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AQAP Claims Responsibility for Paris Attacks; New Video of Terrorists in Gun Battle with Police; GOP Prepares Votes to Block Immigration Orders

Aired January 14, 2015 - 07:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Let's begin our coverage with Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

Good morning, Barbara.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

The al Qaeda official on the tape is a key figure in al Qaeda in Yemen. As you say, he claims that it was al Qaeda that quote chose the target, laid the plan, financed the operation. He makes an interesting turn here, though. He suggests that it was Ayman al- Zawahiri, the leader of al Qaeda back in Pakistan, close associate of Osama bin Laden, that basically ordered the strategic attack, the high level attack on the cartoonists.

But it was Anwar al-Awlaki, who's been dead since 2011, who basically, on the ground in Yemen, ordered the attack. This is very interesting, because it's now believed that the younger brother, Cherif Kouachi, met with Awlaki when he traveled to Yemen in 2011. It is also believed it was al Qaeda in Yemen that largely financed, provided the money for the brothers, for the attack.

But why is this so important? This is a claim by al Qaeda. The intelligence community needs to find out if it is actually true. Because it goes to the point that al Qaeda in Yemen still, despite years of U.S. drone attacks, has the ability to organize, plan and carry out a very significant terrorist attack, that they would have the command and control to carry this out.

And right now, it is only al Qaeda in Yemen that has the ability to build and place, put in place, potentially, bombs that can get through U.S. airport screening, European airport screening. That ability to potentially put a bomb on an aircraft is what makes al Qaeda in Yemen one of the top threats that the U.S. feels it's dealing with. So figuring out what exactly their role was in Paris, now a top priority -- Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Absolutely. Chilling possibilities there. Barbara Starr, thank you.

"Charlie Hebdo" releasing three million copies of its magazine around the world exactly one week after masked terrorists stormed its office and slaughtered 12 people. This all comes as disturbing new video emerges of the Kouachi brothers holding a twisted celebration in the street moments after that massacre.

For the latest, let's get to John Berman. He is live for us in Paris. Good morning, John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

And you know, the chilling video you're just referencing, it was shot right here behind me on the street right behind me. It is dramatic. And as you say, extraordinarily chilling.

And it's being released right now as the security presence in Paris is greater than it has been to date. Ten thousand troops, 8,000 police on the street. One of the things they are concerned about today is the release of the new issue of "Charlie Hebdo." It hit the stands this morning. And everywhere we went, it was already sold out.

(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)

BERMAN: An interesting development this morning. We just learned from French officials, they say that dozens of people here have been detained for condoning or defending terrorism. It's against the law in France to speak out against [SIC] terrorism, and if convicted, it could bring a sentence of anywhere from 18 months to seven years. So dozens detained, including a very famous French comic, Chris, Dieudonne.

CUOMO: We've been watching that, John. Thank you very much.

And obviously, what's happening over where you are is having a lot of influence on what's happening right here.

So let's bring in Representative Jim Hines, a Democrat from Connecticut, a member of the House Intelligence Committee.

Congressman, thank you very much for joining us. Because of this new bomb video, because of what's going on in Paris, do we have any specific information of any threats here in the United States? Any information about connections to these terrorists brothers? U.S. people who had traveled abroad? What are we learning about our connection to anything happening there?

REP. JIM HINES (D), CONNECTICUT: Well, Chris, at this point there's no, as other officials have said, there's no specific threat to the United States. But that, of course, does not mean that we don't remain enormously vigilant.

You know, one of the things that we see in these situations is that, from time to time, there are copycat acts. But to answer your question, no, at this point there is no specific and credible threat against targets in the United States.

CUOMO: Yes, because the early word from U.S. intel was, you know, this -- these brothers, these actors, this is a one-off, this is a French thing. Then they wound up being on a U.S. no-fly list. That's why I'm asking it again.

Are we sure that you don't have members of the United States who may be back here now, who are somehow involved of this foreign training and loosely organized cell that we're seeing uncovered in Paris?

HINES: Yes, yes, of course we're not sure. You know, in fact this is one of the things that makes terrorism so challenging. Of course we're not sure. We can never be sure that there aren't people in our cities who are in some way, shape or form related. That perhaps aren't related, but were inspired by Anwar al-Awlaki, who seems to have, at least in my opinion, played some role in inspiring these guys. So no, unfortunately in this, in this game one can never be sure.

But on the other hand, you know, from time to time you do get indications that there are possible attacks under way. We're not in that mode. But of course, you cannot be sure that there aren't somebody who, you know, perhaps trained with these guys or maybe just simply never met these guys, and has never been to Yemen or anywhere else, but gets inspired and gets motivated by what in their twisted way they would consider the success of this act in Paris.

CUOMO: All right, Congressman, I'm going to circle back to terror. But we have a responsibility to address something that's going to have an impact here domestically. Let's put up Speaker Boehner's statement, please, about immigration.

All right. There's going to be a bill that's coming. It's going to include amendments to stop the president's unilateral actions on immigration. And the speaker reminded the president that he himself had stated publicly many times in the past that he did not have the power to rewrite immigration law through executive action.

Now, as you know, the president's response to that has been, yes, so pass a bill. But that doesn't really work legally, and it hasn't really worked politically. What is your position in terms of whether or not executive action is the way to go there? And if not, what's the alternative?

HINES: Well, my position is, it's a real shame that we find ourselves in a world where executive action was necessary to try to move our immigration system to something much more sane, and something we all would consider sort of more reflective of our values.

Look, the, Senate, 500, 600 days ago passed a bill with very strong bipartisan support that had money for the border, that had a mechanism for over a lengthy period of time and with a lot of penalties for people who are here illegally to make themselves right with the law, and it never came up in the House, despite very strong bipartisan support in the Senate. We don't need to be here.

CUOMO: But Congressman, you are here in part because the president did something that is now allowing Speaker Boehner to focus on what he did instead of focusing on immigration. Because he has apparently high ground on having used executive action to do something that the president himself admitted he shouldn't be doing by executive action. So the distraction has now become the entire situation.

HINES: Let's be clear about what the president said he couldn't do. The president said he couldn't rewrite immigration law. And technically and legally, that is correct.

What the president has done, after waiting well more than a year for something that has strong bipartisan support in the Senate. The president has said this is an urgent problem, and within the law, I'm going to act with prosecutorial discretion, you know, which is a time- tested concept everywhere, including within the Oval Office, I'm going to act to try to make the situation better.

Now, it's pretty clear from anybody who's looked at the actual law behind the room that the president has to exercise his discretion, that this was a legal exercise of that discretion. Now, if the Republicans don't agree with that, what they've offered up is something just -- I've got to tell you, I scratch my head on it. You know, it is so far beyond what I think most Americans think is the right thing to do.

I mean, for example, Chris, you know, the president's DACA authority. This was the DREAMers, the kids who, you know, came here at age 1 or 2 or 3, know no other country. The Blackburn Amendment, which is coming to come before the House today, would basically eliminate that. So these 600,000 kids, you know, many of them are kids who are in college or in the military, who have come forward and said, "Fine, I'll take your deal. I will stay employed. I will pay my taxes. I will stay right with the law." Now all of a sudden the Blackburn Amendment on the floor of the House today would say, "Whoops, sorry, we were just kidding. One and a half years from now you're going to be at risk, even though you're working today or in the university today, of having an armed individual show up at your door and send you to a country you may never have been to."

CUOMO: That's why -- that's why the merits of the debate can't be gotten to quickly enough. And that's why this executive action now is being criticized as having been a distraction.

But let's leave that issue there. Because again, we need to see that debate play out so the American people can make decisions about where they are on it.

Let's go back to the war on terror. A couple of points of where we are in terms of awareness, the State Department, the White House, they seem to be wrestling, all right, and that's putting it gently, with how to define who is committing acts of terror. They don't seem to want to say Islamic extremists or Islamists.

Why? Why are you getting caught up in vernacular in a situation that seems very clear? The people committing the acts of terror are Muslims. How they pervert the faith, that's all something else. But why hide from that? It seems like PC run amok. Another distraction.

HINES: You know, look, why do you want to be a little careful about that? The reason you want to be a little careful about that is, No. 1, the single-biggest group of victims of Islamic terror around the world are, in fact, other Muslims.

And therefore, Chris, of course, one of the very best allies we can have, and by the way, that we absolutely need to have, is the support of Muslims, the vast majority of Muslims. And of course, Muslim countries and Muslim leaders who regard these terrorists as absolutely appalling and who will be our allies.

So if we're not a little careful about the language we use, if we just condemn an entire religion. If we condemn entire countries, it's going to be very hard for us to then work with those people in an alliance against what is a tiny fraction of extremists in that religion. You've got to be careful.

CUOMO: Yes, yes, 1.6 -- 1.62 billion Muslims. A very small fraction wind up perverting the religion and do something else. But that doesn't make the terrorists not Muslims. It makes them bad Muslims. It makes them ignorant Muslims, misinformed Muslims. But when you hide from the term "Islam," you are feeding people's paranoia about Islam, as well. I think you wind up being -- you're defeating your own intentions.

HINES: Well, look, you know, I saw a quote the other day. Somebody said, you know, when there's this many bad apples, there is a problem in the orchard. And you know, to some extent, I think that that's right. Clearly there is some warped segment within Islam that is inspiring people to do this.

But you know, and there's -- it makes no sense at all to sort of deny that fact. And frankly, look, if I were a Muslim cleric, if I were a Muslim leader, I would be sitting back and thinking to myself, my God, what has happened in this little corner of my religion that has allowed people to hijack it in this way. That's, I think, soul searching that needs to happen.

By the way, we should demand of moderates and thoughtful Islamic leaders that they stand up and very clearly condemn this stuff and that they have that soul-searching.

But look, when a guy like me or the president of the United States demands that of another religion, you know that it looks at moderates who maybe do condemn this stuff and say, "What the heck is wrong with you people?" That's not a constructive dialogue, you know, that is going to urge both the alliance we need in fighting these terrorists, but also urge the sort of soul-searching that I do think needs to happen amongst the leadership within that -- within that religion.

CUOMO: Congressman Jim Hines, thank you very much for coming on NEW DAY. Look forward to continuing the conversation.

HINES: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Mick, over to you.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thirteen minutes past the hour here's a look at your headlines, beginning with breaking news. An official in charge of the search-and-rescue efforts for AirAsia Flight 8501 says the plane fuselage, the main body of the plane, has been found. And this is photographic evidence of it at the bottom of the Java Sea. It's hard to make out, but you can see the wings still attached there. This as Indonesian transportation officials say they have successfully downloaded the contents from both the plane's cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder.

A plot uncovered. An Ohio country club bartender stands accused of plotting to kill John Boehner, the House speaker, by either poisoning or shooting him. Forty-four-year-old Michael Hoyt is now undergoing a mental evaluation. He was indicted last week on charges that he planned to murder Boehner after being fired from his country club job in October.

A former Mexico mayor has been charged in the kidnapping of 43 students. Prosecutors have obtained an arrest warrant for Jose Luis Abarca and 44 others in connection with last September's abduction of those students. Those students were allegedly detained by corrupt police working with a local gang, a drug gang in Iguala. Authorities have maintained that the mayor and his wife were the masterminds behind the disappearance of those students.

A New York City college student is lucky to be alive, meanwhile after falling off her roof during a party. Incredibly, 23-year-old Bailey Slattery became wedged in kind of quite a tight space between two buildings in Brooklyn, keeping her from falling four stories to the ground. Firefighters were able to rescue her from that tight space. The young woman suffered a broken leg. Unfortunately, now she has another problem. Apparently, the landlord wants to evict her and her roommate.

CAMEROTA: She's lucky to be alive.

PEREIRA: Very lucky.

CUOMO: What are the chances?

PEREIRA: I just can't even -- crazy, crazy story. Quite a tale to tell.

CAMEROTA: That's scary.

All right. What does the video of "Charlie Hebdo" gunmen moments after the massacre tell investigators? Our experts are here to analyze it.

CUOMO: Some say -- different story. There she is, Hillary Clinton. Some say she may not run, by the way. They say it's not a fait accompli, to play on some French. However, high-profile moves behind the scenes may be saying something else. John King will tell what you those moves are and explain their implications on "Inside Politics."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Chilling new video to show you of the Kouachi brothers moments after they murdered 12 people at "Charlie Hebdo" newspaper. The brothers can be seen checking their weapons before engaging in a gunfight with police.

And breaking news this morning: We're getting yet another video from al Qaeda, this one claiming responsibility for the massacre in Paris last week. Here to analyze all of this is CNN terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank

and CNN national security commentator, and former House intelligence committee member, Mike Rogers. Gentlemen, thanks so much for being here.

Paul, let's start with the breaking news: the claim of responsibility from AQAP. What do you see?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: This is an absolutely key development. A claim of responsibility from a senior military strategist in AQAP. One of their two key official spokesmen, Ali bin Nasser al-Ansi, and he's saying the group was not only responsible for the attack, but they chose the target, that they funded this; that Anwar al-Awlaki, the American terrorist cleric, met with one of these brothers, handled him and persuaded him to return to France to launch this attack.

So a key new claim of responsibility from the group. They're saying that the leader of al Qaeda overall, Ayman al-Zawahiri, provided the overall strategic direction to launch this attack.

CAMEROTA: We're only showing stills from this video. We don't want to air their propaganda. What took them so long to claim responsibility?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, it takes them a few days to sort of get the message out there, in hiding from the drones in the tribal areas of Yemen. And they've not yet offered proof that they were responsible for this attack. There's no martyrdom video, for example, from the brother. With the Abdulmutallab operation, the underwear plot in 2009, it took them four months to put that out, so it may come out in the future, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Mike, when something like this, a claim of responsibility, comes in and the House Intelligence Committee gets a hold of it, where do you begin?

MIKE ROGERS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY COMMENTATOR: Well, for a couple of things. The intelligence community itself will have to go back and review if this particular individual was at a training camp; and obviously, many believe that he was. Where was it? Did they know about it? Was there something else, some other action they could have taken to stop this event, No. 1? They'll go through that after-action review. And that will be very, very important, because that may lead to a policy change in how they handle activities in a place like Yemen.

What the intelligence community do is just try to evaluate going forward, do we have the right resources applied to the problem here?

And this is very, very interesting. Because we have seen a threat stream that, for at least six or seven months, that said that AQAP was trying to plan an attack somewhere in the west, primarily Europe but not necessarily excluding the United States. Some believed in the intelligence community it would be a bigger event. This is a fundamental shift for them. If, in fact, that Zawahiri did,

in fact, say, "We want some level of attacks, even if it isn't as spectacular as a 9/11 attack, to move forward." That means that the game has changed a little bit for both law enforcement and intelligence services in how they push back and try to defeat and disrupt these type of attacks.

CAMEROTA: That's interesting.

Paul, let's talk for a moment about the female accomplice, the one who went through Istanbul before the attack happened. Are you expecting to see some communication or video from her?

CRUICKSHANK: It's quite possible. Hayat Boumeddiene is now suspected of being in Syria. ISIS or another group, maybe Nusra, will roll out the red carpet for her when she arrives. They could make a lot of propaganda. She may have extra videotapes of responsibility from her boyfriend, or partner, Amedy Coulibaly.

Interestingly, AQAP is saying that Coulibaly was not part of AQAP, that he joined in with the AQAP operatives, the brothers, in this attack, and it was their good fortune, AQAP, that he did that.

CAMEROTA: Meaning he was an opportunist?

CRUICKSHANK: He was an opportunist. But he was a friend of these brothers for half a decade. So it seems that perhaps that the brothers recruited him into the operation themselves, rather than AQAP.

CAMEROTA: Mike, let's talk about this home video showing the moments of these brothers, the Kouachi brothers, immediately after the attack at "Charlie Hebdo" as they were getting away. I want you to help us analyze what you see here as you look at this, some say, triumphant video of them.

He's yelling there, Mike. We have -- he's yelling there, Mike, that "We have avenged the Prophet Mohammed," and he has his finger in the air. In other words, he's not concerned that people are taping him. He knows that there are people on the rooftops who have seen this. What do you see when you look at this?

ROGERS: Well, a couple of things. And one of the analytical processes they'll have to go through is did they actually believe that they were going to be killed during the course of the operation? And it's not inconsistent with other attacks where you would have this expression of their faith and why they committed those horrific acts of violence here. So that is not inconsistent with other attacks that we see.

You have to ask the question, I mean, they're clearly -- they're rearming themselves. They understand that they're going to depart the area. So was this a martyr operation? Or was it an operation in which they hoped to repeat again somewhere else? And that's what I think there's a lot of questions in this investigation will have to get there. And again, you have to ask in the subsequent footage of this film when

it engages in the police, the police were absolutely outgunned in this particular fight. So I think the police officer was prudent by moving his vehicle back. He's getting attacked by two assault weapons. He had a pistol, basically, to defend himself.

The French police, the French government, French policy is going to have to ask themselves. Now we have a new level of armed terrorists in the country. And obviously, even the third fellow there had weapons, more weapons, more machine guns, bombs in his apartment. The one that took over the coffee shop. And so they've got a new level of violence that they're just not quite used to seeing in France.

So you've got two problems there. One you can see that they were clearly trained. They were very, very committed. They engaged the police officer together. All of that denotes training. And they were very, very well-armed. This is a whole new policy discussion that the French police are going to have to have. You can't send these folks out there with a pistol...

CAMEROTA: Yes.

ROGERS: ... against guys with assault weapons and bombs. This is going to be a very interesting few months for policy-makers in France.

CAMEROTA: Even here at home. U.S. officials, the Pentagon, Barbara Starr was just reporting that the Pentagon characterizes that attack as, quote, "very sophisticated."

You study videos like this, Paul. When you look at something like this, do you start to try to figure out what the source was? What are the clues that you see in this video?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, they're trained; they're disciplined. They have enormous firepower. I mean, they don't just have Kalashnikovs. These guys had an M-82 rocket launcher.

So the question is going to be, what were they going to do with that M-82 rocket launcher? Quite fortunate they didn't use that rocket launcher on the streets of Paris. This is an unprecedentedly well- armed group. We've never seen an act of urban terrorism on anything like this level with these kind of heavy weapons on a street of a major western capital.

There will be a lot of questions. Where did they get these weapons from? Could other co-conspirators still be out there and have access to these kind of really powerful weapons?

CAMEROTA: Paul Cruickshank, Mike Rogers, thank you so much for the analysis.

Let's go over to Chris.

CUOMO: So on the presidential intrigue side, Elizabeth Warren has shut the door on a presidential run. But guess what? A bunch of really motivated people are kicking it back open for her. John King has more on that on "Inside Politics."

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