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New Day Sunday

Paris Massive Unity March Begins Soon

Aired January 11, 2015 - 08:00   ET

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

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: They're simply in my world, probably top five, top 1 percent of the unprofessional sometimes trained people that I saw at the head of plots.

For example, a kid trying to blow up a Christmas tree on the West Coast during Christmas a couple years ago, not well-trained. You saw that plot, that attack in Ottawa. So, sophisticated, not professional.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHO: All right, fair enough. Thank you so much, Philip Mudd as always providing some context and expertise to this. We appreciate your time today.

CNN's continuing coverage of the aftermath of the French terrorist attacks and today's massive unity rally begins right now.

(MUSIC)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Again, let's take a live look there, look at all of the people waving their flags at the center of where this unity rally in Paris is going to start. It is so packed, people are even standing there on the statues.

We're expecting 1 million people for this rally that will honor victims of last week's terror attacks and who are defiantly telling terrorists, will you not control us.

So glad to have you with us. I'm Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Victor Blackwell. We're just a little less than an hour away from the massive unity march getting under way.

Again, as many as 1 million people, look at them here, hundreds of thousands collected already expected to take part and they want to send a message. Terrorists who gripped this country in fear for three long days will never win. Marches will wind their way from the Place de la Republique to the Place de la Nation, along several routes.

PAUL: Dozens of world leaders, too, are in Paris, for this, including British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and Turkey's prime minister, many of them already there, meeting with France's president.

Overshadowing this march, though, there is a potential new threat of French police source tells CNN terrorist sleeper cells have been activated in just the past 24 hours.

Jake Tapper is there live in Paris.

And, Jake, I know that you are at the place where this unity rally will begin.

Help us understand what it's like there right now.

TAPPER: Well, it's very exciting, the crowd is very enthusiastic, Christi. They've been gathering now for hours. The crowds are in the thousands. They were in roughly the hundreds when we got here. They've been standing on the statue behind me and doing all sorts of chants, who are you, Charlie, who are you, Charlie, a reference to "Charlie Hebdo," the French satirical magazine whose members were so brutally slaughtered last Wednesday, they've been singing the national anthem, they've been chanting thank you, merci to the police for providing them with protection.

Officials, of course, are planning to use what they're calling exceptional measures today to protect everyone participating in this rally, including those world leaders, Attorney General Eric Holder for the U.S., British prime minister David Cameron, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas.

We're also learning new information this morning about Amedy Coulibaly, that's the terrorist suspect who police say gunned down four hostages, four innocent people at a Jewish market on Friday, as well as having killed a French policewoman on Thursday.

Let's get more on this from CNN senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann. He's located at the Place de la National, which is where the unity rally that begins where I'm standing will end later today.

Jim, welcome. First of all, we're learning that Coulibaly, this terrorist pledged allegiance to al Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS.

Tell us more about that.

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a video apparently that has come out on some of the Islamic Web sites this morning, and in fact, it shows a picture of Coulibaly, actually three different scenes of Coulibaly posing with his weapons but also pledging allegiance to al Baghdadi, the self-proclaimed head of ISIS, in Syria and Iraq.

And as a consequence, it adds a little bit of confusion to the story in the sense that we have been told up until now that he was part of a group trained by the Yemenis, and not necessarily connected with is. But in this video, it's clear from the voiceover that he is pledging allegiance to al Baghdadi and he's called in the video a soldier of a caliphate.

So, in fact, it indicates clearly that he has some allegiance to al Baghdadi as well as perhaps to al Qaeda of Yemen, as we have been talking about for the last few days -- Jake. TAPPER: Jim, the interior minister in France spoke about the security measures being put in place for today's march. Tell us more about what I imagine must be extraordinary security.

BITTERMANN: I think it is extraordinary security. As you mentioned there may be up to 50 heads of states from the international community here, who are joining this march. And so, the French police have mobilized 2,200 agents just for the march here in Paris, including snipers on rooftops and all sorts of things along the way. Lot of people, a lot of plain clothed agents you wouldn't be able to identify that blended in the crowd, typical for French demonstrations, but the kind of security commitment that we're seeing today.

Clearly, they've got a huge problem on their hands here in the sense they have to assure the safety of all of these world leaders who have come in as well as the French leader.

We have eight former prime ministers are taking part in this unity march to show some national unity, and, of course, President Hollande himself may be marching along for a brief part of this.

So, it is a real nightmare. Here's what the interior minister, Michel Cazeneuve, had to say earlier.

(INAUDIBLE)

TAPPER: Apparently we to last audio.

We bring in CNN national analyst Peter Bergen.

Peter, I want to talk to you about this video of the Paris gunmen, the terrorist Amedy, Coulibaly pledging allegiance to al Baghdadi. It's a video released by ISIS on Twitter, I believe.

What's your take on it? How legitimate does it seem to you? Does this suggest necessarily that Coulibaly had any contact with ISIS or maybe he just was homegrown and pledged allegiance?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Jake, I think it's probably the latter. It's hard to tell you about a look at the stills from that video, it looks like a shot of his bedroom in France. Typically when you see an ISIS video released with the fighters coming from overseas they're very dramatic and out in the desert area or they're clearly in a location that is Syria or Iraq.

Here, we've got a guy who is probably in his suburban bedroom in France who is sort of self-identifying with ISIS and this has been put out by somebody of his on a jihadist militant site. That's my take right now. I don't think this is indication that he went to Syria and was trained by ISIS. That doesn't preclude the idea he might have but in this video itself, it would be unusual for an ISIS fighter in Syria not to show him doing something much more dramatic than what we see in this video, Jake.

TAPPER: Peter, the Kouachi brothers were obviously known to French authorities. One of them had done time in prison for trying to recruit jihadists to fight against American soldiers in Iraq. I believe it was in 2008, one of them had traveled to Yemen to train. French intelligence is being criticized a bit now, rising voices in the media and counterterrorism experts saying that they missed a lot of warning signs.

What's your reaction?

BERGEN: Well, I think that's true but I think in almost any major terrorist event when we look back, that's always the case. I mean, the CIA the two members of al Qaeda were in the United States before 9/11 didn't tell the FBI, and those two al Qaeda members turned out to be the hijackers that crashed into the Pentagon on 9/11. Similarly, the London bomber, the guy who headed the London bombing cell was known to the police and wasn't followed sufficiently. And just take the Boston marathon bombers, where you spent so much time reporting on Jake, you know, Tamerlan Tsarnaev came to the attention of the FBI, he was also almost certainly involved in a triple murder in Boston, which wasn't sufficiently investigated.

So, it's not untypical for when you look back to see warning signs. In a way, that's -- you know, you always see that these kinds of folks have come to the attention of law enforcement. That's almost invariably the case, and it would be worse if they just came out of nowhere, right?

I mean, we have seen examples of Faisal al Assad from the Pakistani Taliban, tried to blow up an SUV in Times Square on May 1st, 2010, lucky it didn't work, but he wasn't known to any intelligence agency, and yet, he drove his SUV into the most heavily policed place in the world which is Times Square on a Saturday night.

So, you know, there will obviously be some 9/11 Commission here, Jake. There certainly were multiple warning signs but the two brothers and clearly the ball was dropped.

TAPPER: Peter Bergen, thank you so much.

That's right. This event is being referred to in France as France's 9/11. Obviously, the loss of life not as great but it does seem as though at least from commentators in counterterrorism and public officials here that things have changed in France.

We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, more CNN live coverage of the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in Paris, France, as well as coverage of the unity rally that will be kicking off any moment now.

Stay with us.

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TAPPER: Welcome back. I'm Jake Tapper and this is CNN's continuing coverage of the aftermath of the terrorist attacks here in Paris, France, as well as today's unity rally.

I'm standing here at the Place de la Republique, where thousands and thousands of Frenchmen, women and children have gathered. They are chanting, "Who are you? Charlie. Who are you? Charlie" -- a reference of course to "Charlie Hebdo," the French satirical magazine that was brutally attacked last Wednesday, 12 people killed.

The magazine publishes this Wednesday, they are going to be putting out at least a million copy, in defiance of the terrorist attacks by the Kouachi brothers.

French officials are still looking, of course, for that fourth terrorist suspect, the female suspect, Hayat Boumeddiene. She's now believed to be in Syria.

Let's bring in CNN's Atika Shubert. She's standing at the site of Friday's terrorist attack, the kosher supermarket in Paris where four innocent people were killed.

Atika, tell me what we know about Hayat Boumeddiene's movement. I suppose the fact the thought to be in Syria would suggest that she was not involved in either the Friday attack in the kosher supermarket or the Thursday attack, the cold-blooded murder of the French policewoman.

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think the fact is that police are still trying to piece together all the different parts of this puzzle. We're still coming up with new details every day. In fact, for example, just now the Paris prosecutor has said that it looks like a jogger who was shot in the neighborhood where Coulibaly lived with Boumeddiene was shot with the same gun that was used in the kosher market behind me. So, there's still other parts of this being put together.

One of the key questions is what role did Hayat Boumeddiene may have had in all of this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SHUBERT (voice-over): When Amedy Coulibaly gunned down four people and took hostages at the kosher supermarket, police immediately issued this arrest warrant for him and his partner, Hayat Boumeddiene, suggesting she had been alongside her husband for the attack.

Police said she was armed and dangerous. France's public prosecutor linked the couple to the attackers at "Charlie Hebdo."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): It appears from the investigation, especially phone taps, that Cherif Kouachi's spouse had called more than 500 times Amedy Cuolibaly's partner, Hayat Boumeddiene, which shows strong relationship between the couple.

SHUBERT (on camera): This is where Amedy Coulibaly and Hayat Boumeddiene were living. It's about a 10-minute drive to Montrouge, that is where Coulibaly is believed to have gunned down that police officer, and 20 minutes from the kosher supermarket where he took hostages.

Now, police are still inside the apartment investigating. (voice-over): Their names are clearly printed on their mailbox, and

armed police still stake out the couple's apartment.

Photos of Boumeddiene in 2010 quickly surfaced, showing her in full niqab, armed with a crossbow. Court records showed she and her boyfriend had met with a top al Qaeda recruiter.

But now, as the investigation widens, it appears Boumeddiene was not even in France at the time of the shooting. Turkish officials say she arrived January 2 in Istanbul, most likely destined for Syria. French security sources agree.

And that's not the first dead end. Initially, police named three suspects in the "Charlie Hebdo" attack, including an 18-year-old named Hamyd Mourad, but friends of Mourad insisted to CNN that he was innocent, in school at the time of the attack, more than 100 miles away, an alibi police later confirmed after Mourad voluntarily turned himself in. Saturday, he was released.

In a rush to find the attackers, French police cast a wide net. But investigators are still seeking answers from anyone who may have been involved in France or abroad, including Hayat Boumeddiene.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SHUBERT: Now one of the big questions is how much coordination did Coulibaly have with the Kouachi brothers.

Now, he's claimed that these attacks were done in coordination but also separately. We know that from phone conversations he's had with local media. But police are trying to figure out the exact time line and just how much preplanning and coordination there was for all of these attacks -- Jake.

TAPPER: Atika, if Hayat Boumeddiene was in Syria during this attack, do authorities have any idea if she knew about the plans for this attack?

SHUBERT: They haven't said just how much she knew, just how much involvement we had. All we know is that she was obviously quite close to Coulibaly, they were living together and then she traveled to Turkey and is presumed to be in Syria now.

We don't know much more than that. It's still an ongoing, fluid situation and they're trying to figure out exactly how Coulibaly and the Kouachi brothers planned this.

And remember, just in the last 24 hours, and police here have said that Coulibaly triggered other sleeper terror cells in the area to conduct more attacks. He did that by making calls from that market to his friends, urging them to carry out more attacks.

And that is why police here are still very much on edge. They've swept this area clean. They've detonated explosives, controlled detonation of a suspected package and they continue to check, they pushed us back here. This is very much still a city on edge, Jake.

TAPPER: Atika Shubert, thanks so much.

Of course, Phil Mudd, former CIA counterterrorism official telling us earlier when it comes to the idea of sleeper cells, we shouldn't necessarily think of them in terms of getting instructions from a foreign terrorist group but also possibly just being self-motivated individual lone wolves who activate themselves. We're going to have much more on this unity rally, which will get started in less than half an hour.

CNN's continuing live coverage of it continues from France, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: Welcome back to CNN's continuing -- welcome back to CNN's live coverage of the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks, as well as the unity rally, which is kicking off here in Paris.

I'm Jake Tapper, I'm standing at the Place de la Republique, where thousands and thousands of Frenchmen, women and children have gathered to express solidarity, to express defiance, to express the concept that this is a nation that will not be cowed by the terrorist attacks of a bunch of cowards who come armed to slaughter innocent people. This nation will stand forward and stand strong.

I want to go right now to Frederik Pleitgen with more on today's rally -- Frederik.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jake. I'm right in the middle of the crowd, as you can probably hear, and see as well.

Right in the middle of the crowd, there's literally already tens of thousands of people who have gathered here and, of course, if you look at this rally here, it is one that is of course about unity, but it's also one that's about free speech and also about liberty, which are, of course, those key French values and the folks here are chanting things like "we are not afraid". They're also saying they will not let their way of life be challenged by some people who commit terrorist acts.

And also, of course, what is important or what I think is really important, you also have a lot of members of the Muslim community of France who are here and who are displaying solidarity with all those coming out.

Of course, we are in the middle of the crowd. So, we want to talk to some people as to why they came here.

Hi, sir. How are you doing? What's your name?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Voltuan (ph).

PLEITGEN: Voltuan. Good to meet you, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

PLEITGEN: Tell me why you came out here, sir. It's about unity but about more than that for France?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, because we are terribly shocked by what has happened, because the 17 people citizens who were killed by terrorists -- it is awful, and it must not happen again. So, we are here to say stop with terrorism, but terrorism must be crushed by repression and not only repression, we have to get rid of terrorism. It is an important message I want to say.

PLEITGEN: What's also important here is that the Muslim community in France, the Jewish community and the Christian community need to show solidarity with one another. Is that correct?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, yes. You are true. We are all linked together. We have to be tolerant and to be fraternal. We have to be like sisters and brothers in this world. Life is so short. We have to spread love, like Gandhi.

PLEITGEN: Do you think that in France today, there is a new debate about what the society needs to be like about how France wants to move forward to create this unity?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

PLEITGEN: I'll help you hold this. It's actually getting quite windy and starting to rain. This gentleman is working really hard to keep this sign up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is great mobilization, going to have great consequences. This is going to have great consequences.

PLEITGEN: Look at that.

The sign falls on my head.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Great consequences and positive consequences I think because we are going to build new links between people, to stop terrorism, to stop intolerance and really to set real democracies in France but also all around the world, with democratic participation, more people. There is a great lack of democracy even in rich countries.

PLEITGEN: Thank you very much, sir. I'll show your shirt quick, "Je Suis Charlie" shirt.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We all are Charlie.

PLEITGEN: We are all Charlie, something we've been seeing a lot. As you can see, the crowd is cheering "Charlie, Charlie", that's something that we've been hearing a lot of, that great big show of solidarity.

So, in the end, Jake, what you have here is you have people who are displaying their solidarity with the folks from "Charlie Hebdo", of course, after that terrible attack even also people quite frankly shocked what's been happening in their country over the past couple of days and who wants to show that none of this happened in their name and that they will not tolerate intolerance, Jake.

TAPPER: All right. Frederik Pleitgen, thank you very much.

We're standing here in the cold rain as it starts to come down on the tens of thousands of protesters, up to a million people are projected to be at this unity rally which will start at the Place de la Republique and proceed to the separate routes to the Place de la National.

Now, CNN's live coverage of the unity rally will kick off in half an hour and will continue after this.

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