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New Day

Al Qaeda in Yemen Claims Responsibility for Paris Attack; Security Beefed Up at U.S. Airports; New Issue of Charlie Hebdo Hits Newsstands

Aired January 14, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, January 14th, 6:00 in the east. Alisyn Camerota, Michaela Pereira and Chris Cuomo here for you.

We do begin with breaking news. Yemen -- al Qaeda in Yemen, AQAP as the big group, now you have al Qaeda in Yemen specifically claiming responsibility for the deadly attack on "Charlie Hebdo." It calls the two terrorist brothers, heroes of Islam, but notes that a third attacker strike on the kosher grocery store was just a coincidence.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Now, a top commander says al Qaeda picked the target and laid out the plans for the Kouachi brothers to follow. The video message warns of more, quote, "Tragedies and terror," unquote, to come.

This as new video emerges of the two terrorists in the moments right after the massacre. We have complete coverage for you, let's begin with senior international correspondent, Nick Payton Walsh, in Beirut -- Nick.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, this video, 12 minutes in length lays out the command structure as they claim in quite detail. It refers to how the head of al Qaeda, Zawahiri, was involved in giving instructions; and the operational command was carried out by an American, a now-deceased U.S. citizen, Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed by a drone strike in 2011.

It refers to the Kouachi brothers as heroes, who were assigned, accepted and fulfilled their task; but it doesn't say, as you mentioned, that Amedy Coulibaly, who attacked the kosher grocery store, was one of those. Purely a coincidence, good fortune, they say.

What is interesting to note, that al-Awlaki, if he did mastermind this, was killed three years ago, so potentially the Kouachi brothers, whose travel back and forth to Yemen, both of them potentially -- potentially the younger using the older's passports -- has been intimated by Yemeni, U.S. and French officials, if Awlaki did mastermind this and potentially those brothers went back to France, lay dormant for three years or so before carrying out this attack.

So certainly, investigators now trying to match the claims made in this video with actual genuine connections between the brothers and their travel to Yemen. But the interesting part, too, is the fact that they don't claim Coulibaly. Coulibaly gave allegiance to ISIS after his attack in the video that we saw he recorded before he attacked the kosher grocery store. Intimations here, potentially, of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula trying to perhaps reclaim bit of the spotlight of global jihadi spotlight from ISIS, who have been much more prominent in the last year or so. A disgusting thing to be rivals over, but that's simply the nature of the global jihad movement as it stands -- Chris.

CAMEROTA: Nick, Alisyn here. One question: if the brothers -- if one of the brothers did use the other brother's passport, was that possible just because they looked alike?

WALSH: They do look comparatively similar. I mean, obviously, you have to ask yourself quite what level of scrutiny is given of border crossings, when someone does something like that. The issue being that Cherif, the younger brother may have had his passport taken from him or been under significant surveillance that he needed to use Said's passport.

Said, too, it seems, according to witnesses and officials, had made multiple trips to Yemen, beginning, potentially, in 2009. A fascinating fact here, Alisyn, when he was briefly the roommate of one of the most notorious bombers of the last decade, the underwear bomber, Omar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who tried to blow himself up at Christmas in 2009 on a plane to Detroit, Said had been to Yemen many times. Perhaps potentially that made it easier, maybe had a multi- entry visa, or it was just well-known, for Cherif to use his passport to go in.

CAMEROTA: So many dots to connect here in the aftermath. Nick Paton Walsh, thank you for all that -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right. So the new issue of "Charlie Hebdo" is on sale this morning, quickly selling out around Paris. Remember, just one week to the day after masked terrorists tried to silence this exercise of free expression.

Meanwhile, new video captures the attackers moments after the massacre at "Charlie Hebdo." The now-dead brothers are seen celebrating on the street, and that's a mere reflection of their depravity. But look at the calm. Look at the ease with the weapon and their know-how just before opening fire on police. This is a window into the threat that foreign training provides.

Let's get some more now. We have John Berman live in Paris.

Good morning, John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris, and you know, you were standing right where I am right now. And that video depicts this area just -- you know, not even 100 yards behind me. So it is eerie to see those pictures, that dramatic new view.

You also mentioned the new issue of "Charlie Hebdo" on the stands today. We went to newsstands all around the city. We couldn't get our hands on one. There are lines of 100 people at some newsstands, everyone essentially being turned away, because all the issues, all the copies were presold. There is just that much interest.

And today, more than any day I've seen yet, Chris, there is an enormous security presence on the streets. Even before the news that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula taking credit for the attacks, perhaps having to do with the release of this new copy of "Charlie Hebdo" with the Prophet Mohammed on the cover again today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN (voice-over): Chilling new video captures terrorists Cherif and Said Kouachi, moments after they carried out the horrific attack on the offices of "Charlie Hebdo." The video reveals one of the terrorists shouting, "We have avenged the Prophet Mohammed" just outside the magazine's offices.

The gunmen reload their automatic weapons before slipping into their getaway car and start driving down a narrow road. Lights flashing, a police cruiser blocks their path. The hooded gunmen get out of their car and open fire.

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI), CHAIRMAN, HOMELAND SECURITY COMMITTEE: They're cold-blooded killers. They're calm; they're cool; they're collected, and they go about their business. And that just shows you what we are up against.

BERMAN: Hours later, the brothers rob a gas station 50 miles northeast of Paris. These surveillance images show what appears to be an RPG, rocket-propelled grenade launcher, strapped to the side of one of the brothers as they steal gas and food.

DANIEL BENJAMIN, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE: The videos get scrutinized a great deal. How they held their weapons, that suggested that they'd some kind of formal training.

BERMAN: It was known that the older brother, Cherif, moved in jihadist circles. In 2008 he went on trial for his involvement in a network smuggling Islamist fighters to Iraq.

In this newly uncovered video from the moments just after his conviction, Cherif tells a reporter, quote, "We are just young kids from the suburbs. That is all. We get passionate. We talk like this, but there is nothing more."

Investigators are now taking a look at the money trail, trying to find out how the brothers financed their trips to Yemen and how the terrorists got their high-powered weapons.

SEN. RICHARD BURR (R-NC), CHAIRMAN, SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: What we've been able to accumulate over the last six days is a tremendous amount of data.

BERMAN: As the investigation continues, three million copies of "Charlie Hebdo's" new issue hit the newsstands this morning, already sold out at markets across Paris.

Prior to the release, one of the surviving cartoonists, Renald Luzier, known as Luz, held a press conference. At times, his emotions overwhelmed him. "Reflecting on the motive behind the bloodshed," Luz said, "the terrorists were once kids. They drew like us. Then one day they perhaps lost their sense of humor, perhaps their child soul."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: John Berman, stick around with us right now, because we want to bring in CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director, Tom Fuentes, to give us more analysis on everything that you've just raised, John.

Tom, let's talk about this video, the new home video that has emerged of these two gunmen in the moments -- I mean, basically this is their getaway video. Tell us as an investigator, what you see in this video as the Kouachi brothers are yelling, following the massacre?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Alisyn, you know, the appearance of that when I first saw it was that, you know, they've just shot two dozen people, killing more than half of them; and then they're out in the street basically celebrating in the end zone. Holding up their finger, one, which usually means "one god," Allah, in terrorist circles.

But calmly, reloading the one gun, checking it, you know, fixing if it has a malfunction, handing it back to the brother, who gets in the passenger side. And they gather their equipment, get in the car, start to drive.

Then they're confronted with the other police car; calmly get back out of their car, open fire, cause that car to back up, the police officer to retreat, who is severely outgunned and obviously has bullets coming through his windshield. And that squad car backs up until it backs into a car on the cross street at the end of the street. But just the cold-blooded business-like manner that they conduct themselves is chilling.

CAMEROTA: So Tom, exactly. I mean, what does this tell you, about who they are and how they were trained? Are they just hopped up on adrenaline here? Or is there more?

FUENTES: I think they're just dedicated in their mind to their cause and I think that, you know, when they get -- when these individuals get this training -- and this is the fear of the foreign fighters coming home, whether it's our country or any of the European, Canada, Australia, other countries -- the fear is that they get programmed to do something like this and, like human drones, they get dispatched. And you don't know when they're going to strike. And they don't know if it's going to be next year or three years or five years. And most services can't watch them forever.

I mean, it's coming up that this is part of a huge network that, you know, should have had more coverage. But you know, that's kind of the nature of this. I think that, you know, when you talk about connecting the dots, this goes back, it precedes ISIS. It precedes even the main body of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.

This goes back to bin Laden in the 2001 plot, which was simultaneously, as the plot was being trained and prepared for to attack us on 9/11, there was a simultaneous plot in al Qaeda units within seven European countries, including France, to bomb the U.S. embassy in Paris, the same week as our 9/11 attack and to bomb a NATO facility in Brussels and a few other sites in Europe. It was thwarted by the authorities with work together, the various intelligence services, law enforcement; the FBI was involved. In thwarting that attack.

But what happened is when the dozen arrests or so were made, it was made -- our 9/11 attack had just happened a couple days earlier. So you know, obviously no one knew in this country because of the coverage of our own 9/11 attack, but that was a huge thing.

Many of the subjects were put on trial in Belgium, in Paris, including Jamal Gamal (ph), one of the main coordinators of that. And as I recall, I don't think any of the dozen or so people convicted in the multiple countries even got more than ten years. So basically, all of these terrorists are back out.

CAMEROTA: It's -- what a context you've just given us.

John, from your time on the ground there, what have you learned about their background and what led up to this attack in terms of the money and the planning for these brothers?

BERMAN: Well, authorities here all way up to the prime minister say that, based on what they have seen, they believe that they must have had accomplices. They're talking about both the Kouachi brothers and Amedy Coulibaly, who staged that attack on the supermarket. The operational planning, the financing. A lot of focus now on where they got the money for the guns and their weaponry.

There's some disparity about how much money it would have taken. You know, I've been told by security sources here that Kalashnikov rifles, these rifles have been readily available since the wars in Yugoslavia in this part of Europe, if you knew where to get them. It could take anywhere from 500 to 1,000, to 2,000 euros to get them. But you have to get your hand on that kind of money to get them, and they apparently had quite an arsenal and quite a high level of ammunition, as well.

And the sources that I talked to, Alisyn, also point out look at the web that is being weaved right now as they trace the contacts with the various people involved in these attacks. You have the girlfriend of Amedy Coulibaly, now believed to be in Syria. She was at the border in Turkey with a man who they think may have contacts with jihadist groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Plus, you have this man we just learned about yesterday, arrested in Bulgaria, believed to have had contacts with the Kouachi brothers prior to the attacks. He was arrested there on January 1.

So you can see this web getting bigger and bigger and bigger in here. That's why the security presence has been boosted so visibly today, because they just can't rule out the possibility there could be more people in this city, in this country planning an attack.

CAMEROTA: You're so right. There are so many threads to this web, as you say. John Berman, Tom Fuentes, thanks for all that background. We'll check back in with you, John, throughout the show.

Let's go over to Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Alisyn. So you have all these different leads in terms of individuals to track down. You also have different groups to deal with. We have al Qaeda in Yemen now saying, "Paris was us."

And now you have its larger affiliate, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, referred to as AQAP, just releasing a how-to guide for making bombs, using items typically found in an ordinary kitchen. That has security at airports in the United States stepped up in a big way.

It is not known how effective additional screening will be, but one thing's for sure: it's going to cause major travel delays for millions of Americans.

Rene Marsh joins us live from Reagan National Airport with more on this.

Good morning, Rene.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

You know, at U.S. airports across the country, passengers can expect random checks that could include swabbing of the hands. They should also expect random luggage checks.

Of course, all of this could happen even after you have passed through security and have made it to the gate.

Again, we're live here at Reagan. This all comes after concerns that terror groups have the ability to essentially create hard-to-detect explosives. The heightened measures come after AQAP, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, they published in their latest issue of "Inspire" magazine, a how-to guide to make these so-called undetectable bombs using household items.

The concern is that these nonmetallic IEDs, or explosives, can get through certain airport screeners, specifically metal detectors. So here's the security concern: body scanners can detect these sort of explosives. Metal detectors cannot. The truth of the matter is, there are smaller airports that only have metal detectors.

Back to you.

CUOMO: All right, Rene, thank you very much.

Let's head over to Michaela now. A lot of other news this morning. MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. We begin with kind of a bizarre

story, breaking news. The fuselage -- oh, actually we've changed stories, pardon me. The fuselage of AirAsia Flight 8501 has been found. That's confirmed by Indonesian officials, who say they have an underwater photo. They also report they have successfully downloaded the contents of both the cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder from AirAsia Flight 8501. Officials expect a preliminary report on cause of the crash to be released in the next few weeks.

An alleged plot to kill House Speaker John Boehner by either poisoning him or shooting him. The former bartender -- a former bartender, this man, 44-year-old Michael Hoyt, is now undergoing a mental evaluation. He was indicted last week on charges that he planned to murder the speaker after being fired from his country club job back in October. We'll continue to watch that.

North Korea once again denying any involvement in that massive cyberattack at Sony. The North Korean ambassador is now demanding that the U.S. provide evidence. The White House hit North Korea with new sanctions this month after the FBI said the country hacked into the movie studio's computer system. The ambassador went on to say North Korea will participate in a joint investigation into that hacking scandal if the U.S. agrees.

All right. If you're counting on a tax refund, the IRS says you might have to wait longer to get it this year. The reason? Budget cuts. In a memo to staff, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen said people who filed paper tax returns may need to wait perhaps an extra week or even more. Same goes for filers with issues or any questions that might require more review. Now don't worry, if you're like me, if all this talk -- tax talk stresses you out. That is a bit of a silver lining. These cuts also mean fewer audits.

I mean, it's a bizarre kind of silver lining. A silver lining nonetheless.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. You found the good stuff in there.

CUOMO: They audit a very small number of people. A lot of people get refunds. You know, but the big reason for this is it takes time to go through paper, and they use software to go through the e-filings, so it's going to be much faster. I mean, I know you have to change, everybody has habits, but it's something worth thinking about.

CAMEROTA: There you go. OK, Michaela, thanks so much.

Severe weather in the forecast, freezing rain targeting the mid- Atlantic and the south, with snow in the southern Rockies making this morning's commute a mess for millions of people. Let's get the latest from meteorologist Chad Myers.

How is it looking?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, I-95 and I-64 in Virginia don't look that good. Certainly, these slick spots all the way through there. And it did have an ice event there overnight from Raleigh on up here through the triad, into the north. That's where the ice was. Here's where it's going now.

Even some light snow in D.C. Don't freak out in D.C., but you will see some flakes on the ground there. And it may be even around the Beltway, could have a slick bridge or overpass. But most of the icing event happened down here across the Carolinas, all the way from about Charlotte north of there right into Raleigh. A thin glaze of ice still possible on the roadways from north of Hampton roads, and still some snow here all the way from about Fredericksburg back over to Salisbury, Maryland.

Look at this, though. It is still 7 in Detroit; 5 in Chicago; and 18 in New York. And there's talking -- we're talking about the big warm- up. Well, here's drumroll please, the big warmer air. How much warmer? A balmy -- 35 tomorrow for you in New York. Thirty-five, that's as good as you get, and that's after the warm-up. And the snow is still in the southern Rockies, as you said.

Guys, back to you. Enjoy 35.

CAMEROTA: Wow, let's turn on the air conditioning.

PEREIRA: I don't think 35 is hot.

CAMEROTA: No, not until now.

CUOMO: Chad's effort at irony failed miserably and only now puts him on the list of those who need a snowball in the face.

PEREIRA: Oh!

CAMEROTA: Wow.

CUOMO: I'll take it.

CAMEROTA: There you go.

Well, the new issue of "Charlie Hebdo" magazine is on the newsstands. We'll tell you what's inside and what response it is getting around the world and in the Muslim community.

CUOMO: Plus, answers about AirAsia Flight 8501 are coming. The data is downloaded from both black boxes, now being analyzed. New info ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEREIRA: So the new issue of "Charlie Hebdo" magazine is on newsstands around the world this morning. The surviving cartoonists and journalists getting a big assist from the left-wing publication, "Liberation," which lent them workspace, helped to get that magazine to press. This is the most historic edition to date.

So what's in it? And what is the reaction of the world?

Let's get straight to Paris and bring in CNN senior international correspondent Arwa Damon. Also with us, Brian Stelter, CNN senior media correspondent and host of "RELIABLE SOURCES."

Brian, I'll start with you. Fresh out on shelves, we understand it sold out. I'm curious. You had a chance to look through it. What's in it and what's the reaction where you are?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: I haven't gotten a print copy, Michaela. As you said, it seems to be sold out everywhere. The newsstands I've looked around are empty. They're saying come back tomorrow, maybe get a copy then or later in the week.

But in the electronic edition that I was able to look at yesterday, this is an unapologetic magazine. This is exactly what they've been publishing for years. They have, you know, barely any boundaries, if any boundaries at all. And that means poking fun at Islam and Catholics and the pope and Mohammed all in the same page.

PEREIRA: Nobody is spared.

Really, Arwa, I'm curious what you have been hearing about international reaction. You're there in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood. What is the reaction there?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, here people are actually quite upset, because all they're seeing is the fact that the prophet is once again being used. A visual image of him once again has been created. And they're not really seeing beyond that. They still feel fairly insulted by it and aren't really looking into the fact that it was perhaps this message of forgiveness and a message of unity that was underlying the use of the prophet once again.

A lot of people we've been speaking to here -- this is a very dynamic vibrant neighborhood made up mostly of an immigrant community, mostly from North Africa, but they're tired, also, of having to justify themselves, they feel, as having to constantly defend themselves as Muslims, because minorities are out there carrying out acts of terror, allegedly in the name of Islam.

So there's still a fair amount of sentiment that they're being unfairly targeted. And also that, you know, it was perhaps unnecessary for the image of the prophet to be used once again.

PEREIRA: Here in the United States, we've heard some reaction from CAIR, a U.S. Muslim group. A peace advocate. We want to show you their reaction.

They disagree with the publication, but in a much more measured way. I think we have that full still if we can bring it up. "Just as 'Charlie Hebdo' has the right to publish, we have the right to peacefully challenge negative portrayals of our religious figures. The answer to speech one disagrees with should not be violence, but should instead be more speech promoting tolerance and mutual understanding." That's the executive director from CAIR.

Now at the same time, Arwa, we're hearing that a London-based Islamist cleric and other extremists groups have called this cover an act of war. DAMON: And it is being viewed like that by some. Because it is,

again, the depiction of an image of the Prophet Mohammed. And for a lot of Muslims, that is blasphemy.

Of course, the vast majority of Muslims' reaction is one of anger, yes. That does not mean that it is one of violence or does that mean that they desire violence.

In fact, a lot of people here that we've been talking to fail to understand why it is that there was a need to once again use the image of the prophet, because it was so provocative. Because it is so provocative at this stage. You know, even though, not far from where we are right now, at the newspaper stand, it did sell out within a few hours; 125 copies here in this neighborhood where you may not necessarily expect it.

But there is that big question out there of why, given everything that has transpired over the last few days, does the image need to be used once again?

PEREIRA: Brian, you know, interesting to note that, prior to this, this magazine was not widely distributed around the globe. Now I understand it's being published in 25 countries, in some 16 languages. Do you think that's sustainable and this could be a new norm for "Charlie Hebdo"?

STELTER: That's right. Magazine stores in my neighborhood right there where are you in New York were getting phone calls all day yesterday from people who want to buy the magazine in the United States. I think we're going to see it for days and weeks to come.

And what's different about this than -- than all other cases where there have been depictions of the Prophet Mohammed, is that we've seen many other media outlets here in France pick up the image on the cover and republish it. We've seen it on television and on newspaper stands here.

And so I do wonder if the folks that Arwa is with, if that's going to further upset and disappoint some of the people in that community. It's not just this one magazine. It's many others that are republishing it, as well. You know the question now, Michaela, is what do they do next week? What does this magazine do in the weeks and months to come? They have gotten back on their feet today.

This is a triumphant day for this provocative magazine. But will they be able to publish in the coming weeks? While they are continuing to get support from other papers and magazines here and they say they will be back out in the weeks to come.

PEREIRA: The U.S. has no plans to carry it, but we know that eBay has popped up. My producer just said he saw a copy on eBay for $560.

Our thanks to Brian Stelter, Arwa Damon. Tremendous work from both of you. Thank you -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right. We have some news on another big story that we've been covering here, the crash of AirAsia 8501. Investigators say they have the black box data. So the latest on the search for what brought down that plane is ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)