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New Day Saturday

Three Suspects Killed, One On The Run In Paris; Airasia Tail Section Brought To Surface; Manhunt for Hayat Boumeddine; Al Qaeda in Arabian Peninsula Claimed Responsibility for Attack; AirAsia Plane's Tail Found

Aired January 10, 2015 - 06:00   ET

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

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And the breaking news this morning, French media reports an 18-year-old who turned himself in shortly after the Paris attack has been released. Also, there's this intense hunt for a terror suspect on the run, of course, after twin hostage standoffs in Paris, three men are taken down by police.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: But a woman wanted for her part in those attacks has left the city reeling this city this morning is still out there. She's considered armed and extremely dangerous.

We want to welcome all of you, our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. We're so grateful for your company. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Let's go right to Jake Tapper live in Paris for all the latest development. Jake, good morning.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "THE LEAD": Good morning to you. It's been obviously a crazy few days here in Paris, France. I'm right outside the offices of "Charlie Hebdo" where there has become a makeshift memorial with flowers and candles and expressions of support.

Let's take a look at some of the newspaper headlines hot off the presses here. "Lemonde" with the headline (inaudible). They have the death of the killers, and then a kind of expression of solidarity for the people of France (inaudible). "Stay Strong, fight back" and then (inaudible), "up until the very, very end horror."

Let's take a look at what's going on. A massive manhunt going on for the most wanted woman in France. Hayat Boumediene, take a look at her. She's 26 years old. She is considered armed and dangerous. At this moment, she really could be anywhere.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THOMAS MISRACHI, ANCHOR, BFMTV: She could very well attempt to leave France if she has a French passport or French identity card. She could cross the border to Italy, to Spain, to other countries around Europe fairly easily. And it's fairly difficult to stop someone.

What the police fears tonight is that she decides to pursue what her partner has done until now or she may try to avenge him. We know that he was heavily armed. Explosive was found today at the site where her partner was killed. She could be armed and dangerous. (END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: So many mysteries still about this horrific series of terrific attacks and confrontations with police. It's believes that Hayat Boumediene escaped as terrified hostages ran from that kosher supermarket here in Paris just yesterday.

Police stormed in with a hail of gunfire. Her alleged accomplice, Amedi Coulibaly, was killed in that raid, but before he died witnesses say he gunned down four innocent people in that market.

We are also learning that French have released an 18-year-old student who turned himself in on Wednesday after hearing his name in the media and social media as the "Charlie Hebdo" killings unfolded. He apparently is no longer considered a suspect in this case. He's now been released.

Also this morning, French President Francois Hollande met with top security and government officials in an emergency meeting. Just minutes ago, France's interior minister said that the country will beef up its security measures. France's security alert has already at its highest level, has been since Wednesday.

CNN chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, will show us how police took down three of the four suspects who held France in terror for days.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two tense standoffs in two parts of the city, the first at a printing shop in the northeast and another at a kosher grocery in the east. Parisians holding their breaths for hours, but authorities were waiting for their moment.

Several loud explosions, gunfire, and in a flash, near simultaneous waves bring two hostage standoff to a rapid and a violent end. The first standoff was near Charles De Gaulle Airport, the assailants, the Kouachi brothers.

Cherif Kouachi in the middle of it all answers a call from a French television station. We're just telling you that we're the defenders of Prophet Muhammad. I was send by al Qaeda in Yemen.

The result there summed up in a tweet by the French ambassador to the U.S., quote, "The two terrorists are dead. The hostage is alive." Those two terrorists were the same brothers who have attacked at the offices of "Charlie Hebdo" magazine on Wednesday left 12 dead and began riveting three days of attacks, manhunts and hostage taking.

A witness describes his nervous encounter this morning with one of the terrorists.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We were standing in front of the door to the factory. I shook the hand of the owner, Michel, and the terrorist. He introduced himself as a policeman. SCIUTTO: Just minutes after the first raid in East Paris, we witnessed the second operation live on CNN's air.

(on camera): Now, I'm hearing gunfire, multiple shots, automatic fire. I'm going to stop speaking there just so you can hear it as well as I am. It's continuing. Another explosion.

(voice-over): An untold number did not survive. The hostage taker, Amedi Coulibaly, dead, his companion, Hyatte Boumediene, escaped in the confusion. Both were wanted in the fatal shooting of a police officer in Paris on Thursday.

That attack just a few hundred feet from a Jewish school and on Friday with shoppers preparing for the Jewish Sabbath, witnesses described a terrifying scene.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): We heard someone scream in French, I think then in Arabic. That was followed by the arrival of police officers and they started to get down. Hide behind cars, and they started exchanging fire.

SCIUTTO: A western intelligence tells us Amedi was a close associate of Cherif Kouachi, the younger brother as recently as 2010. Their association since is unclear, just one of the mysteries from a violent three days here in the city of lights.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: As we told you earlier, four hostages were killed and 15 were rescued from that standoff at the Paris grocery store, the kosher supermarket. Terrified hostages could be seen running out of the store after French police stormed the building in a very dramatic rescue mission. The entire scene was unfolding live right here on CNN.

Let's bring in CNN's Isa Soares. Isa, you are the supermarket. It's about 25 miles from where I am at the "Charlie Hebdo" building. What do we know about the hostages, those who survived, those who did not survived, what did they say, the ones who survived, what did they say after they were released?

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Jake. Good morning. Yes, in fact, people here just waking up and getting a sense of what has happened. Shops are starting to reopen. Not all of them. The one behind me, of course, as you said, is the one in the midst of that hostage seize. That is in shock. The one next to it is kosher.

The one that far is also kosher. People waking you up, people going for runs on what looks like a normal day, but when you actually talk to them, they tell you this is not how we spend our mornings. It's usually buzzing.

People were telling me they couldn't leave the house. One lady I spoke to said, look I normally shop there, I normally go there on a Saturday, but not today. In fact, she knew one of her friends, her neighborhood was inside. He was one of the people who died, one of the four, and she was saying that, you know, he's got a wife, children, normal man. He went there to get the food for the Sabbath meal. And she's just in a state of shock.

We are also getting a sense of what happened inside in those three or four hours, Jake. We're getting some idea of just how crazy it was and an idea of the state of mind of the terrorists, take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): The moment we went to the candy aisle, we heard boom. We saw the guy. He had a bulletproof vest, a green vest. He was holding two Kalashnikovs, a knife and a handgun.

When he would get up, he would get up with both Kalashnikovs. We were sitting and to our right there were two corpses, two customers who died at the very beginning.

As soon as he got inside, he started shooting. He scared us because he told us I'm not afraid to die. He said either I die or I go to jail for 40 years.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): When people came downstairs running, I went toward the cold room. I opened the door and many people got in the cold room with me. I switched off the light and switched off the freezer. He asked us to all come upstairs, otherwise he would kill everyone who was downstairs.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: And Jake, you know, that first lady that we heard from, her name is Marie. She said in there as well, that basically one of the hostages in there, another woman, tried to take the weapon from him, and he turned around and he had shot her in the head.

Just some feeling now in the city of, you know, anger, but also of defiance, people saying, of course, we are worried, you know, there's a woman on the loose, we are united. We are standing together. This is not an attack just on the Jewish community. It's an attack on all Parisians -- Jake.

TAPPER: Isa, I presume the authorities are talking to the survivors today, the hostage who managed to get out, to find out what happened, to get clues. As to how the second suspect, Hayat Boumediene escaped or even if she was definitively in that supermarket. What you can tell us about that?

SOARES: Yes, that's an interesting aspect, Jake, because this is something, that you know, we keep hearing different stories, initially, we were told they were together. They were a couple. They've been together since 2011.

Supposedly in the midst of all of the confusion with the police and the hostages, she escaped. That's what we've been told, but interestingly enough. When he called, Coulibaly called a journalist for CNN's French affiliate, and he told them why he was there, why he was targeting this Jewish store.

He didn't mention her at all. So there are lots of questions being asked, as to whether she was in fact inside that store. But nevertheless, police still looking for her, trying to see where they lived together, trying to target her.

But like you heard, what you reported, in fact, you know, she's got a French passport. So really she could go anywhere here, the borders are really open -- Jake.

TAPPER: Isa Soares, thank you so much. Still ahead, two brothers carrying out a massacre, and then vowing to die as martyrs. Next, we'll take a closer look at what may have led the Kouachi brothers on this horrific, murderous rampage and how the pair turned to terror.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to our live coverage of the French terrorist attacks. I'm sitting here outside the "Charlie Hebdo" headquarters. I'm joined by Caroline Forest, a former employee of "Charlie Hebdo." You were with the magazine, the newspaper, until 2010, for six years as a writer mainly.

First of all, my deepest condolences, you must have had -- you must have lost friends on Wednesday.

CAROLINE FOUREST, FORMER WRITER, "CHARLIE HEBDO": Many friends.

TAPPER: Tell us about Charb, the editor. Tell us about him. He's famously quoted as saying he'd rather die on his feet than live on his knees. Why was this publication so important for him, not that he was even willing, not that he wanted this, but he was willing to take the risk of dying?

FOUREST: At the beginning, Charb were really just a group of funny, funny guys. We just wanted to denounce all type of oppression. They denounced imperialism. They denounced economic oppression. They denounced racism and they also, of course, they denounce every, every abuse of religion.

They denounced, for example, the rape inside the Catholic Church by priests. They did draw a thousand times. The pope, and when the Danish cartoons --

TAPPER: The Danish cartoons with Muhammad in the newspaper.

FOUREST: When some Danish cartoonists were doing this, almost no newspaper wanted to show it. They're saying, hey, these are just sweet cartoons. No need to burn our city. No need to kill for that. Charlie is about making fun of every symbol of religion. So we said, of course, we're going to show the cartoons and\ we're going to add the one of "Charlie Hebdo." This is the cover --

TAPPER: This is the 2006 edition? FOUREST: Yes, it's --

TAPPER: It's supposedly Muhammad saying --

FOUREST: It's Muhammad used -- we wanted to reflect Muhammad. We said we're going to make Muhammad with a sense of humor. It's loving to have love. Inside there's a cartoon, what Muhammad is saying the first time that the Danish cartoonists. So Muhammad is used and he's saying it is just so hard to be loved by assholes. This is typically "Charlie Hebdo."

TAPPER: So obviously, nothing can justify what happened.

FOUREST: Obviously.

TAPPER: It's a provocative cover. There are Muslims out there. You described them as sweet cartoons. There are Muslims throughout who don't think they're sweet. We don't need to debate about it. Just for the record, I just wanted to note that. But it was important for them to provoke -- to provoke. For what reason because of the oppression of different religions, different --

FOUREST: Well, because of the Jihadists because jihadists were killing and threatening to kill other cartoonists. They were crazy guys burning embassies in Syria, if you remember. And we are supposed to do what? We are newspaper doing drawings about religion. And we won't do about Islam only. We do about every other religion.

But we will say that the Muslims cannot laugh. They don't have sense of humor. Also, the message, I can tell you since 2006, Charlie Hebdo was surrendered with the people I worked with who died in the attack, in the bombing, Mohammed Nasri, a friend who lost his friend in a newspaper in '96. We are still, today, more than ever, surrounded by Muslim who wants to continue to laugh.

TAPPER: And support your rights to free expression. Thank you so much. We really appreciate your time. We're going to have to take a break. Christi, Victor, back to you in Atlanta.

PAUL: All righty, Jake, thank you so much. We're also following another story, the tail of Airasia Flight 8501 lifted out of the ocean. Look at these images we're getting in. The big question, are the black boxes inside?

BLACKWELL: We'll go live to Jakarta for the latest on the recovery effort.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Investigators may be closer to finding answers in the crash of Airasia Flight 8501.

PAUL: Just hours ago, search crews lifted the tail section. Look at this video we've gotten in here. This is lifting it out of the Java Sea and loading it under a ship there. BLACKWELL: And of course that tail section will be crucial as the investigation moves forward as it normally houses the flight data recorders.

CNN's David Molko joins us now live from Jakarta. David, tell us how this happened and what it was like when the tail section was lifted to the surface?

DAVID MOLKO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Victor and Christi, cheers and applauses on one of the vessels, but this, of course, not a celebration. Perhaps those sounds just because this was such a tricky three-day operation. You know, conditions in the Java Sea. The weather really governing the pace of this search every step of the way.

You know, you had divers saying they were fluttering like flags a couple days ago. Yesterday, conditions were good enough that they could get the ropes under and attach those giant inflatable airbags or balloons to bring the tail to the surface.

And today, just a few hours ago, they were able to lift it to the surface and seeing those amazing pictures that you've been showing on air. Unmistakable images, you know, we've seen bodies being pulled out. We've seen small pieces of debris.

Airline seats as well. When you see the image of that vertical stabilizer, the tail section with the Airasia logo on it, there is a reality check on it. It really hits home and you get a true sense of the loss of what has happened in the Java Sea.

PAUL: So we're hearing about the tail section. We're not hearing about the black boxes, what do you know about the thoughts regarding finding those?

MOLKO: Yes, Victor, Christi, if you take a really close are look at that tail section as it's lifted up on deck, you see what looks like five or six windows the side of the fuselage, but it peels back pretty much like paper.

The area underneath the lower section of the tail, it's not even there. You've got loose wires, jagged edges. The section where the black boxes should be doesn't appear to be there.

The general, the commander of the Indonesia Armed Forces, General (inaudible), who has been out on the Java Sea during this entire operation held a news conference a short time ago. We're trying to get a little clarification on what he said.

It appears that search teams are continuing to look for that cockpit voice recorder, the flight data recorder at this point, critical to unlocking the mystery of what happened to that flight.

BLACKWELL: Yes, those hold all the answers. David Molko there in Jakarta for us watching that recovery. David, thank you so much.

PAUL: Thank you, David. And on the run, French officials scrambling to find this woman, take a good look at her here. She's linked to the three terrorists that launched deadly attacks this week. What does she know? Is she part of a larger terror cell and is there a more imminent threat coming?

BLACKWELL: Plus, how did the suspected terrorists get Kalashnikov rifles into the country? And where did they get them? We'll ask a former army ranger just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: We're following breaking news this morning. The hunt for a woman, terror suspect, linked to several attacks in Paris.

PAUL: Days of bloodshed is over right now. But the question everybody wants to know, where is this woman hiding? We want to get right to CNN's Jake Tapper. He is live in Paris. Good morning, Jake.

TAPPER: Good morning, Christi and Victor. I'm outside the offices of "Charlie Hebdo." We are following, of course, breaking news here in Paris. Right now, French law enforcement, French authorities, they are trying to find this woman 26-year-old Hyatt Boumediene.

Here is what we know about here. Authorities believe she was the accomplice of Amedi Coulibaly in the hostage taking incident at that kosher grocery store yesterday in which four civilians were killed.

Coulibaly was killed when police stormed the market. He ran right into a hail of police bullets. Police think that Hyatt Boumediene escaped amid the chaos. She is also a suspect in the shooting death of a French police woman.

This morning we're also getting a new glimpse into yesterday's terror raids. This video shows the terrifying moments when French police closed in on the Kouachi brothers at that printing shop outside Paris in the Parisian suburbs.

(GUNFIRE)

TAPPER: Both brothers were killed in that hail of gunfire. According to a new report, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, in Yemen, is claiming responsibility for the brutal attacks on Wednesday. CNN has been unable to verify those claims. Meanwhile, French media reporting now that the 18-year-old man who turned himself into police, after the Charlie Hebdo massacre, he has been released. It is still unclear what his role was in that attack, if any. It's quite possible that it was all a mistake.

Joining me now for more on the Kouachi brothers, Peter Neumann, the director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization. Peter, thanks for joining me. Cherif, Kouachi, his older brother Said Kouachi, they were French citizens, they were known to French security services, the younger brothers spent time behind bars were being part of a Jihadist recruitment ring. And he was in Syria, as recently as this past summer. Official say the other brother went to Yemen for training on behalf of the al Qaeda affiliate there. I know that keeping track, keeping tabs of every extremist, every potential terrorist is an impossible task for law enforcement in any country. But these two seemed fairly extreme. Are you surprised that they were able to fly under the radar?

PETER NEUMANN, PROFESSOR OF SECURITY STUDIES, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON: To some extent, yes. I think there will be questions about this as soon as the situation has calmed down and French authorities and French societies start to understand what went wrong. But you're absolutely right, in any big European country, you now have several thousand people who are considered to be potentially violent extremists. If you look at police forces, intelligence agencies, it takes about 15 to 20 offices to put someone under surveillance 24 hours a day.

So no agency has that capacity. And constantly, they have to make choices about who is considered to be acutely dangerous. And perhaps, I'm speculating here, but perhaps in those particular cases, they were considered to be no longer active. Just because you were involved in a recruitment cell ten years ago, does not necessarily mean you represent a danger now. If that was the conclusion that would, would, of course, have been a tragic mistake.

TAPPER: Right. I take your point. And yet, at the same time, they were on the do not fly list. They would not have been able to fly into the United States. I believe that they were not allowed to enter the U.K. either. So they were at least, to the United States and the U.K., considered potential threats. Do you think it's possible that the four terror suspects, the brothers, as well as Amedi Coulibaly and Hayat Boumeddienne who's still wanted, do you think it's possible that these four individuals, assuming that in fact Boumeddienne was in fact, did, in fact -- that they worked alone in these week's attacks, that they had no other assistance?

NEUMANN: Well, I mean we now know that al Qaeda in Yemen has claimed responsibility for this and I know that senior U.S. intelligence officials seem to believe the same thing. So, there is a strong indication that there was some level of coordination. And that this was something that was planned and carried out by that particular group, which happens to be the most professional and the most advanced of al Qaeda affiliates and also the one that has most consistently been trying to strike Western targets. So, all of that seems fairly plausible.

What's also possible is that, yes, they were trained by al Qaeda in Yemen. They were sent back to France and they were told to do something without precise directions. That's another possibility. But I think at this point, given all the information we're getting from al Qaeda in Yemen itself, but also from Western intelligence officials, the most plausible theory seems to be that al Qaeda in Yemen was indeed responsible. And this is something that they wanted to happen.

Peter Neumann, director of the International Center for the Study of Radicalization. Thank you so much for joining us. Coming up next, on the run -- the French officials are trying to find this woman, she's linked to the three terrorists who launched those deadly attacks in Paris this week. What does she know? Is she part of a larger terror cell?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: As French police search for Hayat Boumeddienne, the big question is who is she? How did she get radicalized? CNN's Brian Todd has more. Brian?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jake, we know the suspect who was killed in the storming of that Paris market, Amedi Coulibaly, was in the same circle of terrorists as the Kouachi brothers who attacked the magazine. But it's Coulibaly's girlfriend who authorities are tracking now. And the question is just how dangerous is she?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: It's now her face alone on wanted posters. 26-year-old Hayat Boumeddienne, police say, is an accomplice of suspected terrorist Amedi Coulibaly, who is connected to the two brothers who attacked Charlie Hebdo magazine. Coulibaly was killed by police as they stormed the kosher market in Paris, seen in this new video. There is now a massive dragnet for Hayat Boumeddienne, who police say is a suspect with Coulibaly in Thursday shooting in southern Paris that killed a policewoman.

LT. COL. JAMES REESE, DELTA FORCE ARMY OFFICER (RET.): They have an all-points bulletin out. They're looking at everywhere. They are going to set up a series of checkpoints. This suspect is going to try to find someone who can help her.

TODD: A Western intelligence source tell CNN Boumeddienne lived with Coulibaly and the two once traveled to Malaysia together.

MATTHEW LEVITT, WASHINGTON INST. FOR NEAR EAST POLICY: We don't know if she was involved to serve as some type of cover, or more likely she was involved because she was radicalized along with her boyfriend and got sucked in. Working together at some level.

TODD: The French newspaper "Le Monde" published these photos apparently of Boumeddienne with Coulibaly. CNN cannot independently verify the authenticity of the photos. "Le Monde" reports Boumeddienne once told police she and Coulibaly had practiced firing crossbows in the countryside of central France as apparently shown in these pictures. Hayat Boumeddienne had been in a relationship with Coulibaly since 2010, according "La Monde", and she was interviewed by counterterrorism police that same year. Analysts say while the number of female jihadists is growing their male counterparts still consider them valuable cover.

LEVITT: Many of these people now have wives, have girlfriends. That enables them to do things they might not otherwise be able to do. You don't appear to be a lone young angry man. You are walking with a woman. (END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: We learned from the Paris prosecutor more solid information connecting Hayat Boumeddienne and her boyfriend to the Kouachi brothers who attack the magazine. The prosecutor says authorities are aware of more than 500 phone calls placed between Boumaddienne and the wife of suspect Cherif Kouachi. Jake.

TAPPER: Brian Todd. Joining me now for more, Major General James "Spider" Marks. Major General Marks, good to see you this morning. What do you think French ...

MAJOR GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS: Jake, good to see you.

TAPPER: Are doing right now to try to track down this woman, this 26- year-old terror suspect? How can they try to find her?

MARKS: Now, they're doing everything they can, starting with intelligence exchange. Clearly, what we've figured out so far and what we can anticipate going forward, is that the intelligence collection efforts on this group were probably very, very extensive and also transparent. Intelligence sources both in France and in the United States, certainly, the inclusion of Interpol, other intelligence organizations, both in Great Britain, the Germans have an immense organization and because the borders in Europe are very porous (ph)ND, there is a lot of transference of this type of physical data as well as informational, intelligence data.

So there's an intelligence picture of what we know and what this network of this young lady might look like. And there's a very aggressive gendarme, the police and the military, in cooperation, great cooperation, are putting out a very strong effort, working all the networks. Going to the known locations where she has been. And what her associations have looked like. So it's going to be a very short amount of time before she appears, I would imagine, unless she can completely disappear off the radar, cease any type of, you know, emitting any type of what we call, Jake, digital exhausts. She's going to have to stay off of social media. She's going to have to have her friends keep her off social media. They're going to have to stay off social media, or she will be captured in a very, very short amount of time.

TAPPER: She has vanished, at least for now. She was wanted after the shooting on Thursday of a French policewoman. The murder of the French policewoman. It's still not clear if she was in that kosher supermarket yesterday. But the fact that she's been able to disappear either since Thursday or since Friday, presumably, that would mean that she has help, that somebody is helping her to hide?

MARKS: Right. Jake, we have to assume, yes, that's absolutely spot- on. We have to assume that she is not innocent in her associations with Coulibaly or the Kouachi brothers. That she is very much a part of their network. She is a part of the organization. Obviously she was an accomplice, she was very much aware of what was going on. Not naive to it. She probably was locally recruited. And her form of terrorism. Her role that she played in this organization and this very specific incident metastasized over time.

And this now has become what we know as the new normal, Jake. You are standing in the midst of a representation of this new normal. And that we should be outraged, we should be extremely concerned, yet, we should be working very aggressively at trying to narrow down the participants and how they can be stopped moving forward. Because it will happen again. And it's only a matter of time before it happens in the United States.

TAPPER: General Marks, help us understand the significance of something that French authorities have informed the media and the public about, which is that this woman, this wanted woman, Hayat Boumeddienne, she had more than 500 phone calls in 2014 with the girlfriend/wife, whatever, of one of the Kouachi brothers. Why is that significant?

MARKS: Well, it's huge, it clearly shows what we call there's a link -- and this is link analysis. What we're determining is who in her world influences her. And we've now determined. Or at least we're now realizing, we probably determined our priority of the incident, her affiliations and associations. And for a number of probably legal, probable cause reasons, it's fair to assume that the French had a very aggressive surveillance operation in place. She probably disappeared for a while. But it shows you these associations that have taken place. And so again, we can now take that link analysis and we can further apply it to the network. And we're going to determine who were the other folks in this organization, loosely structured, yet very precisely trained. And with a shared vision of what they were trying to achieve. That's what's most amazing about this, Jake. It's just incredible what they were able to achieve. This is a high level of precision and training. To execute to prepare for, execute and then pull the trigger on this operation. These guys were being watched, this organization was being watched. They went to ground, they disappeared off the radar, and now they execute.

TAPPER: Yeah. Bone-chillingly efficient. General Spider Marks, thank you. So much appreciated.

MARKS: Thank you.

TAPPER: The suspected terrorists were armed with Kalashnikov rifles and automatic pistols. France, of course, has incredibly restrictive gun laws. So where did the terrorists get their firearms? We'll talk to our panel about that coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (SPEAKING FRENCH)

(GUNSHOTS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (SPEAKING FRENCH)

(END VIDEO CLIP) TAPPER: That was the scene at a kosher supermarket here in Paris. The stunning end to an hours' long standoff between French police and the man suspected in the terrorist killing of a Paris policewoman. When it was all over, four hostages and the suspected terrorists were dead. Inside the store, authorities say they found a variety of weapons and ammunition, including two automatic pistols, explosives and a detonator. To discuss this, let's bring in CNN's Jim Bittermann and CNN global affairs analyst, and former Delta Army Officer Lt. Col. James Reese. Jim, let me start with you. With the guns. France is famously restricted in its gun policy, infamously, I guess, depending on your point of view. Any idea how the suspected terrorists got their hands on Kalashnikovs?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good question. They are very restricted here. It's not the kind of thing you'd see like you would -- might see in the United States, there are no gun shows where people are buying automatic weapons and that kind of thing. That's very restrictive. However, having said that, particularly in the south of France, Marseilles areas and like that, in the drug circles and I guess now the terrorism circles, you do see weapons used. The drug circles in particularly for years now. The mafia has been able to get hold of weapons like Kalashnikovs, and other things and used them in shoot-outs. So, they are around. And I guess they are available. We've had a couple of interesting armored car holdups and hijackings here where some of the robbers have had rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons as well.

So in the criminal circles, they are available. And in this case, it could have been -- they could have been smuggled into the country in any one of the ports or some other fashion. So difficult to know exactly, and police have not let us know, Jake.

TAPPER: The border is very porous, of course, in Europe, probably would not necessarily even be that difficult to smuggle them. Lieutenant Colonel Reese, let me ask you - we don't know yet what kind of explosives were in that store. But it seems established by now that training and bomb-making is fairly standard for these terrorists who are training with ISIS or al Qaeda.

LT. COL. JAMES REESE, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Jake, good morning. You're correct, and if you recall, AQAP, al Qaeda Arabian Peninsula, they're famed for having some great trainers for explosives and bomb making. Also I have to remember is, the French born al Qaeda bomb maker that we've been targeting in the Khorasan group is still out there. So, that's another person who has piece that might be linking to somewhere.

TAPPER: And Lieutenant Colonel Reese, let me stay with you, these two standoffs both came to their ends at the same time, about 5:00 p.m. local time here in France. Police rushed in, challenged both -- the two brothers, the Kouachi brothers at that print shop. And then the hostage taker and the terrorist in the kosher supermarket. I assume that was completely coordinated. How easy is it to do that, to coordinate simultaneous raids?

REESE: Jake, these types of forces train like this a lot. The beauty is you have a command control system, especially with the communications that allows that to happen. There's certain protocols that allow the ground force commander, agent in charge there to make that determination once he's given execute authority. Those communications happen. Those protocols happen. I believe once we had an understanding that there were already hostages dead in the south and the G.I. -- (ph) at north, the sign that you initiate the attack, you saw very quickly the southern -- you saw the police forces coming between the armored vehicle in the south, and you have what they call a near simultaneous assault.

TAPPER: Jim, this suspect, this woman, Hayat Boumeddienne is still on the run. Do officials here in France have any idea where she might be? Or where she might be headed?

BITTERMANN: Well, I don't know -- if they ever -- if they knew where she was, they'd certainly close in on her. They've put out the word that she is armed and dangerous. And they have photographs that have come off to the press that show her getting arms training. So, I think they are aware that this woman right now is extremely dangerous. She has basically nothing to live for. Her boyfriend is now dead. And, you know, the mission, whatever the mission was, has been ended, one way or another. So she really is in kind of a desperate situation in the sense that she's capable of doing anything. That's what the officials are saying in any case. So putting out the world, to keep an eye out for her. And there are -- the pictures everywhere. So, you know, I think it will just be a matter of time. But they will -- they'll find her, I'm sure, Jake.

TAPPER: Jim Bittermann. Lieutenant Colonel James Reese, thank you both. Victor, Christi, back to you in Atlanta.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right, Jake, thank you so much. We are also following developing breaking news here on the AirAsia plane crash.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, the tail section of AirAsia flight 8501 lifted from the ocean, but are those black boxes attached?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Coming up close to the top of the hour. Here's a look at other stories developing now.

PAUL: Yeah, investigators may be closer to answers in the crash of AirAsia flight 8501 this morning. Because just a bit earlier today, Indonesian search crews were able to lift the tail section of the plane off the seabed and on to a ship. Here's the video that they gave us. It's still on board. The plane's flight data recorders may be in that tail section. 162 people were killed when the plane crashed after taking off from Surabaya, Indonesia, on the way to Singapore and 48 bodies so far have been recovered.

BLACKWELL: The U.S. attorney leading the investigation into the death of Georgia teen found dead in a rolled gym mat says getting answers is proving tougher than he thought it would be. In the statement to CNN U.S. Attorney Michael Moore writes, "While our investigation has proven more complicated and taken longer than I had originally anticipated, we remain committed to following the facts wherever they may leave. Today marks two years since Jonathan was last seen alive in the gym -- at high school. The next morning he was found dead. State officials say his death was an accident. A pathologist hired by his parents determined it was the result of a homicide. And that federal investigation was launched in October 2013.

PAUL: Well, have you heard, Mitt Romney has told a group of Republican donors that he's seriously considering a third presidential bid. Although his supporters have floated his name as a potential presidential candidate from 2016, Romney had been quiet on the subject. But according to people who have talked to him recently he seems to have changed his mind in recent weeks.

BLACKWELL: And one truck driver was killed in a massive 120-car pileup, this was in Michigan yesterday. The crash was so extreme, it sent off thousands of pounds of fireworks packed inside of a semi- truck. You see them here. At least 20 others were injured including two firefighters and a driver attempting to help at the scene. Of course, we'll continue to follow that. And, of course, there's a lot going on around the world.

PAUL: Absolutely, in Paris and the next hour of your "NEW DAY" starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A man is inside the supermarket. He supposedly has hostages, as many as five.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police vans heading in the direction of the shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We didn't know there was even a second suspect. Let alone a female.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is an early indication that the operation may be finished.

The mayor is telling CNN that the two brothers are dead.

(SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The civilians have been seen leaving the scene of the store. The hostage-taker is dead. And the hostages are alive. The female suspect is still on the loose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)