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FBI Helping France with Terror Attack; How U.S. Is Responding to Attack in Paris; Massive Manhunt in Paris, France on High Alert; Support for Attacked Paris Magazine Grows; French Magazine No Stranger to Controversy

Aired January 07, 2015 - 13:30   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And to underscore his personal solidarity with the people of France, he later made a statement in French as well.

Meanwhile, the Homeland Security secretary of the United States, Jeh Johnson, he's been talking to our own Dana Bash up on Capitol Hill about this terror attack, the U.S. response.

Dana, what did you hear from the secretary?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He was very sober, as you can imagine, but talked a lot about how this is indicative of how the nature of threats in the western democracies in particular are changing. Listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEH JOHNSON, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: I do want to take the opportunity to stress what I believe to be the evolving nature of the terrorist threat that we potentially face here in our homeland and overseas. It is becoming a more and more complex terrorist threat. It is evolving in that there are more affiliates' adherence to core terrorist organizations and lone wolf actors. Actors who may lurk within our society that could strike with little notice, commit an act of violence because they have been inspired by things they see on the Internet, social media, in literature, without accepting a direct order from a command and control terrorist organization.

BASH: Mr. Secretary -

JOHNSON: And so it is very important, in my judgment, that the United States government work closely with state and local law enforcement and engage the public, engage the community in our countering violent extremism initiatives. That's something that I've done personally. And it's important that the public itself be involved in our homeland security efforts.

BASH: Mr. Secretary, should you raise the -- are you considering raising the terror threat level in this country?

JOHNSON: We continually put out bulletins to state and local law enforcement authorities, to state and local governments about what we are seeing in terms of Homeland Security threats. We do that on a routine basis. I'm sure we'll be doing more of that in the short term in the coming days.

One other thing I want to say, I just had a very good meeting with some congressional leadership here. It's important that the Department of Homeland Security be funded through an appropriations bill. We cannot continue through the course of the year to function on a continuing resolution. That poses real risk to the homeland.

BASH: Are you saying you're hampered -- that you're not in a position to keep this country safe from the kind of attack we saw in Paris because you don't have appropriate budget?

JOHNSON: I'm saying that a continuing resolution is not the way to go and that as long as we're operating on a C.R., have real challenges in funding the things that need to be funded for Homeland Security across the spectrum, whether we're talking about the Secret Service, Coast Guard, border security, funding pay increases for our people, funding additional resources for Homeland Security that we cannot do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BASH: Wolf, let me just put in context that statement at the end there. The entire U.S. government was funded, at the end of last year, with new priorities except for one agency and that is the Department of Homeland Security. Republicans wouldn't allow that to be done for a long-term basis because they were trying to sort of hold their fire on how they want to retaliate against the president on his immigration executive order.

So for that reason, the funding for Homeland Security, first of all, runs out in about two months, but also is based on priorities that are a couple of years old. That's why he said it is imperative not just that it is funded but that it is funded in a way that allows the department to address some new threats and do so by moving around money that they simply can't do right now because of what Congress has done and hampered them that way.

BLITZER: We'll see what the new Congress does in these coming weeks. They have to fund the Department of Homeland Security.

Dana, thanks very much.

By the way, the secretary of Homeland Security, Jeh Johnson, will be my guest later today in "The Situation Room." That's coming up later today.

Still ahead, the attack in France was coordinated and well planned. We're taking a closer look at the wide list of who could be behind it. Stay with us. New information coming in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting from Washington.

We're following the breaking news, a terror attack in Paris. 10 journalists, two police officers murdered. Three terrorists are believed to be at large. A massive manhunt is under way right now.

Our Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, is getting new information about how the U.S. is responding to this attack in Paris.

Barbara, what are you learning?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, first up, the Department of Homeland Security saying that it will, if needed, raise any alert levels here in the United States. We're already seeing some reaction, of course, in New York City, which generally moves very quickly to increase security in these types of situations.

There's no information right now that indicates any specific immediate threat in the United States. But clearly security and intelligence officials, very concerned because the fact is, at this hour, they do not know who is responsible for this attack. There are several markers in this attack that concern them considerably. First, of course, is that there were multiple attackers. We have generally seen lone-wolf type attacks. We have seen suicide bombers, people who go in and know that they're going to die in these attacks. That is not what happened here.

This is very different. You have multiple attackers going in, preplanned, very heavily armed, knowing exactly what they wanted to do, and they had a getaway car. They had a getaway plan. They had every intention of getting out of this alive and going on the run. And now, of course, French authorities urgently looking for them. And U.S. officials saying that is the top priority. Everyone wants these people found before they can cross into European borders, before they can disappear even further. The U.S. scouring all the intelligence it has looking for any indicators about who may have been behind this -- Wolf?

BLITZER: They're looking back, U.S. intelligence, French intelligence, other intelligence agencies, they're looking to see if they missed some tip that might have prevented this attack, right?

STARR: That's exactly right. It's what you would expect them to do. They're going back through everything from communication intercepts, cell phone calls, imagery, any intelligence reports that they might have had, any eavesdropping, looking at reports from the people that they generally watch.

What we know is that there's been huge concern in the United States intelligence services and the European counterparts about people going from these areas to Iraq and to Syria to fight and then coming back into Europe potentially to launch attacks. So they've been keeping a very close eye on these so-called foreign fighters.

We don't know at this point that these people today were foreign fighters. We need to be very clear. The information is sketchy to the point of being nonexistent about exactly who these people were. But this is one of the trails that the intelligence services around the world have been following in recent weeks and months, who is out there, who's been going into Iraq and Syria? Could these people have been loyal to ISIS, to al Qaeda, to al Qaeda in Yemen, the top tier bad actors in the world? Could they have been self-radicalized inside France? These are all the questions.

Right now what U.S. officials are saying is they have no intelligence current -- very recent intelligence, if you will, that indicates to them there was a specific threat against this magazine, although it was well-known because of the magazine's reputation for very pointed satire that this magazine was a target. But they don't have anything recent -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Barbara, thanks very much.

Barbara working her sources over at the Pentagon.

Still to come, French police and the French government, they're now working feverishly to try to find these terrorists as the country's security alert remains right now at its highest possible level.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Let's get back to the breaking news. Right now, a massive manhunt is under way in France for at least three terrorists who staged an attack this morning on the Paris office of the satirical magazine 'Charlie Hebdo.'" 12 people were killed, 11 others were wounded. Some of them in critical condition right now. Gunmen entered the office as they were having an editorial meeting, opened fire and killing these people.

The FBI director here in the United States, James Comey, just confirmed his agency is working with the French government to try to bring the killers to justice.

Joining us now from west Newton, Massachusetts, CNN's national security analyst, Julia Khayyam; and CNN law enforcement analyst, Tom Fuentes, also a former assistant director of the FBI.

Tom, I know there's a massive search under way in the Paris area right now. But these three terrorist, we never saw their faces. At least we don't know what their faces look like. They could be anywhere by now, right?

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: They could be here. The amount of time that's passed, we don't have their face descriptions, they could have changed clothes, changed clothes, dumped the weapons. They're a flight away from the United States with European passport, if they're French citizens and have a European passport, they can fly here without a visa. They can also cross into any other European country with no passport based on the agreement that allows going from France to Germany or Belgium is like going from New York to Pennsylvania or Virginia. They could be on their way to Sweden or Denmark to finish off the cartoonists there that, in the last five or 10 years, also drew what Islam considered offensive cartoons.

And we had our own American home-grown Jihad Jane who in 2009 was trying to put together a team to go to Sweden and hack to death with machetes and butcher knives one of the cartoonists that drew one of these cartoons --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: So you're saying this manhunt that's in the Paris area should be widened to go a lot bigger than just in France?

FUENTES: It would have been from the beginning. The relationship precedes 9/11. A lot of Americans aren't aware that the FBI worked with seven European countries including the French authorities and the authorities in United Arab Emirates in Dubai. All those subjects were arrested and later prosecuted. Because of our attack being so horrific here on 9/11, it didn't get any publicity here. So that working relationship has gone on for decades.

BLITZER: Julia, you used to work in the Department of Homeland Security here in the United States. What are they doing? I assume they're worrying about copycats or other operations that could be in the planning stages not only in Europe but here in the United States?

JULIETTE KHAYYAM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Right, and they're also the border enforcement agency. As Tom was saying, the passport issue is a big deal. So the border components, the transport security agency but you have the Coast Guard and border patrol are going to be on higher alert because of concerns about who's traveling here as well as, as you said, the copycats.

Local and state law enforcement agencies and first responders will also be on higher alert. It's not really a technical term, on the watch out. But I have to believe because of the nature of the attack, the escape was as well-planned as the attack itself, that these guys do not want to be found at this stage, and therefore are probably going to be hiding under the radar in Europe. So this is not just a French manhunt. This is probably the largest European manhunt going on in history as we speak

BLITZER: I think you're probably right, Juliette.

Juliette and Tom I want you and our viewers to look at some dramatic video of the scene. Take a look. It shows two masked gunmen spraying the streets with gunfire. We later see them getting into their getaway car and driving off.

Tom, let me start with you. You see these images. And we'll show it to our viewers once again right now. We can learn about their tactics, their M.O., maybe possibly a little bit about their background, right?

FUENTES: Right. As General Hertling mentioned earlier, the fact that this does look like people that may have had some military training. There's a degree of precision. But also, we have bank robbery crews in this country that show about that much precision in doing a robbery and escaping and switching cars and having -- of course, we've got more weapons than any other country in the world that are in the hands of the public. So you have the threat that there is military training, but not necessarily.

BLITZER: What do you make, Juliette -- there was a cartoon in this satirical magazine, and a tweet went out making a little fun of the leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi. I don't know if it had any connection to today's attack. This wasn't just a random inspired attack. It was a well-coordinated operation. But the fact that they're making fun of Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, making fun of the Prophet Muhammad, clearly there's an incentive for these extremists to go ahead and go after this kind of magazine.

KHAYYAM: Exactly. I agree with you, Wolf, that an attack like this, like we saw on September 11th, they are so well prepared and so targeted. The terrorists are setting the calendar, not some Facebook post or publication. This date was chosen possibly because this is when all the editors were going to be together. So it had mass casualty effect. We don't know if it's ISIS or al Qaeda or some other entity. And that's why we need to catch them. That's why the manhunt is so important.

But you are right that these attacks on the messenger, that's exactly what it is, the media attacks are to amplify not only the terrorists' victimizing of everyone or terrorizing everyone, it's also to kill the messenger. And that's very scary for journalists. It is very scary for anyone in the media business because it has that amplifying effect that you really don't see in a lot of other terrorist attacks.

I will say this was an assassination that caused terror. This was so targeted, so focused on who they were getting. So in that way, we are in a different stage. This is not either 9/11, which is big, but in some ways anonymous, nor is it the sort of lone-wolf, whoever they can get walking down the street. This is a new type of attack and that's why we're all sort of taking it seriously.

BLITZER: They take it very seriously.

Juliette, thank you very much.

Tom Fuentes, thank you as well.

In the minutes and hours following the shooting, social media trends started growing, one of which a particular hash tag, "I am Charlie." Support for the paper coming in from around the world. We'll update you on what's going on.

Much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Among the latest images coming out of Paris, grim-faced citizens holding signs. It translates into "I am Charlie." They show their solidarity, resolve that they will not let terrorism intimidate free thought. 12 people died in the attack by the gunmen. 10 employees of the "Charlie Hebdo" magazine, two police officers and the gunman are still on the loose. Support for the victims also pouring in from around the world. In the moments right after the attack, the hash tag we just mentioned, "I am Charlie" was trending on Twitter.

Our Erin McLaughlin is joining us right now. She has more.

Erin, what are you seeing on social media? What are people saying? ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we're seeing many world

leaders who have gone online to express their condemnation of this terrorist attack.

Let me go through some of the examples of the tweets we've been seeing. From the vice president of the European Union who tweeted, "This is an attack on all of us, on our fundamental values, on the freedoms E.U. societies are built on." We also heard from British Prime Minister David Cameron who called the murders sickening saying, "We stand with the French people in the fight against terror and defending the freedom of the press." We've also heard from the Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper -- you'll remember Canada experiencing their own terror attack last year -- saying he's, "horrified by the barbaric attacks in France." Adding, "Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and the families."

It's not just world leaders speaking out. And also many on Twitter saying they don't agree with the satire that this magazine often published but saying they stand up for freedom of speech, with one Twitter follower quoting the French writer saying, Voltaire, "I do not agree with what you have to say but I'll defend to the death your right to say it."

We're also hearing from members of the Muslim community quick to draw a distinction between these attackers and rest of the Muslim world saying, "As a Muslim, I refuse to apologize for this terrorist attack but, as a Muslim, I demand justice for the victims."

So outrage, condemnation and calls for justice online right now -- Wolf?

BLITZER: Certainly is. It's escalating even as we speak.

Erin, thanks very much.

The French magazine "Charlie Hebdo" no stranger to controversy. We'll take a closer look at what made this magazine so controversial. That's coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: The French magazine "Charlie Hebdo," where 12 people were killed in a terror attack, has a long history of provoking outrage. The magazine and its staff have endured threats and lawsuits for nearly a decade starting when they reprinted 12 cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that first appeared in a Danish newspaper. Any depiction of the prophet is forbidden by the Islam, and the Muslim community found those images highly offensive. In 2011, the magazine office was firebombed after the publication named the prophet as its editor-in-chief for its next issue.

Nobody was injured at the time but the incident was the first time the magazine was physically attacked. The editor, who was among those killed in today's attack, fueled more anger after posing amid damage with a cover depicting the prophet making facetious comment. There was a series of cartoons depicting the prophet, again, sparking more protests around the world. Police were stationed in front of the magazine's headquarters to try to keep the peace. In 2013, the editor was placed under police protection after al Qaeda placed him on their most-wanted list for crimes against Islam, even placing a price on his head.

We should note that Islam is not alone in being singled out by the magazine. The magazine prides itself on being an equal-opportunity offender, as published provocative cartoons feature popes, world leaders, all religions going after Christians, Jews, Muslims and even atheists.

That's it for me. I'll be back at 5:00 p.m. eastern in "The Situation Room."

For our international viewers, "AMANPOUR" is coming up next.

For viewers in North America, "NEWSROOM" with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.