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THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER

Poison Plot; Terror Group Claims Credit for French Attack; Increased Screening in Place at U.S. Airports; Interview with U.S. Congressman Adam Schiff of California

Aired January 14, 2015 - 16:00   ET

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


JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Who wins the battle of ideas? Well, here's a clue. The new issue of "Charlie Hebdo" is out, and three million copies sold out in a split-second.

I'm Jake Tapper. This is THE LEAD.

The world lead. He said he wanted to kill Jews in the name of ISIS. We already saw his final moments alive. Now new images of the horror and the hostages from the day this terrorist turned a kosher supermarket into a shooting gallery.

Plus, a jihadi group claiming responsibility for the "Charlie Hebdo" slaughter. One week after the bloody attacks, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, says they are behind the terror plot and this American-born cleric who is now dead had a role in planning it, they say.

And the politics lead, an alleged murder plot against the man second in line to the presidency. Did House Speaker John Boehner's bartender at his posh country club actually plan to poison his wine?

Good afternoon. Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

We are going to begin today with breaking news in our money lead, the Dow taking a bad tumble today, finishing the day down nearly 200 points. At one point, the average had hemorrhaged more than 300 points, but then the bleeding slowed a little bit.

CNN's Cristina Alesci is live in New York.

Cristina, this is the fourth day in a row if my counting is correct that the Dow has finished in the red. What's going on?

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jake, rough ride in the markets today. We started off in the morning getting a read on the American consumer and that read was pretty bleak. Retail sales fell for the first time in a year by almost a full percentage point.

Remember, that's in the face of lower gas prices, which is supposed to be putting more money, more spending money in the pockets of the American consumer, and the employment picture is also supposed to be getting better, so we would have thought that consumer retail sales would have done better. They did not. Plus, we also got a read on how corporate America was doing in the

form of earnings season and there, too, there was disappointment. The largest U.S. bank said it's under attack by regulators. It released numbers that fell way below analyst expectations. That's J.P. Morgan Chase.

And, finally, as uneasy as people are about the American economy, the World Bank says it's the bright spot and that the world cannot rely on America. It readjusted its world forecast for growth. That is also a very negative sign, Jake, a lot of volatility in the market and that is going to continue.

TAPPER: All right, Cristina Alesci in New York, thank you so much.

Turning now to our top story, the world lead, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula stepping forward to say that they are behind the slaughter at the offices of the French satirical magazine "Charlie Hebdo" as even more pictures are emerging showing us a last glimpse of last week's terrorist attacks.

New photos first posted by the U.K.'s "Daily Mail" reportedly taken off security cameras, they show Amedy Coulibaly in the middle of the hostage situation inside that kosher supermarket, the one he targeted specifically so he could kill Jews. Also today, a 12-minute video surfaced. In it, a commander of the al Qaeda affiliate in Yemen, AQAP, says the plot to target the satirical magazine was at least partly coordinated by Anwar al-Awlaki, the American-born jihadi cleric who was killed by a U.S. drone in 2011.

American intelligence officials say that the video is real. In Paris today, the French are cracking down. Police opened 54 more case files against people accused of supporting terrorism. The French Justice Ministry says these people are not linked to last week's attacks. These cases are more about hate speech, words that the Paris prosecutor claims endorse the attacks.

It's unclear just how many people have been arrested, as opposed to just being brought in for questioning.

I want to go right now to CNN chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto, who is live in our Paris bureau.

Jim, this new al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula video, AQAP in Yemen taking responsibility for the attack, the U.S. is treating this as another piece of the puzzle, but are U.S. officials -- have they decided whether this is definitely an al Qaeda plot?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: The short answer is no, certainly not definitively.

I have spoken to several officials who say it's not yet clear, not yet established that AQAP exercised command-and-control over this plot. It is possible that they trained, funded this, gave some direction and then it was up to the Kouachi brothers to choose the time, place and the target. But either way, this would be an expansion, a new M.O. in effect for

AQAP, which to this point principally has been a threat to airliners, sneaking explosives on to airliners. But you do today have a bold and new claim of responsibility.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO (voice-over): The deadly Paris attacks were planned for years with orders coming directly from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, so claimed the terror group today.

The 12-minute video, which U.S. officials believe to be authentic, features pictures of gunman Cherif and Said Kouachi, with the group's commander praising the attack, calling it revenge for cartoons satirizing the Prophet Mohammed.

"We clarify to the Islamic world that the one who chose the target, laid the plan, financed the operation and appointed its emir," Sheik Nasser said, "is the leadership of the organization." But he provided no proof.

One of the plot's masterminds, he claimed, was American Anwar al- Awlaki, killed in a U.S. drone strike in 2011. Despite the video claim, U.S. officials tell CNN it is not yet clear if AQAP executed direct command-and-control over the operation, or if it provided some training and funding, with the attackers selecting time, place and target.

Still, the investigation has already exposed a complicated and expanding jihadi network. The man seen accompanying Hayat Boumeddiene at a Turkish airport is tied to a Pakistani Afghan terror cell. Her companion, the kosher shop attacker, Amedy Coulibaly, pledged allegiance to ISIS in Iraq and Syria and is known to have communicated with the Kouachi brothers.

Those brothers are now believed to have multiple ties to AQAP in Yemen. Tonight, a disturbing new look inside the assault on the kosher market, CCTV capturing the hostage taker, Coulibaly, in body armor, forcing hostages to take down the CCTV cameras.

Other hostages huddling together soon after the first hostages were killed. A baby stroller, possibly belonging to a child who survived the attack, hidden in a basement refrigerator, is left abandoned in the aisles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Those CCTV images, of course, would have been available to police before the siege of that kosher market. We are told that it gave them some valuable information about where the hostages were, the layout of the store, what the attacker was wearing, what he was armed with.

And that's, of course, likely why you see the attacker in those photographs instructing the hostages to take down those cameras, so that police wouldn't have that advantage. Of course, as we know, the killer was killed, but those -- some hostages did die before they were able to get in there, Jake.

TAPPER: Yes, four Jewish men in France killed. Jim Sciutto live in Paris, thank you so much.

Let's talk more about al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, AQAP, which is in Yemen, with CNN senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, who is live in Beirut.

Nick, if you want to treat terror groups like stocks, this is simplistic, but AQAP seemed to have been on something of a downward trend while ISIS was going up. This claim that they are behind the attack hints at a kind of resurgence in a way.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Certainly.

And if you look into that message, how they refer to Amedy Coulibaly, the -- excuse me -- I'm hearing audio issue here. But if you look at their suggestion that in fact the attack's timing of Coulibaly on the kosher grocery store was simply a matter of good fortune that it coincided with the Kouachi brothers, but not actually claiming he's one of their attackers, that is certainly a way of trying to suggest some sort of brothership between those jihadist groups, put a bit of distance from ISIS.

Coulibaly clearly pledging allegiance to ISIS there. It's an extraordinarily complex rivalry, because parts of their relationship, al Qaeda and ISIS in Syria, involve conflict, involve competing for territory and resources, but at the same time, both of them I think try and espouse rhetoric that suggests if they face a common enemy, they would happily unite.

But certainly after potentially a year now in which ISIS has borne the brunt of coalition airpower and focus, we are definitely dealing with AQAP perhaps trying to reclaim some part of the global territory on jihad here, Jake.

TAPPER: And, Nick, does what we know about the Kouachi brothers', either plural or just one of the brothers, time in Yemen, does it square with this claim today from AQAP?

WALSH: It's almost like there are two parts of a jigsaw here that look like they are going to match, but it's really up to investigators to put them together and complete the picture.

What we hear about the Kouachi brothers' timing in Yemen is that Said, the older one, is said to perhaps have been there between 2009, when he briefly roomed with the underwear bomber, and 2011, when maybe also his brother Cherif used his passport to come in and potentially, according to Barbara Starr's sources, take $20,000 or so back maybe towards France.

That seems to have occurred. The question is, does that necessarily mean there were continued links between them then and the attacks in Paris? Did they continue contacts with Yemeni al Qaeda affiliates? That's not clear. And what Paris investigators are desperately, I'm sure, trying to work out now is, is there a continued relationship or did these brothers come back from Yemen, effectively become a sleeper cell, sit dormant for three years, and then attack at a time of their choosing or even AQAP's choosing.

That's a very complex question because it will suggest what kind of network could still be there in France now -- Jake.

TAPPER: Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Let's go now to CNN terror analyst Paul Cruickshank. He's also the co-author of "Agent Storm," the story of the spy inside al Qaeda in Yemen.

Paul, thanks so much.

You're obviously very familiar with AQAP. The U.S. government has said that this video released today is authentic, but in your estimation, does the claim by AQAP that they are behind the attack, does that seem definitive? Does it seem authentic?

PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, Jake, I think it's certainly credible, given all the information U.S. intelligence agencies have developed about the training of one of the brothers with AQAP in Yemen in 2011.

The group would not provide training to a European like that unless that European swore allegiance to the group, obedience, actually formally joined the group. I think that it's certainly a credible claim, but, of course, they have offered no proof. There's no martyrdom video included yet.

But in previous cases, for example, the underwear plot on Christmas Day 2009, it took them four months to put out those martyrdom videos, so that's something that investigators will be looking at very closely, Jake.

TAPPER: How significant do you think it is that this video stars, features the commander, Nasser al-Ansi?

CRUICKSHANK: Well, it's significant because al-Ansi is a heavy hitter in the group. He's one of their two official spokesmen. He plays a key role in some of the group's operations. So they are very much getting behind this claim, putting their credibility on the line here.

And when it comes to AQAP, they have actually had a pretty accurate record when it comes to these claims. They haven't claimed attacks that they weren't responsible for, for the most part.

TAPPER: Is there any indication at all that there was some sort of signal issued from AQAP to the Kouachi brothers, a go-ahead for the attack?

CRUICKSHANK: I don't think investigators have any evidence of that yet. But what AQAP was doing with some of these Western recruits back in Europe was using encrypted technology, a software system called Mujahideen Secrets to communicate with these operatives back in the West.

We know about this through several court cases. Also, Morten Storm, the guy I wrote the book about, that's how he communicated with Awlaki, even as he was working with Western intelligence. And we do know that AQAP have found ways to communicate secretly to some degree with operatives back in the West.

What they will be trying to figure out is, did that happen in this case or were they perhaps just recruited into an operation in 2011 and then waited for three years to go? The French took the surveillance off them in June 2014, so it's possible they waited until they felt that the French weren't watching anymore before they started preparing this plan.

TAPPER: All right. Paul Cruickshank, thank you so much.

In national news, the U.S. continuing to ramp up security here in the homeland, as the intelligence community in the U.S. tries to connect the dots. What is keeping top officials up at night? The ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee will tell us next.

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TAPPER: Welcome back to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

Our national lead now: the attack at "Charlie Hebdo", the French satirical magazine in Paris, is being called a game changer of sorts. And now, the U.S. is altering its strategy in reaction to it. As we reported at the top of the show, al Qaeda in Yemen, AQAP, claimed responsibility for the Paris massacre at "Charlie Hebdo" and promised more attacks would be coming.

CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown has been speaking with her intelligence sources. She joins us live with the latest.

Pamela, how does this impact the measures that U.S. officials are thinking about taking?

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, they are already beefing up security. And, of course, there's probably a lot being done that we don't know about, Jake, for national security reasons. And we know that right now, investigators are still trying to piece together what exactly the Kouachi brothers did in the time between one of them training in Yemen in 2011 and launching the attacks. Those cracks in the intelligence gathering system are a frightening reminder to U.S. officials that there could be something happening in the homeland they don't know about.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN (voice-over): As Paris reels from the devastating terrorist attacks, the U.S. is bracing for what could happen at home by putting law enforcement on heightened alert and ramping up security at U.S. airports.

DR. PAUL STOCKTON, FORMER ASST. SEC. OF DEFENSE: The Paris attack exemplifies the kinds of threats that could come back to the United States. We need to understand exactly how it happened, how the training occurred, how the movements and planning went forward.

BROWN: The U.S. is working closely with French authorities to track down whether any Americans had communications with the suspects or anyone in their cell, sifting through thousands of phone calls, e- mails and text messages -- according to Senate intel chief Richard Burr, who spoke to CNN's Jake Tapper.

SEN. RICHARD BURR (R-NC), CHAIRMAN, SENATE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE: I think it's likely there will have been some U.S. connections that were made or maybe it's individuals we know about, maybe it's individuals we don't know about. The reality is we've got to triage all of that information.

BROWN: Even if no connections are found, U.S. law enforcement officials are concerned an extremist on the verge of acting out will use Paris as a catalyst to wreak havoc in the U.S.

Overnight, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula released a video claiming deceased American Anwar al Awlaki was the mastermind of the Paris attack. While U.S. officials have authenticated the video, they are still trying to determine how involved the terrorist group was with planning and directing the attack.

U.S. officials believe Cherif Kouachi used his brother's passport to gain entry into Yemen in 2011 to train with AQAP but investigators are scrambling to figure out what Kouachi did once he returned to France, and whether he maintained contact with the terrorist group.

STOCKTON: We continue to have gaps in intelligence. We continue to have problems in being able to block the flow of returning jihadists coming back from Syria, coming back from areas of conflict abroad, and returning to the United States with the skills and the motivation to attack in the United States.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: So far, law enforcement officials say that there is no new intelligence of any specific attacks planning in the U.S., but they do admit one of the biggest challenges right now, Jake, is just getting through the noise, distinguishing what is a legitimate threat versus an empty one.

TAPPER: All right. Let's try to get through that noise.

Pamela Brown, thanks so much.

Representative Adam Schiff, Democrat from California, was just last week named the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee. He joins us now live here on set.

Congressman, first of all, congratulations.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA), RANKING MEMBER, INTELLIGENCE CMTE: Thank you. TAPPER: So, I guess the big confusion here is AQAP and ISIS, because Coulibaly released a video pledging allegiance to ISIS, but the Kouachi brothers claimed allegiance to AQAP and now they seem to be verifying that claim. How does that work? Are these two groups working together now you think?

SCHIFF: Well, I think the leadership of the two groups is not working together. And indeed, in many cases in Syria, they have fought each other.

TAPPER: Right.

SCHIFF: But outside of the theater of war, it certainly appears that those collisions and conflicts are less important to some of the people who are radicalized. And in France, as in probably the United States, Europe and elsewhere, you have people that have a closer affinity to one or the other. Some have been just radicalized online and maybe the message of ISIL and the caliphate resonates more. Others may have actually received training or support from AQAP as may have been the case with the Kouachi brothers and plainly, they don't have a problem working together overseas to attack Western targets.

TAPPER: Right.

SCHIFF: So, those distinctions which may matter on the leadership of those organizations may be of far less importance to people radicalized out around the world.

TAPPER: Now, AQAP has been claiming responsibility in some form for this operation since last week when they told Jeremy Scahill, who's a reporter for "The Intercept". How seriously a role -- what exact role does the intelligence community in this country think AQAP played? Did they come up with the whole plan, was this the exact idea, attack these offices at this time, or was it more like they trained these guys, they sent them out there to the West and things just happened?

SCHIFF: Yes, the short answer is we don't know yet. It's certainly very plausible that at least one of the brothers was in Yemen, had an association with AQAP. We are still trying to verify that. But it's also very possible that the instructions, the support, the training they got wasn't directed in a time, place and manner, in other words, you're going to wait for four years or five years and then you're going to attack this location, here's how you're going to do it.

It may very well be the case that AQAP has tried to recruit Westerners, which they have. They have given them financing, which they have. They have sent them back with general targets or maybe told them to read "Inspire" magazine to get cues on targets.

TAPPER: Right.

SCHIFF: It's interesting that AQAP doesn't assert that they had command and control as in approximate instructions to these brothers. It may be, frankly, you have cases where people go to Syria or Iraq or elsewhere, they think they want to join the jihad, they come back and all of a sudden, in Paris, it doesn't look like such a good idea. And these brothers may have decided to do other things when they got

back to France and something set them off which doesn't have to be an AQAP instruction. They don't have to be sort of the spy novel kind of sleeper cell. It may be that things in their lives weren't going well and they decide OK, this is the time to follow through.

TAPPER: Now, we should mention the al Qaeda magazine "Inspire" did list, they had a wanted list, target list, and Charb, the editor of "Charlie Hebdo", was one of the people on that list. What is the latest intelligence on whether or not the Kouachi brothers or Coulibaly or Boumeddiene, the woman who is still wanted, contacted anyone in the United States?

SCHIFF: Well, we don't have evidence yet, I think, that there's a connection between these attackers in France and some ongoing cell or plot in the United States. Obviously, excuse me, that's our highest priority, finding out, do they have confederates here and helping the French identify who else may be involved in the cell there. Lot of information going back and forth between the U.S. and France.

At this point, though, there's no sense of collaborators working on a plot here in the homeland. We are taking those additional steps, security steps, some disclosed, some not disclosed, because you always have the danger of copycats even if there is no direct connection and you better believe we are concerned right now that people we have had in mind and under surveillance and been watching, because they have been either radicalized or exposed to radicals, we have to worry about them deciding to become active.

TAPPER: But no concrete evidence of any plot --

SCHIFF: No concrete evidence. No.

TAPPER: Just precautions based on what happened.

SCHIFF: Absolutely.

TAPPER: Congressman Adam Schiff, thank you so much. Really appreciate your time.

SCHIFF: Thanks, Jake.

TAPPER: In other world news, the Iranian news agency is reporting that Jason Rezaian, who is "The Washington Post" bureau chief in Tehran and since 2012 has been indicted and will stand trial on undisclosed charges. In a statement to CNN, Martin Barron, the executive editor of the "Washington Post" said, quote, "We call on Iran to make these charges public, to allow Jason access to a lawyer and to bring a swift and just resolution of this six-month long nightmare."

Rezaian is a dual U.S./Iranian citizen. His case has been raised by Secretary of State John Kerry during the course of nuclear negotiations with Iran.

Coming up next, millions of copies sold out in minutes. Thousands stood in line for the latest edition of "Charlie Hebdo." But there were not enough copies to go around. Of course, if you have money to spare, they are on eBay.

Plus, a newspaper takes this now iconic photo and publishes it with a rather strange twist. All the women, including the leader of Germany, were digitally removed from the picture. Why? We'll explain ahead.

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