attack at the offices of the French satirical magazine. At least 12 people have been killed. Some police officers have been wounded.

We understand there are also four wounded victims in critical condition. The president of France says that at assailants are on the loose and they will be chased far and wide until they are arrested and brought to justice.

COUMO: We have live video of the scene right now. We have video from people who were witnessing it as it happened. We're going to show it all to you right after the break.

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CUOMO: Welcome to our viewers in the U.S. and around the world. You're watching your NEW DAY. We'll take to you Paris. They have had the deadliest terror attack in two decades in the middle of the day, literally during lunch hour, 12 people have been killed after two armed men with automatic weapons and maybe a rocket-propelled grenade attacked the offices of a French magazine.

It may have been done from the street or in the offices. It say developing situation right now, but we do know as many as a dozen people have lost their lives. Police officers have been injured. The two gunmen are at large.

They heard "we have the prophet" in the street, which of course suggest that these were Islamic terrorists who had done it is and it is called a terror attack by the president of France.

CAMEROTA: Now these four in injured at the hour, in critical condition. We want to bring in Christian Amanpour. She is CNN's chief international correspondent. She is monitoring this. Christiane, what are your thoughts?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, just right now we've seen the French palace tweeted president, Francois Hollande will give a press conference later, that's about 3:00 p.m. Eastern time today.

He has called it a terrorist attack. At that time he said, 11 people were dead, four seriously wounded. Now we understand 12 are dead. We also know that the prime minister of Great Britain, David Cameron, has sent out a message this is shameful and that we stand with France and with freedom of the press.

This is a deliberate attack not on random civilians but on the press. Just heard a very interesting analysis by a French senior political analyst who said, unlike previous attacks in the city of London in July 7, '07, in Madrid a few years before that, those were civilians attacked.

This is directly targeted on journalists. Europe now according to all officials faces the highest terror alert in many, many years since 9/11. The French prime minister said even before Christmas that France faced the worst terror threats ever and this follows several terrorist attacks in France just before Christmas, all in one week.

There were attacks by people on a police station into a market, a car driven into a group of people with many injured. So this is a very, very serious situation. France has a huge number of people who have gone to join ISIS.

As you know, there was this whole talk about Jihadi John, the chilling English voice on some of the ISIS beheading videos. One of the latest was a French national, who is also being identified as a murderer on an ISIS video.

There is no information about these particular attackers and they are still at large. It's a dangerous ongoing situation.

CUOMO: Christiane, we're not flying completely blind. There has been video and stills come in taken by eyewitnesses. Unfortunately, this attack with as not quick and because of its duration, it did give an opportunity for people to wind up capturing some images.

This is a still. We're not going to show you the video of one of the attackers going past a police officer after shooting him and putting him down, he then runs by him and executes him. We'll play a couple of different clips of people catching this attack. Watch and listen to them.

(VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: What language is that man speaking? Was it French? Was it Arabic? Was he calling out to an accomplice, a third or more shooters? We don't know. Was that where the shooter allegedly screamed out "we have avenged the prophet"? This is more home video taken.

You'll hear Frenchmen saying "get down, get down, I hear automatic weapons." listen for yourself.

(VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: All right, those are the different samples of what we've seen going on. We don't have any reason to believe anyone taking the video was involved in the attack but you can observe things.

We have Bobby Ghosh and Peter Beinart here. You know how to shoot or you were very close, and also the movements of the men, how they're moving around and how they are dealing with what they're doing suggests they are comfortable in that element which suggests training. Fair analysis, Bobby?

GHOSH: It certainly looks like they know what they're doing, whether they're actually military people or they've been planning and training for this particular attack is hard to know, but they certainly know their way around weapons and they're moving around in a very distinct pattern. It's designed to make themselves hard to shoot at as well as take up multiple positions from where they can attack.

CAMEROTA: All that video that we've been showing is from social media. We're getting it offline posted on Facebook and Twitter. These are just eyewitnesses who happened to see all of this, the worst terror attack in decades in France unfolding in front of their windows. It's chilling. It's chilling to watch this and chilling to watch the brutality the seeming ease with which they pull it off.

BEINART: The reports around that several among the dead were several of the cartoonists themselves, fairly prominent cartoonists in France, some who had done some of the cartoons. The fact that a particular publication, perhaps particular individuals seem to have been targeted in this attack makes it different from the random lone wolf attack, particularly chilling especially to journalists.

CAMEROTA: We'll watch this Facebook video again, this is an eyewitness -- we're going to play it for you in full, with the sound, so you can see what one of the eyewitnesses saw.

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CUOMO: All right that's the duration of that piece of the video. Obviously we have every reason to believe the gunmen were exchanging fire with the policemen. We know at least three police officers have been injured. We know the gunmen are at large.

The French president has said they'll pursue them any way they have to and obvious he will they will, but the big questions this morning are why this happened and who did it.

Very brazen attack, obviously this is the kind of potential lone wolf activity that is a big concern here at home in the U.S. Let's go to Barbara Starr at the Pentagon. They're following this very closely. What is the latest, Barbara?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris and Alisyn. Across Washington this morning security agencies are looking at all of this, trying to gather information very quickly. There is one big difference in this attack, if in fact there were multiple gunmen as initial reports are indicating, then that means a pre- planned conspiracy and that raises the level of concern considerably.

One U.S. official telling me a short time ago that the feeling is the French, of course, are going to want to catch these perpetrators as quickly as possible and if they cannot find them right away, then the expectation obviously is the intelligence, the profile information, anything they do have on the possibility of identifying these people will be shared with united states, across Europe, possibly even with Interpol.

They are going to want to find these people as quickly as possible. For the United States this attack is something they had worried about for a long time. There had been warnings to Americans traveling in Europe about the possibility of Islamic militant attacks the U.S. has been working with France and other European countries to try to identify Islamic militants leaving Europe, leaving France in particular going to Iraq and Syria and trying to come back to Europe and possibly even the United States to carry out attacks.

Right now, the U.S. estimates there are 3,000 foreign fighters in Iraq or Syria or who tried to go there who have come from 90 countries. This is a big concern.

As Jim Bittermann has reported all morning, the French have been active in trying to track these people down, get to them before they can launch attacks in France, but today apparently something went wrong, somebody slipped through the net and we are seeing the tragic results in Paris.

CAMEROTA: Barbara, obviously, we've been covering terrorist attacks around the globe sadly for the past couple of months, but it's hard to underscore just how important this is and significant this is in France. This is the worst in decades. Are U.S. officials telling you what level of magnitude they think this means for the global fight on terror?

STARR: Well, I think they don't know that with any precision at this morning, very early on here with the intelligence here in Washington this attack apparently involves multiple gunmen, heavily armed, who had some level of planning and capability to carry this out.

These guys didn't just walk up to this office in Paris today on a whim. There was planning. There was organization. It's very clear from how they carried it out, how these people were armed and how they moved. Is there some sellout that the U.S. doesn't know about?

Let me emphasize very early on, these are all initial reports. We don't any of us have the solid information about how many people were involved, but it is looking like multiple gunmen, and that puts a very different profile on this.

CUOMO: Barbara, thank you very much for the reporting. Let us know what you're hearing down there and let's reset right now. We have major breaking news to tell you about.

Welcome to our viewers around the U.S., and around the world, Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota here on NEW DAY. We have horrible news out of Paris, France, during the lunch hour, midday, a brazen attack, 12 killed, the president of France calls it a terror attack that would make it the most deadly in two decades.