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New Day

ISIS Suspects Revealed; CNN Special Reports on Clinton and Trump. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired September 05, 2016 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00] CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Make it through and start moving steadily north toward their target. But Haddadi and Usman's fake Syrian passports are discovered. They're arrested and their money is taken. They're held in Greece for about a month. Greek officials would not say why they were released, but authorities believe that delay was significant. They would not have a chance to become part of the Paris attacks.

Haddadi tells investigators they contact their ISIS handler, Abu Ahmed, who arranges another 2,000 euros for them. Flush with cash, the pair continue along the refugee route. As they work their way across Europe, Usman, identified by investigators as a bomb maker from a Pakistani terror group, passes the hours doing something strikingly un-Islamic, looking at porn. Documents show he visited almost two dozen porn sites on his phones.

November 14th, the day after the Paris attacks, Haddadi and Usman arrive in Salzburg, Austria. They apply for asylum and end up in this refugee center, where they stay for weeks.

WARD (on camera): According to CNN sources, authorities now believe that Haddadi and Usman were not only part of the same terror cell as the Paris bombers, but also that they were planning another attack. The documents show that they were in contact with people in several European countries and were researching travel to France.

WARD (voice-over): Investigators believe they were waiting for a third man to join them, a mysterious ISIS operative called Abid Tabaouni. Tabaouni has never been publicly named until now. Like Usman and Haddadi, he traveled from Syria along the refugee route carrying a phone number linked to the terror cell of the ring leader of the Paris attacks, according to the documents, as well as a photo of Islamic State fighters standing before their flag.

December 10th, nearly a month after the Paris attacks, Tabaouni finally arrives at the refugee center where Usman and Haddadi are. Later, the very same day, police raid the center. Usman and Haddadi are arrested. Here's what happened next according to the documents. In the scramble, Haddadi tries successfully to get rid of his SIM card. Tabaouni is nowhere to be seen. Haddadi denies knowing him, but investigators find this, Tabaouni's cell phone charging right beside Haddadi's bed. It has Haddadi's phone number saved in it. Also in that phone, a photo taken just 30 minutes before the raid that shows Tabaouni sitting on a bed in the refugee center right next to where Haddadi and Usman slept. JEAN-CHARLES BRISARD, FRENCH CENTER FOR ANALYSIS OF TERRORISM: We can assume that Tabaouni was also part of the same plot and was instructed to carry out an attack.

WARD: From the time he slipped away last December, Tabaouni has been a wanted man, according to CNN sources, who also confirm he was finally arrested in July. The documents show this is the FaceBook page Tabaouni had on his phone. And in recent months, it appears he was publicly posting updates from Belgium.

Investigators are now analyzing 1,600 pages of data from his phone, and sources tell CNN they are moving to extradite him to Austria and to tie him to Haddadi and Usman and the Paris attackers.

WARD (on camera): Are you concerned that there may be many others who use the same route that we just -- who you just didn't know about?

BRISARD: Yes, we've seen that in the recent weeks. Several of them, individuals who carry out individual attacks, inspired attacks, were coming back from -- from Syria using this same route.

WARD: So there's a possibility that there are many more that you just don't know about?

BRISARD: There is a high possibility.

WARD (voice-over): The documents show Haddadi's phone has also proven to be a treasure trove for investigators, revealing an ISIS network that fanned out through southern and northern Europe. He had dozens of contacts. Some gave advise on crossing borders and evading the law. One tells Haddadi that he was able to sneak into France by hiding in the bathroom of a train.

December 15th, five days after the raid, ISIS handler Abu Ahmed reaches out to his operatives, Haddadi and Usman, perhaps wondering about their silence. "How are you?," he writes. "What's become of you?" There is no reply.

Clarissa Ward, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, a couple of updates to Clarissa's report there. The two ISIS operatives, Haddadi and Usman, were extradited to France according to sources, though no European officials will discuss their case on the record. And the Belgium prosecutors office tells CNN that that third man, who was on the loose for all of those months, Abid Tabaouni, is awaiting extradition to Austria.

[08:34:52] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's a remarkable report. So much information there. So much new information. We're going to have much more on this exclusive. Clarissa Ward and CNN terror analyst Paul Cruickshank join us next to talk about the investigation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BERMAN: CNN has obtained tens of thousands of pages of documents in the investigation into the ISIS attack in Paris last November. You just saw Clarissa Ward's report on this extraordinary new information. Clarissa joins us now, along with CNN terrorism analyst and editor in chief of the "CDC Sentinel," Paul Cruickshank.

Clarissa, first of all, remarkable reporting there. So much detail. And you talk about these three men who are now in various stages being turned over to different authorities right now. What's the sense of how many more there might be directly connected to them? Was it just these three?

WARD: Well, that's the thing that was so unnerving about working on this story. There was a team of about five of us who spent months pouring over tens of thousands of pages of documents, most of them in French and other languages. And what you realize is that while we have chosen to focus on these three men in our report, the network is clearly much wider.

So we know now that the two men, Adel Haddadi and Muhammad Usman have been extradited to France. We know that Abid Tabaouni, who was on the loose until July, believed to have been in Belgium, is now awaiting extradition to Austria.

[08:40:12] But there are other men that we didn't get a chance to put into this piece. At least two men who were arrested in the refugee center along with Haddadi and Usman. One of them was the man who Haddadi tried to hand off his SIM card to. we also know that Haddadi, though his cell phone records and according to these documents was communicating with dozens and dozens of people, one of whom, John, was believed to be a senior technician at a nuclear research center. French police reportedly put out immediate observation on this man after discovering that he was in contact with Haddadi, that Haddadi had a photograph of him on his phone. And one Belgian source told me that there are at least 30 to 40 individuals who are directly involved with the network that facilitated the Paris attacks who are still at large.

CAMEROTA: Oh, it's all such chilling stuff, Clarissa, that you've learned.

And, Paul, when you've looked through these thousands and thousands of pages, what are the headlines to you?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: That ISIS has set up an intricate system to steer operatives all the way to launch attacks. That they're using encryption to communicate with them, to organize their logistics, every step of the way. This is sort of terrorism by remote control run by senior ISIS operatives in Syria and Iraq and they're flooding the system right now. The European counterterrorism officials very concerned about what comes next.

BERMAN: Clarissa, a lot has happened on the ground in Syria and Iraq since last November when these attacks were carried out, since these men, you know, tried to get to Paris to do this. You have you learned about what future plans might be in the works, or what does this tell you about what ISIS intends to do on the future?

WARD: Well, I think what was most interesting here was learning about this third man Abid Tabaouni, who has never before been named publicly, who was just arrested in July after being on the loose in Europe for some six months. And we know that he took the same refugee route, traveling from Syria into Turkey, then across to Greece, making his way across Europe until he was able to get to Salzburg and then ultimately he went on to Belgium. And what's interesting, though, is that he actually left Syria after the Paris attacks had happened. And this tells you that the men who are -- the ISIS operatives who were exploiting this refugee route were not only those who were directly involved with the ISIS attacks and it also tells you that European authorities have a real situation on their hands trying to identify all those people who they might not know about yet. Abid Tabaouni is Moroccan national. He's not a European national. Same with Haddadi and Usman. None of these were European nationals. They were from various other countries, exploiting the refugee route. And you heard in that exchange with -- between myself and Jean-Charles Brisard, who's a terrorism analyst based in France, that what this really -- the chilling question that this raises is, how many others were able successfully to exploit this refugee route, to embed themselves in various European countries, to plan who knows what.

CAMEROTA: I mean of course that topic has come up in our U.S. presidential elections about just how vulnerable the refugee route is. What do these documents tell us about what officials believe was in the works? Something even bigger than the catastrophic Paris attacks that we've seen.

CRUICKSHANK: I'm told by a senior European counterterrorism officials that according to intelligence, according to interrogations, there are now indications that the Paris attacks were a slimmed down version of a much more ambitious plot to hit Europe. That autumn (ph) -- that the other targets included targets in the Netherlands, also included other targets in France, notably shopping centers, notably supermarkets in Paris. This was going --

CAMEROTA: Same style thing. That they --

CRUICKSHANK: This was going to be a bigger plot --

CAMEROTA: Spontaneous.

CRUICKSHANK: But they were not able to --

CAMEROTA: Thwarted.

CRUICKSHANK: Infiltrate all the operatives that they wanted to into Europe. Some were detained on the way. Others did not reach their destination, of course, as Clarissa's reporting has indicated. This all shows that ISIS are really ratcheting up their international attack planning.

I just came back from a counterterrorism conference in Europe and the outlook really, really bleak. I mean we're talking about beyond severe concern. The numbers that have become radicalized in Europe are astronomical. We're talking about tens of thousands of individuals. The number that have traveled to Syria and Iraq, now we're approaching 10,000 according to some estimates. And those numbers are simply too high for European security services to deal with because they have nothing like the level of coordination they need to deal with the scale of this threat. Real concern that in the coming weeks and months we're going to see more attacks across Europe.

[08:45:04] BERMAN: Sobering.

CAMEROTA: Clarissa, thank you for the wonderful reporting that you've been sharing with us. We appreciate you giving us a window into all this.

And, Paul, thank you very much.

All right, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump like you've never seen them before. We're talking about two fascinating CNN documentaries that you don't want to miss. We'll give you previews, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Tonight, CNN will air two documentaries on the presidential nominees. And you will get to see Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump like you have never seen them before. For instance, here's a sneak peek at Hillary Clinton talking candidly about the Monica Lewinsky scandal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: How difficult was it to go through something so private, so personal, under the glare of the spotlight as the first lady?

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It was really hard. It was painful. And I was so supported by my friends. My friends just rallied around. They would come. They would try and make me laugh. They would recommend books to read. We'd go for long walks. We'd hang out. You know, eat bad food. I mean just the kind of things you do with your friends.

[08:50:08] And it -- it was something that you just had to get up every day and try to deal with, while still carrying on a public set of responsibilities. So it was very, very challenging.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: All right. Joining us now, CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown and CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger. They're hosts of these two special reports.

Great to have you both here with this sneak preview.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good to be here. CAMEROTA: Pamela, I have never heard her talk about that before in public. I know she wrote about some of it. But I have never heard her address it. That was completely new.

BROWN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Tell me what that interaction was like with her.

BROWN: This was a side of Hillary Clinton that I -- I haven't personally seen. She was very open, very candid, engaging and accessible on some pretty difficult topics, talking about, of course, the Monica Lewinsky scandal, as you point out, she really hasn't touched on that much. And so we really talked about a range of topics from her, you know, her parents, to meeting Bill Clinton, what was holder her back at first, her hardest moments in the White House, which, by the way, didn't have to do with Monica Lewinsky or her husband's impeachment proceedings or the failed health care initiative or White Water, which was pretty surprising.

CAMEROTA: Oooh, that's a good tease.

BROWN: I know. But, you know, it's really -- it's important, I think, for people to see this side of her beyond policy, beyond politics, beyond the rhetoric on the campaign trail. We're really peeling back the layers, getting to know her on the human level.

BERMAN: I've got to say, you know, having your pain laid bare for the entire national to see, which it did, you know, in 1998, I can't imagine going through that.

That said, Gloria, I mean every time there's a convention speech, you know, people are wondering, would Hillary Clinton bring it up in her convention speech. How would she address it? Bill Clinton, you know, how does he address it? Yo know -- you know, he says in 1972 I met a girl. But then, of course, you know, glosses over all the pain there.

BORGER: Right.

BERMAN: It is so remarkable to hear her talk about it at all.

BORGER: Well, I think -- look, I think it really is. I think she does herself some good because, as Pamela says, she kind of -- she humanizes herself to a great degree by doing that. She wrote about it in her book. But, look, nobody wants to publicly talk about this. It's -- I think it's still very difficult. I think Donald Trump actually refers to it much more than she does in his -- in -- you know, when he speaks and he talked about Bill Clinton, right?

CAMEROTA: I mean and this is the point of these documentaries is --

BORGER: Well --

CAMEROTA: That you guys tried to get a different side --

BORGER: Well --

CAMEROTA: Than what we've been seeing.

BORGER: We did. And Donald Trump, after, you know, repeated requests, did not sit down with us for this documentary. We spoke with members of his family, his three oldest children, his friends who have known him for 30 years, people he has done business with, both with -- in success and in failure. So we went through the whole part of his life that a lot of people may not know about, including "The Apprentice," including Atlantic City.

CAMEROTA: (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: But including his -- you know, his divorce from his first wife --

BORGER: Including his divorce from his -- right.

BERMAN: Which was an episode that a lot of people don't know about and how painful it was --

BORGER: Right.

BERMAN: For his kids. And this is his son, I think, Eric talking about this.

BORGER: Uh-huh.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORGER: You didn't talk to your dad for a year or so. Can you talk a little bit about why that was and how you felt as a teenager.

ERIC TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S SON: Well, listen, I think, for me, I was 12, right, so --

BORGER: Oh, 12.

E. TRUMP: I was 12. You know, you think you're a man. You're starting to feel like you are, but you don't really understand the way everything else works. It was a difficult time. I mean it was certainly difficult reading about it in the papers every day on the way to school.

BORGER: I read this story about you that when you heard about it, you asked your mom whether you were still going to be Ivanka Trump. Is that a -- is that a true story?

IVANKA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S DAUGHTER: Yes. You know, I think I was digesting things and trying to understand as, you know, a 10 or 11 year old would, the implications.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Again, fascinating, I mean, to hear the kids talk about something that they never addressed on the trail.

BORGER: Well, and they were the targets of the tabloids, or their folks were, for months and months. I mean a lot of us who don't live in New York and aren't of that era don't remember the daily news of "The New York Post" and the gossip columnists every day and, you know, the drum beat of this. I think it's kind of akin to what it might be on the Internet today if it were just constant. And so you had these -- these children that they really tried to shield from it to a -- to a great degree, but it -- it was hard. I mean you hear them talk about how -- how difficult it was. And I think to this day they're close to both parents and I -- it's not easy for kids that age to go through a divorce that public.

BERMAN: I think it's amazing to hear Donald Trump Jr. saying he didn't talk to his father for a year, given now how he's so out there on the campaign trail.

BORGER: Yes.

BERMAN: You talked to Chelsea Clinton also at length about her mother and she's sort of the designated, you know, humanize Hillary Clinton person.

[08:55:04] BROWN: Right. She's -- she is. She's the best character witness because she's so close to her mother. And, you know, Chelsea Clinton was born into the spotlight. I mean, you know, her father was governor of Arkansas and so she -- she told me that she cannot remember a time when her mother hasn't been attacked. And I thought that was interesting because imagine, I mean, this is her mother and she said, you know, this has just been my life. I mean I don't know anything else other than my mom being attacked. And so her -- her role here in this documentary, as you'll see tonight, is really to show Hillary Clinton as a human, as a mother, as a grandmother. She talks about how she Facetimes every day with her, you know, with her grandchildren, changes diapers. She's really trying to bring that human side to Hillary Clinton that we haven't seen very much.

BORGER: And the difference I would say in the Trump family is when these now young adults were growing up, they used to go to their dad's office to play. It was all about business and it still is. They're now his business partners and very important not only to the Trump organization but to the campaign.

CAMEROTA: Definitely.

BERMAN: All right, guys, sounds fascinating. Can't wait to see them in full tonight.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much for sharing that.

BERMAN: Be sure and join us. It is beginning at 8:00 p.m. tonight beginning with "Unfinished Business: The Essential Hillary Clinton," followed at 10:00 by "All Business: The Essential Donald Trump" right here on CNN.

CAMEROTA: All right, thanks so much for watching us today. We'll see you tomorrow. "Newsroom" with Carol Costello picks up right after this very quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:00:11] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.