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New Day Saturday

Manhunt For Female Suspect, Three Terrorists Killed; Paris Hostages Describe Terrifying Ordeal; Is Radical Islam At War With The World?; Flight 8501 Tail Lifted From Sea Floor

Aired January 10, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

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

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: A woman wanted for her part in those attacks, though, that have left the city reeling we should point out, is still throughout somewhere. She is considered armed. She is considered extremely dangerous.

We do want to welcome our viewers from around the world, of course in the United States as well. I'm Christi Paul.

BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell.

Let's go right to Jake Tapper. He's live in Paris for the latest developments for us -- Jake.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "NEW DAY": Victor, thanks so much. I'm outside the headquarters of the "Charlie Hebdo" offices where people have been gathering all morning. I want to show you some of the headlines from French newspapers that we've been getting today, which gives you an idea of the mood here in France.

Here is one. It basically says kind of a defiant message of stay strong. Resist the attacks that are coming from terrorists. Here is one (inaudible) which is basically saying up until the end, horror up until the very end, horror, reflecting how the Kouachi brothers and their accomplice went out.

Here is (inaudible), which is basically the death of the killers. And then here is "Le Monde," (inaudible) the insane murders of the Kouachi brothers. It's a solemn day here in France. For the first time since World War II, since the holocaust, Sabbath canceled here as a massive manhunt is going on right now for the most wanted woman in France, Hayat Boumediene.

Take a look at her, just 26 years old, considered armed and dangerous. At this moment, she really could be anywhere. It's believed Boumediene may have escaped as terrified hostages ran from that kosher supermarket here in Paris when police stormed it in a hail of gunfire last night.

Her alleged accomplice, Amedi Coulibaly, was killed in the raid. He is the terrorist who took people hostages. Before he died running into the hail of French bullets, witnesses -- witnesses say he killed four people in the supermarket.

We're also learning that French police have released an 18-year-old student who turned himself in to police after hearing his name in the media and in social media as the "Charlie Hebdo" killings unfolded on Wednesday.

North of Paris on Friday, police killed the Kouachi brothers, they made their last desperate cowardly stand at a print shop of all places after investigators say they gunned down cartoonists and police and others here at the offices of the French satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo."

In a stunning development, we are hearing that Said Kouachi roomed with the so-called underwear bomber, who you may recall tried to set off a bomb on a passenger plane in the U.S. on Christmas day in 2009.

We have a journalist in Yemen, who told one of CNN's stringers there that when he met Said Kouachi back in 2011, Kouachi told him that he knew and used to pray with and be friends with the would-be failed underwear bomber now in an American supermax prison.

We should note that beyond that one witness testimony, we have not confirmed it beyond that. Early this morning the French interior minister said the country will beef up its security measures. France's security alert is already, of course, at the highest level.

CNN's chief national security correspondent, Jim Sciutto, will now take us through how the police took down three of the four terrorist suspects who held France in a state of 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: Paris remains, of course, on high alert after yesterday's dramatic hostage rescue at the kosher grocery store that left one suspect dead, another on the run, and four innocent hostages killed by that terror suspect.

Let's bring in CNN's Isa Soares and CNN senior international correspondent, Jim Bitterman. Isa, what did the hostages say after they were released? Is there any definitive word about whether or not this woman, the fourth terror suspect, Hayat Boumediene, was in the supermarket?

ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jake, still not clear whether she was indeed in there. Of course we're seeing lots of reports that he was therein with her, but when he spoke to our friend he did not mention that his girlfriend since 2011 was in there with him.

So, there is a bit of confusion. I'm sure authorities will be speaking to those hostages to find out exactly what happened. What we are seeing here today and there is a lot of movement around here today.

That despite this grisly and gray weather, people still coming here to pay tribute, to those who died, the four people you mentioned died, but also to those who really paid their respects to those who went through a dramatic ordeal.

We are finding out more and more details in terms of what happened yesterday. It was about three hours or so before the police went in and then took about a minute and a half before they came out. But the details of what happened there are absolutely chilling.

One man said that you know, he tried to escape through the freight elevator. He tried to take other people, other hostages with him. No one wanted to budge. People were so scared so they all decided to hide in the fridge for five hours. There's even more chilling account. Take a listen to what was told to our affiliate.

(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: Despite those chilling accounts people still coming here, people still paying their respects. And people talking to us, telling us exactly how they feel that this Jewish community here would not let anyone let alone terrorists bring them down and really stop them from leading their normal life -- Jake.

TAPPER: Thanks, Isa. Jim, let me go to you now. What are these new security measures that French officials are putting in place? I would think being on highest alert, which France has been since Wednesday. There wouldn't be any more they could do, but obviously I'm wrong.

JIM BITTERMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they have a large system here that goes in different stages, but they have been at the highest alert level since Wednesday, as you mentioned. They were even at a very high alert level for the last decade.

They have been at a very high alert which means army patrols on the streets. We've seen that for a decade or more. But since Wednesday they have been reinforced with even more military patrols on the streets, reinforcing the police.

What the interior minister is going to say and spell out a little bit in a news conference that we're expecting to come up later on this afternoon, are some measures specific measures about religious institutions, particularly synagogues, mosques.

There have been since the terrorism began with the "Charlie Hebdo" attack there have been about a dozen or so attacks in different parts of the country, minor ones but where mosques have been attacked particularly, sprayed with bullets by people reacting to the terrorist attacks.

The very serious terrorist attacks that took place starting with "Charlie Hebdo." I think that's the kind of thing they are going to do, step up the patrols around religious institutions and areas which would include probably the area where Isa is because that's sort of a Jewish neighborhood in there.

And as well as I think he said that they are going to bring up about 300 more military personnel to reinforce the police -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Jim Bitterman and Isa Soares, thank you so much. Still to come, these attacks in Paris just one of many in recent weeks, across the globe from Pakistan to Afghanistan, and Nigeria and Australia, is radical Islam at war with the world?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Our breaking news coverage for the remaining suspect in this week's terrorist attacks here in France continues. I'm Jake Tapper and I'm live in Paris.

We want to first tell you about a startling development in the investigation into these Paris terrorist attacks as the hunt go on for the female suspect who is on the run.

A Yemeni journalist tells CNN now that he met with one of the Kouachi brothers, Said Kouachi in Yemen in 2011, that's where Said said he was trained by al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, the al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen.

Now this Yemeni journalist tells CNN that said Kouachi told him that he roomed with the so-called underwear bomber. You might remember the Omar Faruk Abdul Mutallab, the failed Christmas day bomber and he praised him.

Mutallab, of course, tried to set off that bomb on a passenger plane in the U.S. in 2009 and thankfully was unsuccessful. As the search continues for the remaining suspect in the Paris attacks, we examine now what is really behind this bloody assault and others like it around the world.

Senior international correspondent, Nic Robertson, takes a closer look. NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Paris, ground zero for the latest Islamist terror attack. On the surface it appears this is retribution for pictures of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Is it part of something larger?

The latest battle by Islamic extremists dedicated to the destruction of western values. It's the biggest radical Islamist attack in Europe in ten years, but one of many in recent weeks across the globe.

(on camera): This is when things get really bad.

(voice-over): Less than a month ago, I was stepping through the carnage of another radical Islamist attack thousands of miles away. This time Pakistan, 132 mostly Muslim school children gunned down, cold-blooded murder.

Because the Taliban Islamist killers said the children's parents were in the army. In the days before that, Australia, half a world away, radical Islamist takes early morning customers and employees hostage in a chocolate shop.

Two people were killed plus the gunman. That gunman claiming Australia kills Muslims in Syria and Iraq, each attack a different radical rationale given, a world war all in the name of Islam.

Somalia, Christmas day, an al Qaeda affiliate targeting the U.N., Turkey this week, a female suicide bomber attacks a police station in the name tourist district of Istanbul. And a steady background drumbeat during the same month, the new normal.

The death toll at the hands of radicals climbs, executions in Syria, car bombs in Iraq, and in Afghanistan this week a car bomb targeting European police failing, killing yet more innocent civilians.

In fact, most of those dying are Muslims, collateral damage. This in a world war where you don't see the enemy coming, no lines of tanks on the streets of Paris, just the latest explosion of terror and the havoc it leaves behind. Nic Robertson, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Terrorism expert, Jean-Charles Brisard, now joins me. So, it seems obvious that radical Islam is at war with many countries. Do you think it's safe to say, fair to say, that radical Islam is at war with the entire rest of the world?

JEAN-CHARLES BRISARD, AUTHOR, "ZARQAWI: THE NEW FACE OF AL QAEDA": It's always been the case at least in the Jihadi sphere. France has been facing threats in the past from all of these networks coming from al Qaeda, to al Qaeda and the Arabic Peninsula to al Qaeda in the Islamic and to the Islamic State.

So yes, it has always been the case and also with France we had rooted radical Islam for years. We have more in France than in any other country in Europe. So we knew that the threat was there. It existed. We're actually expecting such an attack due to the national context and the radicalization of most of these networks.

TAPPER: As Nic Robertson pointed out in his piece the number one victim of radical Islam is Muslims, moderate Muslims, innocent Muslims. It's interesting because there were different reasons, radical reasons all, given for each attack, whether in Paris or Pakistan, you have Boko Haram in Nigeria, Afghanistan, Australia, different groups, different rationales.

Is there any way to organize officials around one way to attack these groups, these radical Islamic groups if they are all disparate in terms of their aims and their reasons for doing what they do?

BRISARD: These groups are very different in their nature, due to their origins also. For example, if you look at the situation in France you shouldn't look too much at the claims of responsibility and also the contributions from these attackers.

This is all confusing, we have conflicting reports, for example, one of the gun men said he was referring to al Qaeda in the Arabic peninsula, another referring to the Islamic State so this is all very confusing.

All of them, all of these groups, for example remember that including al Qaeda was condemning the bombings of the coalition in Iraq, so there are no clear lines I would say.

TAPPER: Jean-Charles Brisard in our Paris Bureau, thank you so much. Appreciate it. Christi, Victor, back to you in Atlanta.

BLACKWELL: All right, Jake, thank you so much. After the break, we'll get you caught up on some other news including a section of Airasia Flight 8501 recovered from the sea floor. We'll tell you what crews are hoping to find.

PAUL: Plus the sound of fireworks, exploding after a deadly massive car pileup on a busy Michigan highway. The pictures are incredible. We'll tell you what's going on. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: All right, here's a look at other stories developing now.

PAUL: Investigators may be closer to answers in the crash of Airasia Flight 8501. Look at this video this morning. This is Indonesian search crews as they lift the tail section of the plane off of the seabed on a ship. There is another angle of it.

If still on board the plane's flight data recorders may be in that tail section, but we have not heard that they found those black boxes yet. So far crews recovered 48 bodies of the 162 on board that flight.

BLACKWELL: The U.S. attorney leading the investigation into the death of a Georgia teen found dead in a rolled gym mat says getting answers is proving tougher than he thought it would. In a statement to CNN, U.S. Attorney Michael Moore writes "While our

investigation has proven more complicated and taken longer than I originally anticipated, we remain committed to following the facts wherever they may lead."

Today marks two years since Johnson was last seen alive in the gym at his South Georgia high school. The next morning he was found dead. A state official says his death was an accident. A pathologist hired by his parents determined it was the result of a homicide. The federal investigation was launched in October 2013.

PAUL: One truck driver was killed in what you're looking at here, this massive 120-car pileup in Michigan yesterday. This crash was so extreme, wait, look at this here, the fire. But thousands of pounds of fireworks were packed inside a semi-truck and they blew up. At least 20 people were injured here including two firefighters and a driver who was attempting to help at the scene.

BLACKWELL: Bill Cosby added fuel to the fire for protesters at his show Thursday. A woman in the audience got up to get a drink and then Cosby joked that she had to be careful when drinking around him. He made that statement as three more accusers stepped forward.

PAUL: It was a mixed bag for Spacex this morning. The company was able to successfully launch the Falcon 9 rocket early this morning. There it goes, making a trip to resupply the International Space Station there.

But a trial run for a soft landing on the first section of the rocket came down harder than expected. Successful soft landing would allow it to reuse the booster section of the rocket, which right now has to be discarded after a single use.

BLACKWELL: Pushing forward on the breaking news this morning, how did a fourth terror suspect just vanish? We'll take a good look, this 26- year-old woman is wanted by police and authorities believed she may be on the run.

Up next, why authorities say she is linked to the three Paris attackers and why she may have information about a larger terror cell.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Good morning everyone. I'm Jake Tapper in Paris, France. I am outside the offices of "Charlie Hebdo," the site of a horrific terrorist attack on Wednesday, 12 individuals killed, ten journalists, and two law enforcement setting off a chain of events leading to the deaths of three terrorists yesterday with one still on the loose.

We are following breaking news, the Kouachi brothers, Said and Cherif along with another suspect linked to the same terror cell, they are all dead after French police carried out two simultaneous terrorist raids yesterday. Terror raids yesterday.

Now French police are searching for this woman, 26-year-old Hayat Boumediene. Here is what we know about her. Authorities believe she was the accomplice of amedi coulibaly in a kosher grocery store in which four civilians were killed on Friday.

Coulibaly was killed when police stormed the market. He seemed to run right into the gun fire. Police think that Hayat Boumediene escaped amid the chaos though it's unclear if she was in the supermarket. She also is a suspect in the shooting death of a French police woman on Thursday.

Now earlier today French President Francois Hollande held an emergency security meeting with top government and law enforcement officials to discuss how to better secure the country which seems under siege in many ways.

State Department officials in the United States issued a worldwide warning urging Americans all over the world to maintain a high level of vigilance.

Joining me now for more is CNN national security analyst, Peter Bergen. Peter, what do you make of this report from CNN that a freelance journalist in Yemen, met said Kouachi in 2011 and Kouachi told him that he had roomed with and been friends with the so-called underwear bomber?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I mean, I think it's entirely plausible and you know, after all, Anwar Al-Awlaki, the American born and lived in America for a long time, who was the head of external operations of al Qaeda in Yemen was grooming the underwear bomber.

Instructed him to put a bomb on an American plane and blow it up over an American city. Awlaki divulged all that information when he was -- when he landed in Detroit when the bomb didn't blow up.

The fact is that Anwar Al-Awlaki was the guy directing operations in the west. He would have been very interested in this guy from France, who spoke perfect French and who he could turn around and do some kind of action in the west.

So I think the report from the Yemeni journalist is both plausible with everything that we know.

TAPPER: And Cherif Kouachi was -- a French television station called the printing press where the Kouachi brothers were hiding, and Cherif I believe is the one who picked up the phone and told the French television station that the terrorist attack that they carried out right here behind me at the offices of "Charlie Hebdo."

That this was financed and part of a plan by Anwar Al-Awlaki who was killed by a U.S. drone back in 2011, is that credible to you that something like this could have been planned in some way by Al-Awlaki and takes place almost four years after Awlaki was killed?

BERGER: I think, Jake, unfortunately it is credible. We've seen multiple cases in the United States where Anwar Awlaki's propaganda was very influential many years after his death.

And for instance, the Boston marathon bombers were consumers of his propaganda and of course, the Boston marathon bombing was two years after he was killed. So the fact that he was grooming this appears to have been grooming Kouachi I think is very plausible.

And it sort of raises interesting questions about the kind of patience involved. Obviously scoping out the attack on "Charlie Hebdo" is something that would have taken many months of planning.

But in the sense they became sleeper cells in French society, kept a very low profile, planning for this deadly attack it looks like.

TAPPER: Is Awlaki still an inspiration to radical terrorist or would- be radicals?

BERGEN: Totally, I mean, Jake, where I work we collect every kind of case in the United States of Jihadi terrorism and we found at least 18 cases where his propaganda was being consumed by a would-be Jihadi terrorist even after Al Awlaki had died.

So you know, he was the most influential English speaking cleric in the world. His book is repeatedly cited by people who have been picked up in the United States and in other western countries as being the kind of pathway that they got into thinking about Jihad and the necessity of doing Jihad. The guy is dead, but his ideas unfortunately live on.

TAPPER: And of course as has been said, Awlaki the inspiration at the very least for the first successful terrorist attack inside the United States since 9/11 at Fort Hood carried out by Major Hassan, who is now in prison. Thank you so much, Peter Bergen. Appreciate it.

Tributes are pouring in for the 12 victims of the attack on the French magazine "Charlie Hebdo" right here in Paris. For ways that you can support and pay tribute, go to CNN.com/impact.

Officials are stepping up security measures in the United States as President Obama condemns the terrorist attacks in France. We'll tell you next what's being done to keep the U.S. safe.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Our breaking news coverage for the remaining suspect in this week's terror attacks continues. Police are searching right now for Hayat Boumediene. I'm Jake Tapper and I'm live in Paris, France.

The United States has condemned the terrorist attacks in France and stepped up key security in cities across the country. CNN's Erin McPike is live from the White House. Erin, what is President Obama saying about the attacks?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, President Obama addressed this in remarks he made yesterday when he was in Tennessee and he's obviously talking about how these attacks are frightening and Americans and citizens all over the world need to exercise caution. Here's what he said yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The French government continues to face the threat of terrorism and has to remain vigilant, the situation is fluid. President Hollande made it clear that they are going to do whatever is necessary to protect their people.

And I think it's important for us to understand. France is our oldest ally. I want the people of France to know that the United States stands with you today, stands with you tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCPIKE: And we also heard from the State Department yesterday they put out an updated worldwide travel advisory for U.S. citizens, I want to read part of that now.

It says, "Recent terrorist attacks whether by those affiliated with terrorist entities, copy cats or individual perpetrators, serve as reminder that U.S. citizens need to maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness."

Now we're also hearing from some law enforcement officials here in the United States, I want to read a comment from that official as well. This is in perpetuity. It's like the war on drugs, this isn't going to stop.

In other words, Jake, U.S. officials are telling CNN they expected attacks like this and they expect attacks like this to continue -- Jake.

TAPPER: Comparing it to the war on drugs is one of the most depressing things I've heard. Erin McPike, thank you so much. Christi, Victor, Back to you in Atlanta.

BLACKWELL: All right, Jake, thank you so much. Next, two sets of brothers caught up in terrorism. The 2013 Boston bombings and this week's Paris attacks have some similarities. We'll explore the brothers behind each attack.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Well, as police in Paris piece together this week's deadly terror attacks we're seeing similarities between those attacks and the 2013 bombing at the Boston marathon.

PAUL: CNN's Deborah Feyerick takes a look at the parallels here for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Two acts of terror, two cities, two pairs of brothers, an ocean apart, but with a mistakable similarities. Said Kouachi and younger brother, Cherif like Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev were children of immigrants.

The Kouachi parents from Algeria. The Tsarnaev parents rooted in Chechnya, both places with a history of violent Islamic extremism. All four appear radicalized as young men advocating lone wolf attacks. The Kouachi urging to fight Jihad against U.S. troops in Iraq. William Braniff studies terrorism.

WILLIAM BRANIFF, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, START: They both found ideologue who was able to translate these beliefs or opinions and turn them into in this case violent action.

FEYERICK: Law enforcement separately in Paris and Boston had three of the four on radar. All flagged by national security in the years leading to the attacks. In Paris, Cherif Kouachi raised a red flag after trying to get to Iraq by way you of Syria.

Three years later in 2008, he was found guilty of taking part in a Paris-based Jihadi recruitment ring. He did not go to prison. French intelligence now telling U.S. officials one of the brothers may have traveled to Yemen to train with al Qaeda. Both men were on U.S. no- fly lists.

In Boston Tamerlan Tsarnaev was flagged a year by he joined fighters. Russian security forces notified the FBI that agents closed the case for lack of evidence.

Tamerlan was a boxer. Cherif was a mediocre rapper. Both dreamed of greatness, both failed. All appear to have remained on the fringes, never totally fitting in.

BRANIFF: Individuals who are disempowered that violent organizations, violent causes often provide them with that sense of empowerment.

FEYERICK: All four motivated by anger. Cherif Kouachi saying he engaged in jihadi recruiting after seeing images of U.S. soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners at Aabu Ghraib. The Boston bombing was for Muslim deaths at the hands of U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan.

BRANIFF: It's very common in Jihadist propaganda for organizations to use the idea of classical jihad to mobile size people into these battle battlefields.

FEYERICK: Two sets of brothers, two acts of terror, both meant to weaken, but instead leading two countries stronger. Deborah Feyerick, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Let's bring in CNN commentator and legal analyst, Mel Robins for us. Mel, good morning to you. We know the Kouachi brothers were killed. The Boston bomber is seeing a trial now. I wonder if the you think Tsarnaev's claim that he was overly influenced by his brother will help him in any way?

MEL ROBINS, CNN COMMENTATOR AND LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning you guys. It's a great question. And of course I'm coming to you live from Boston right now, I've lived in Boston for 18 years and everybody here is watching this trial on the edge of their seats. And he certainly is not going to be acquitted of the charges because

he was influenced by his brother. He will be found guilty. I'm going to tell you right now. It's a little frustrating to know that we're spending the money to convict the guy when we know he's going to be found guilty.

And the only question is whether or not the federal government is going to kill him, whether or not this jury is going to vote for a death penalty. And Christi, I think that that's one of the angles of his defense.

For the death penalty aspect of this case is to talk about how his brother was the mastermind, and he was overwhelmed, influenced over taken by his brother. And that they use that as a sympathy argument to try to get the jury to spare his life.

BLACKWELL: Authorities say that both pairs of brothers were on their radar, they knew about them. But I wonder, within the bounds of law what can authorities do to prevent something like this? How much leverage -- I guess they have leverage, but how much space within the law to capture them before they have an opportunity to act?

ROBINS: Well, you know, it's a question that we're going to be looking at both in the United States and in France in the coming weeks, not only the connection between brothers and how that might accelerate someone becoming radicalized.

But also the fact that three of these four terror suspects guys, were on the FBI's radar screen for crying out loud, on the authority's radar screens. They were on no-fly list some of them.

I think what you've got to look at because the United States does afford due process rights to suspected terrorists, is when is somebody on your radar screen, when are you pulling them in for questioning, which they had done repeatedly with s Tsarnaev.

Remember he was also implicated in a triple murder. He was implicated in a case in Florida. And so, it's a question of when you can cross from questioning somebody, Victor, to when you can pull them into custody, detain them and charge them.

And they simply didn't have the evidence, unfortunately, before the bombs went off in Boston.

Interestingly, in France the older brother was actually convicted of being part of a terror recruiting ring in Paris.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: All right, coming up for the top of the hour now. Here is a look at other stories.

PAUL: Investigators may be closer to finding answers in the crash of Airasia Flight 8501. Take a look at some of this video we've gotten in. Search lifting the tail section of the flight out of the Java Sea and

onto a ship.

CNN's David joining us live from Jakarta right now. David, what do we know about the black boxes and whether they might be connected to the tail section as they were bringing it up.

DAVID MOLKO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Victor and Christi, incredibly powerful images of that tail section being lifted out of the Java Sea onto a search ship using a method of airbags and crane on the ship as well.

The unmistakable, you know, Airasia logo, if you look toward the bottom of the tail section, below the vertical stabilizer, that's the big section of the tail that sticks up, what you see is a section of the tail in tatters.

Four or five windows there that section folded back like a piece of paper. You've got loose wires, jagged edges, the black boxes, the cockpit voice recorder and flight data recorder should be in the lower section of the tail so that's the area we're seeing that isn't there, that is completely torn apart.

At this point according to the head of Indonesia's search and rescue agency, no confirmation that those black boxes are in that tail section.

PAUL: And where now does the search go in, in regards to finding that? I imagine that the search initially for the tail involved so much of the muck of the sea floor there that they have got to get the divers back down, David?

MOLKO: Yes, Victor, that's right. That was a three-day painstaking operation. The weather is continuing to govern and decide the phase of this search. The good news though visibility, underwater currents, have been pretty good enough for them to bring that tail up.

So divers will head back into the water trying to get eyes potentially on bigger pieces of debris and the black boxes. The head of Indonesia's investigative transport agency, it's called the NTSC, kind of like the NTSB like in the U.S.

I'm sorry one of their chief investigators actually telling us they picked up possible pings from another search ship, again, possible pings from the black boxes.

This is he says a matter of, you know, less than a mile from the location of the tail. The priority tomorrow, of course, get divers back in the water with the right equipment where they can listen for those sounds.

Christi, victor, important to note tomorrow, Sunday, will have been two weeks since the plane took off. What that means for the black box pingers is the batteries have only two weeks left.

BLACKWELL: Yes. All right, David Molko in Jakarta for us. Thank you, David.

PAUL: Thank you, David.

BLACKWELL: Let's look at other stories developing this morning.

PAUL: George Zimmerman, haven't heard that name in quite a while, but he was not guilty in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, remember. He has been arrested again. The 31-year-old is taken into custody last night in Florida on suspicion of aggravated assault and domestic violence with a weapon. He is expected to make a court appearance later this morning.

BLACKWELL: Hundreds of people screened to be potential jurors in the Aaron Hernandez murder trial. Hernandez is a former New England Patriots tight end and he attended the screenings and spoke very few words including good morning, good afternoon. Hernandez is indicted in the 2013 shooting death of a semipro football player.

PAUL: Former Cia Director General David Petraeus could face felony charges over accusations that he did provide classified information to his former mistress, Paula Brodwell. That's the recommendation from prosecutors at the Justice Department. The decision to bring charges against the prominent military officer will ultimately be up to Attorney General Eric Holder.

BLACKWELL: All right, we'll see you back at 10:00 Eastern. Here in the CNN NEWSROOM.

PAUL: Glad to have you. "SMERCONISH" starts right now.