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Investigation Continues into Brussels Terror Attacks; Survivor of Terror Attacks Describes Experience; Suspected Terrorist Arrested in Paris; Two Americans Killed in Brussels Terror Attacks. Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired March 25, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: -- a glimpse of the apartment in which the Brussels attack was planned. Have a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELBAGIR: Overnight a series of anti-terror raids in several Belgian neighborhoods, all in connection with the Brussels terror attacks. In the early morning hours, investigators sealing off streets, teams in hazmat gear storming this building in Schaerbeek. Forensic experts appearing to concentrate on the third floor apartment. And in a large-scale operation, police arresting at least six people, prosecutors say, three taken into custody right outside of the prosecutor's office.

In Paris, police arresting a high-level operative in the plot. And for the first time this morning, a glimpse into the apartment where suicide bombers Khalid and Ibrahim Bahraoui and a bomb maker Najim Laachraoui plotted Tuesday's attacks. Raided by police hours after the blasts, this video was filmed just after the raids.

Fears of more extremism swirling as two unidentified suspects in the Brussels bombings remain on the loose. Belgian state media reporting surveillance video shows a second unidentified man at the Maalbeek metro station. This witness believes he may have spotted one of them.

ERIC PANIA, WITNESS TO METRO ATTACK: He was very nervous. He seemed so -- sweating. He was very nervous. And he was back and forth in the metro hall, back and forth, back and forth.

ELBAGIR: Belgian authorities under fire after admitting they had the opportunity to stop one of the airport suicide bombers. Ibrahim al Barhaoui arrested in Turkey last June.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it is justified that people asked how it is possible that someone was released early and we missed the chance when he was in Turkey to detain him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELBAGIR: The manhunt, of course, continues for those two suspects and the raids, Alisyn, they are continuing. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Nima, stand by. We'll have many

more questions for you, but we want to get to this major development in the manhunt for that terror suspect that is on the run that you've seen in that surveillance photo. U.S. officials telling CNN they know the identity of this fugitive who was caught on video just moments before the blasts at the Brussels airport. CNN Justice Reporter Evan Perez is live in Washington with more. What are your sources saying, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Alisyn. U.S. authorities believe they've identified the would-be third bomber. The scene in that photo taken from Brussels airport surveillance video. The U.S. uses techniques and intelligence resources to develop leads on that suspect who is now one of the most wanted men in the world.

Officials tell us that they believe other attacks are still in the works. They know this because information gained from electronic intercepts and informants shows suspects apparently linked to the Paris and Brussels attackers remain in hiding. During a raid of one apartment in Brussels in recent days authorities found maps indicating possible targets were being refined. However, officials say there's not enough specific information about these possible plots, which is why you see more general warnings about travel in Europe. And ISIS is known to give its operatives wide leeway in choosing targets of opportunity. Belgium lowered its terror warning yesterday, saying it believes the danger is high, but not necessarily imminent. I've got to tell you, U.S. officials were very surprised because they still have major concerns about the risk for additional attacks, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Evan, thanks very much for that. Well, French police have identified the suspects rounded up in an anti-terror raid. They say he was allegedly in the, quote, "advanced stages of plotting a terror attack." CNN has learned that he was an international fugitive linked to the ringleader of the Paris attacks. We want to bring in CNN's Jim Bittermann live in Paris with all of the latest. What do you know, Jim?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR EUROPEAN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in fact, Alisyn, that's what makes Reda Kriket so interesting to authorities here. He is definitely linked to Abdelhamid Abaaoud, who was the ringleader of the Paris attacks killed five days after those attacks in a shoot-out with police. In any case, this new suspect was basically on the wanted list. He was convicted along with Abaaoud back in July of 2015 in absentia in a Brussels court because he was part of the gang that was funneling people and money to young people going off to Iraq and Syria. He was tried in absentia, sentenced to 10 years in prison, but they never found him.

And then just yesterday they found yesterday morning in a suburb southwest of Paris, he was interrogated, and in the interrogation process he was -- he identified an apartment in northwest suburb of Paris. That apartment was raided last night. According to reports, police found and armed, maybe several weapons, as well as some bombing, explosive materiel.

[08:05:02] And so the interior minister took the unusual step of going on the air last night at about 20 minutes to 11:00 p.m. local time to say that, in fact, a major plot had been foiled. That, in fact, there was a project fairly well advanced, he said, that this suspect was involved in. We're going to hear more details we think later on today by the Paris prosecutor who's involved with terrorism investigations. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Jim. Bring us more details as you get them. Thank you.

We are now hearing for the very first time from an American missionary. He was wounded in the airport bombings. Nineteen-year- old Mason Wells is recovering from shrapnel injuries and from burns. This is emotional video right here that you're watching of Wells and his parents reuniting in the hospital. Wells was also, amazingly, at the Boston Marathon during the bombing there in 2013. He was also in France last year during the Paris attacks. He has had more than his share of terrorism and trauma. CNN international correspondent Phil Black spoke with Mason just moments ago, and he joins us now. Tell us about it, Phil.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, this is a young man with an extraordinary story to tell. Mason Wells said to me, "I've seen better days," with a heavy sense of understatement, really. He believes he was standing very close to the first blast that took place at the airport, suffered some pretty extensive injuries, burns to his face, to his arm, shrapnel to the leg, serious physical damage to one ankle. The good news is that with a bit of time, he should make something close to a very full recovery. But it's a long way away. Because of those burns, infection is a real risk. So you'll see we're going to show you some of this video now. It's definitely worth seeing. We spoke to him over the phone while in his hospital bed, and, as I say, an extraordinary tact. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MASON WELLS, SURVIVED BRUSSELS TERROR ATTACK: I was actually conscious for all of it. We tried to pull out my friends' tickets, at a small little station to go to the United States, and the machine wasn't working actually. So after working with the delta attendant, she took us to the back of the line, the check-in line. I'd actually pulled out my iPad to look at something as part of my responsibilities in the mission. And I was starting to look that up. I was looking at my iPad when the first blast went off.

It was really loud. It really came out of nowhere. The -- I wasn't expecting it. I was looking down and all of a sudden a huge blast came from my right. I think my body was actually picked up off the ground for a moment. And my iPad that was in my hands, I don't know what happened. It just disappeared. I think it might have actually hit me in the head when it got blasted out of my hands. So my watch on my left-hand just disappeared. My left shoe just was blown off, and a large part of the right side of my body got really hot and then really cold, and -- I was covered in -- a lot of, a lot of fluids, a lot of blood. And a lot of -- a lot of that blood wasn't mine.

BLACK: How close do you think you were to that initial explosion? WELLS: Within 10 or 15 meters. When the blast went off, after I had

those feelings of warm and hot, I was actually -- I saw fire in front of my face and around my body. Fire literally almost engulfed the four of us. There was fire around us from the blast.

BLACK: Do you remember the second explosion?

WELLS: I do. It took my body about a second, half a second to realize that it was a bomb that went off. And, of course, I'm sure my body was in complete physical shock. I knew that I'd been wounded. I didn't know how bad it was. I located an exit. I looked up, located an exit and started to run towards the doors that we'd came in through, and I took a couple of steps, about three seconds after the -- three or four seconds after the first blast, the second bomb went off. And I actually felt the explosion on my right side. I could feel the blast but I don't believe I was hit by anything, by any shrapnel or anything.

BLACK: As you lie there a couple of days later, I guess what are the thoughts and feelings about what you've experienced?

WELLS: I just -- I feel love for those injured. I feel so bad for -- I was so lucky. I was so lucky being how close I was.

[08:10:01] And I saw a lot of people that were injured worse. I heard a lot of people that were injured badly, and -- my only thoughts, my own feelings are just for the people that are out there. I hope that they're doing OK. I just wanted to pray for them. I've been praying for them since it happened. That's the only feeling I have is I hope they're OK, because I'm very lucky, and I know that there were maybe some that were not as lucky as I was.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACK: So he experienced it in a very, at very close range. And you can see he remembers it in such vivid detail. You can understand why Mason Wells says he feels that lucky. The other people who are feeling pretty fortunate right now are his parents, Kimberly and Chad, who flew from the United States to be reunited with him.

I spoke to them about that moment, he first time they walked in to that hospital room and saw him lying there on the bed. It was the first time they had seen him in almost two years. That's how long he's been in Europe working as a missionary for the Mormon Church. They said that moment for all of the emotion was incredibly comforting because they could see him, they could touch him, they could see that he was OK, and I think that ultimately he was the one that them, despite his physical state, despite the nature of his injuries, so really an extraordinary story, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Oh, Phil, and what an extraordinary young man. And to just hear the gratitude that he has despite all of his terrible injuries that he is grateful to be alive today. Phil, thanks so much for bringing us that story.

We have a lot to talk about now. So joining me are our CNN senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward, also Nima Elbagir is here, and CNN terror analyst Paul Cruickshank. Paul, I want to start with you because I understand you have some new information. You've learned about explosives used here in Brussels and other connections?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERROR ANALYST: That is correct, Alisyn. And the new information is that TATP, the same explosive they've used in the Paris and Brussels attacks, was discovered in that raid in Paris last night, in a suburb of Paris, when they arrested Reda Kriket, who is a known associate of Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the ringleader of the Paris attacks, somebody who himself traveled to Syria in the final months of 2014, somebody believed to have joins ISIS. There are many other members of that network that went from Belgium including Abaaoud, they've joined ISIS. So much an ISIS connection and also a direct connection to the ringleader of the Paris attacks in that individual arrested in Paris last night.

The French interior minister saying he was in advanced stages of a plot to launch some kind of attack. So there does appear to be now a connection between the arrest in Paris last night and the overall ISIS network in Europe, and to the ringleader himself of the Paris attacks, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Paul, a bit more new information that we understand you have. We've heard about the arrests in Brussels last night. We've heard about the arrests in Paris last night. There were also arrests connected to this attack in Germany?

CRUICKSHANK: That is correct. There were two arrests yesterday, we understand, in Germany. One in Giessen, one in Dusseldorf. We're developing more information of that. One of those arrests, though, does appear to be a key arrest, a very significant development in Germany. We'll have more very soon for you.

CAMEROTA: OK. Clarissa, I want to bring you in. This is all very important stuff. For as ill-prepared as the Belgium authorities may have been before the Brussels attacks, it sure seems like they're connecting the dots now between Paris arrests, Germany, the spider-web of where they're now arresting people, all connected to these Brussels attacks, seems like they have sped that up.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And it seems like the one overarching theme here is that so many of these young men spent time in Syria. And this is crucial because this is the moment where these guys go from being petty thugs to hardened terrorists. This is where they are learning to operate heavy machine guns. It's where they're learning to build bombs.

And what's been alarming watching this is we hear over and over again the families have gone to the police. They've said that their sons or their brothers have gone to Syria, that they've become radicalized. And yet authorities not just in Belgium but across the whole continent of Europe do not seem yet to have a mechanism for trying to track when these young men return to Belgium.

[08:15:02] This is challenging the very tenants (ph) of European liberal open border society, and it's raising some fundamental questions about how to keep Europe safe and preserve its values, but also to make sure that everyone knows when these young men are coming back to Europe, because you can be sure it's, you know, it could mean bad things ahead when they come back.

CAMEROTA: And of course, there's always the question after these attacks, are they unsophisticated or are they sophisticated and complicated? And when you hear Paul report that the same TATP fingerprints were found in Paris as were here and that some had gone to Syria, then it seams as though, well, obviously it's much more sophisticated than originally thought.

ELBAGIR: Well, TATP on it's own isn't that sophisticated, and we saw that in the Paris attacks and in the Stade de France which is where they found Najim Laachraoui, the suspected bomb maker's, DNA on the suicide belt. Only one person was killed in that attack.

But what we saw in the airport attack was an evolution of his skill set, that clearly he had learned about how to cut it with something, and that's what authorities are going to be looking for, that TATP that they found in Paris. I promise you they will be trying to see what else was found alongside it because that is the signature of the bomb maker. And they'll be able to link, is it the same person who made the bombs in the airport that was attempting to make the bombs in Paris, and that will close the ring of the network for them.

So, this isn't that difficult. We sometimes methologize (ph) these people a little bit, and we speak about Najim Laachraoui as - as they bomb maker, that doesn't make him a mastermind, it just makes him someone who has a working understanding of chemistry. In fact, he had an electromechanical degree. And that was kind of when he was drawn into that ring with the criminality, with the propensity of violence. He suddenly becomes a very valuable operative.

CAMEROTA: That's excellent context. Nima, Clarissa, thank you for all of that. We do have more breaking news, because Secretary of State John Kerry will be sitting down with our Erin Burnett momentarily, talking about the terror attacks after we had just learned this morning the sad news that two Americans are confirmed dead. We'll bring you that momentarily. NEW DAY will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:20:42] CAMEROTA: Welcome back to NEW DAY. I am live in Brussels where we received the sad confirmation this morning that two Americans are among the dead in Tuesday's terror attacks here in Brussels. Secretary of State John Kerry just spoke with our Erin Burnett. She started by asking him if America was targeted in these attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KERRY, UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE: I think it's an attack on America, it's an attack on Europe, it's an attack on civilized people in countries all around the world. It's an attack on people who weren't even here and who weren't killed, because it is an attack on everybody's ability to move freely, to live without fear, and that's what the terrorists want. And that is precisely why we have to continue as we are to go after Daesh with full determination to destroy them, and I am confident we are going to.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The - you've put out a warning about near term attacks and the concern of that. We know here in Belgium they're worried about there's people on the run, they're worried about more cells, they're worried about more attacks. Do you have knowledge of what those attacks might be?

KERRY: I don't personally, I think there are strands of intelligence here and there, which we wouldn't talk about publicly anyway at this point. But the point is, we know that there are foreign fighters who have returned from Syria over a span now of about five years, and they are in various places in the world. Loads of countries, America included, by the way, we've had some 500 Americans who have chosen to go to Syria and fight with Daesh over the course of the last years. And so, that is the reason for people being vigilant and for being alert and that's the reason for travel advisories and restraints.

BURNETT: You talk about people going to Syria. I spoke to the brother of the bomb maker yesterday. He said the family had told the Belgians when he went to Syria in 2013. The Belgians did not follow up with them. I spoke to a young man yesterday, he has 10 to 15 friends who are in Syria right now with ISIS, he said to me, I'll quote, "If I want to go tomorrow, I can go. You can call the police. They don't care." Many of these young men's ultimate goal is to attack America. Could this kind of thing happen in the U.S.?

KERRY: Well, it did, in San Bernardino. I mean, we saw somebody come back, radicalized, and go on a killing spree. So everybody understands that any of these foreign fighters who have come back still attached to Daesh. Now, many people have left Daesh, recognizing that it was a lie, that all of the things they'd been told were lies.

Some of those people who tried to get away were executed. Others managed to get away, and they've come back to tell the story of the lie. So we don't know how many people precisely there are who have filtered their way back in, but I believe very deeply that as we put additional pressure on Daesh in Syria and Iraq, it is entirely possible that in some other part of the world people will lash out out of desperation.

BURNETT: But are you concerned about attacks on American airports, American metro stations, attacks like the ones we've seen here, which intelligence is now saying are linked to ISIS headquarters?

KERRY: Erin, let me - let me...

BURNETT: Which is a different profile than San Bernardino.

KERRY: Let me put it to you this way, law enforcement and intelligence community, people have to get it right to prevent an attack. Every minute of every day, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 day a year.

If somebody wakes up one morning in their apartment and decides they want to go out and kill themselves and take some people with them, they can most likely find a place on a subway, on a bus, in a market somewhere to do it, unfortunately. So it is a very, you know, this is a difficult challenge, and frankly, it's quite remarkable that our law enforcement community, our intelligence community, our police, have done as good a job as they have done of protecting us here both in America as well as in other parts of the world.

[08:25:06] Now, that doesn't excuse one single event. When it happens, everybody's focused on it with the intensity that we see here in Belgium right now, but I am convinced that we are slowly and steadily deteriorating Daesh's ability to recruit, its ability to prosecute its nihilistic, you know, ideology and over time we are going to get back to a world where we feel that we can travel with impunity and feel safe.

BURNETT: So, what about the young men here, though, the young men I spoke to that say they know so many people going to ISIS? And I said, why aren't - why didn't you go? He said, well, I have a brain but I understand why they go. They're still going.

KERRY: There are some who have gone, but there are less going and they're less able to go today. And as Daesh continues to get beaten, as its leadership continues to be decimated, I believe the attraction is going to be reduced, and I think you will see a lot fewer people believing that is a narrative worth associating with or putting your life on the line for.

BURNETT: And will ISIS still be a threat when you leave?

KERRY: Well, I think - I think this, I think that we are going to put a huge dent in them in the course of this year, there's no question in my mind. But it is going to take a number of years, probably, to reduce the impact of the ideology of the -- of people who will continue to carry an anger or a willingness to engage in some kind of act individually as a lone entity.

And even though we destroyed the core of Al Qaeda, and we did, Al Qaeda disbursed, there are Al Qaeda operatives out there who continue to represent a threat, but they don't represent a complete shredding of the fabric of your life. And that's what we've been fighting with respect to Daesh, because if you left Daesh unattended to and you didn't go after them, the results would be absolutely devastating and I think people have come to that conclusion, which is why there isn't one single country anywhere that supports Daesh.

Daesh is isolated, and that's why I can say to you with such confidence we will destroy it, because every country in the region that surrounds it is opposed to Daesh. And the sooner we can deal with Assad and his presence in Syria, the sooner we will have an ability to go after Daesh and ultimately deliver on the promise I've just made.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Secretary Kerry telling Erin Burnett that the U.S. intelligence community and law enforcement community has done remarkable work, and they are willing to share that talent with European and Belgian officials.

Meanwhile, European officials say that ISIS has more terror plans in store, so we're talking to a leading lawmaker about the threat to the U.S., next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)