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French Airstrikes Target ISIS In Syria; Stadium Bombing Witness Recounts The Moment Bombs Went Off; Russia: Homemade Bomb Downed Plane Over Egypt. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired November 17, 2015 - 05:30   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:31:02] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: We have news of another intense round of air strikes overnight targeting ISIS' self-styled capital of Raqqah. The Defense Ministry saying French dropped 16 bombs in Syria.

Senior international correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, joins us live from Iraq with the latest. Nick, what do we know?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was mostly to the south of its center. Similar pattern to the French strikes of the night before. This suggests now a pattern where we see similar strikes tomorrow night as well unclear.

The coalition were -- the first night the French intervened with 20 bombs, the coalition were also in action as well. We know that was on the outside of the city center and targets inside the center, a headquarters and jail.

You have to ask the question are we going to see intensification of French activity and maybe even Russian activity given the final admission of the Sinai that the bomb brought down the Russian jet there.

The French have the (inaudible) aircraft carrier now in the Eastern Mediterranean will reduce the amount of time the French jets need to get back and forth from the bases in Jordan and the UAE they have been using to launch these initial strikes.

That could increase the tempo too. We have Francois Hollande heading to the White House. Surely a military cooperation will be on the table there. We are now looking to see who really was targeted inside Raqqah and if any civilians were caught up in the strikes -- Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Nick, thank you. Keep us posted as to what the aftermath is.

Meanwhile, French authorities conducting more than 120 raids overnight, they have vowed to track down the terrorists responsible for Friday's deadly attacks here in Paris. They have even identified the suspected mastermind. Why catching him will not be easy. That's next on NEW DAY.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [05:36:37]

CUOMO: We have breaking developments on two terror fronts at this hour. First, there is a confirmation by Russian officials that it was a homemade bomb that brought down that Metrojet flight after takeoff from Egypt.

There are also reports from Reuters coming out that there have been arrests made. We will coordinate that we when can. To hear from the Russian president, the message is clear, that they will find and punish those responsible for this attack.

Also here, we are now learning that the man who is wanted as the mastermind in the situation here in France was on a homeland security watch list and they are trying to coordinate what was missed and what could be done better next time.

CAMEROTA: With us now is Simon Kuper. He is a CNN contributor and "Financial Times" journalist. He was in the stadium on Friday when the bombs went off outside. He also lives near the Bataclan, the music venue where there were so many shots fired. Simon, thank you. Four days later, how are you feeling today?

SIMON KUPER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: We're confused. We are trying to process this. That takes time. People use words like heroes. I don't know how it was in New York after 9/11. I don't think most of us feel like heroes. We're people. We are resuming our lives. Streets are filling up. Kids are back at school. We're coping. We are confused. I think it is harder for children to try to process.

CAMEROTA: You have young children. How are you explaining what happened in the new world order to them?

KUPER: We explained in simple terms what happened. The school also explained what happened. There was a minute silence at school. In the court yard at play time, the kids were telling each other what they heard and kids were saying, I heard gunfire, which is very plausible. This is within 400 or 500 meters of the school. Kids were saying I heard gunfire. How this affects them long term, I have no idea.

CAMEROTA: Normal. President Hollande spoke yesterday. He had a very not aggressive tone, but steadfast determined tone. How do you think Parisians responded to his speech about what he was going to do?

KUPER: I think we've all acquired a measure of skepticism. I mean, not just that Hollande was an unpopular president before, but we have seen after 9/11, there is no response that is going to be the right solution that will make you safe.

Every response has down sides. This is a much more complex situation and to hear people from all over the world shout simplistic analysis without any empathy, for what I feel is happening here is very irritating.

Bombing ISIS, I totally understand, but ISIS is not a place in Syria. ISIS is a global idea unfortunately. Almost all the attackers were European citizens so does bombing Syria help? I don't know. I don't think anybody knows at this point.

CAMEROTA: Is there a yearning for a response? Is there a yearning for justice? Must Hollande do something?

KUPER: Hollande has to do something. His nickname is Flambe after a pudding. He is seen as a kind of -- he is not a macho man so he has to show kismet for the voters and people crave an emotional response.

But we saw that in the U.S. I mean, the U.S. craved an emotional response after 9/11. They got it almost immediately. We now know it was the wrong response. So I'm hoping that there will be time for reflection and any response we choose as I say will not solve the problem, but it may do something to help it.

[05:40:09] CAMEROTA: I'm noticing more police presence at the plaza than we saw in the past couple of days. How are you feeling walking the streets of Paris? Is there a sense of danger? Is there a sense of trepidation? How are people going out here?

KUPER: It is becoming normal already. I mean,, three days after the attacks, I was walking through the square last night. The cafes were filled. It looked like Paris. Paris is becoming Paris again.

Yes, there was a stampede on Sunday when people thought there was another shooting. There is a mixture of normality, trepidation, working through what happens to all of us. There is not one fixed response. We are not a propaganda poster for heroes either.

CAMEROTA: Simon Kuper, thank you, best of luck to you. Thank you for sharing all of your personal story with us. It's nice to see you.

Of course, we are following all sorts of breaking news for you this morning. We have a lot of developments including Russian officials confirming that Metrojet plane that crashed in Egypt was brought down by a bomb.

Putin promising to work with the coalition to punish those responsible. Is this a turn for the better in the war against is? We have two different takes for you ahead.

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[05:45:39]

CUOMO: We have breaking news this morning. It was a homemade bomb that brought down the Metrojet plane in Egypt, Russian officials confirming this, and promising to join the coalition to fight ISIS.

Let's bring counterterrorism expert and senior fellow for the foundation for Defense of Democracies, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross. Daveed, homemade bomb, those are the key words there. What does this tell us about the capabilities of ISIS?

DAVEED GARTENSTEIN-ROSS, SENIOR FELLOW, FOUNDATION FOR DEFENSES OF DEMOCRACIES: It doesn't really tell us a lot yet. The reason being we don't what the design of the bomb was. There was obviously a big dispute about it was likely an act of terrorism.

Both the Egyptians and the Russians seemed fairly confused by what had gone on. On the American's case, they very unwisely leaked the information that they've penetrated ISIS internal communications, which I think was a big mistake. But at any rate, what that suggests is that the design was not a typical design.

Secondly, it is important to note that in addition to ISIS in Iraq and Syria, you have both the local affiliate called Walid-Sinai and in neighboring Libya, you also have a very capable ISIS affiliate which currently controls the city of Sirt.

This means that you have not just one set of external operations or terrorism capabilities, but several emanating from different geographic areas.

CUOMO: Two clues or do you dismiss the following? One is the lighter the bomb, the better the material, the better it's made? It's called a one kilogram bomb, 2.2 lbs. What does that mean? The idea of it being homemade, is that a potential connection to what they saw with the vests here in Paris also homemade, they believed to be made of TATP?

GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: No, I mean, the fact that one that was homemade I think doesn't answer the question. What it means is that it was assembled in Egypt. That is what homemade suggests. Again, we don't quite know the design.

To me, if it were a TATP bomb, there would have been some signatures and they would have been able to identify the fact that it was a bomb.

Because if there were a TATP bomb, there would have something like an individual, a passenger who obviously was at the nexus of the blast and whose body took more damage than others.

You also would have typical explosive elements. So I don't think that the fact that they were homemade really links them together. Again, I think that more information will come out about the design is.

And you indeed are putting your finger on a clue. How well homemade was it and what it end up doing. You have a lot of information come out against the Sinai attack, for example, the prospect that there was an inside man at the airport who may have been a part of the plot.

If that ends up being true, that gives them a lot more options in terms of where to place a bomb and what kind of design to use.

CUOMO: All right. Final point, some perspective on this expansion of the coalition of the willing, if you will, but now you have France and Russia saying, you know, we are all in. We want to fight against ISIS. Punish them in the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin. How important is the air campaign? What must be added in order to have sustainable change against ISIS? GARTENSTEIN-ROSS: The air campaign has been a very slow campaign so far. It hasn't been on par even with the campaign that was waged in Libya back in 2011. You may see some loosening of the rules of engagement.

Second, you may see some increased coordination among all of the various actors. ISIS is stretched thin. It is fighting a war on ten fronts right now, but the various factions they are fighting against are very uncoordinated.

So if there is greater coordination amongst ISIS coupled with the ground campaign that frankly has already been making a lot of progress in addition to retaking Sinjar, you now have anti-ISIS ground forces moving into Ramadi, which is one of their big gains over the course of this year.

There is a lot of pressure on Ramadi. This could end up putting a lot more pressure on the ground against ISIS holding in Iraq and Syria.

CUOMO: Daveed Gartenstein-Ross, thank you very much for the perspective. Appreciate it. We will take a quick break. You have two different considerations. You have what ISIS can do and then you have who does it for them.

Right now there is an intense manhunt ongoing here and in Belgium and all over Europe for those suspected to have had something to do with the attacks. What do we know about what was known in advance? What was missed here in France and in the U.S. ahead?

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CAMEROTA: We are learning more today about the suspected mastermind behind the Paris terror attacks. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security raised red flags about this man months ago. So why wasn't he watched more closely?

For that, we turn to international affairs editor and correspondent for France 24, Melissa Bell. Melissa, great to have you here. What do we know about this so-called mastermind?

MELISSA BELL, INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS EDITOR, FRANCE 24: We know he is a Belgium citizen. We know the Belgians believed that he wasn't involved. They don't believe he was involved. French authorities seemed convinced that he could have been the mastermind.

[05:55:10] Who is he? He is a Belgian who went to Syria a couple of years ago taking with him his younger brother to Syria. He made a lot of headlines at that time. Since then, he has been in a number of attacks on European soil.

You remember the time of "Charlie Hebdo" back in January and in Belgium with police spoiled the attack. He was behind that. Many questions about why he wasn't more closely watched. Was he in communication with the people that carried this out in France?

If so, how did those communications slip under the radar? He is now known to have contributed to the magazine that circulates within the circles boasting about the fact he came to Europe to plan the attacks in 2014 and slip back to Syria. If that is the case, it is a huge embarrassment to European security group.

CAMEROTA: He was hardly flying under the radar. He was garnering publicity in the magazine profile. People knew about him.

BELL: People knew about him. Why admittedly he was on the ground in Iraq. And why were people in Europe able to go ahead and why were those around him not more closely watched? Those are the questions for French security services.

More questions about the men directly involved on Friday night, the eight, many questions about them. Many of them were known to French security services and still nothing was done.

CAMEROTA: Even the U.S. Department of Homeland Security knew about this so-called mastermind and had flagged him as someone to watch. It sounds as though he slipped through people's fingers. Was it that they weren't watching him or couldn't find him?

BELL: It is difficult to say at this stage. They have not made it clear. There are a number of security procedures. Europe's most wanted man, Salah Abdeslam, the one of the eight who got away. We know a car came to fetch him on Saturday.

He was stopped by French authorities when the manhunt was under way. He was known to authorities but not us. They checked his papers and within this area, he was known to authorities, he was not flagged out to French. That is one lapse involved.

The others include two of the French citizens involved in the attacks. First identified is known to French security services. He was under surveillance. This guy traveled to Syria and obviously came back completely undetected as did another of the attackers, Samy Amimour (ph).

He is known to French security services and under French control and managed to get to Syria. Journalists spoke to his family over the last few years. He married and still he came back and attacked on Friday night. All of these are questions for the French security services this morning.

CAMEROTA: Is it me or are there more security guards and police out here today than we have seen? What's going on?

BELL: There is a reason for that. The France interior minister requested beefed up security forces. This morning, he announced 115,000 police and soldiers in France. They are absolutely everywhere.

Not just the police but the soldiers. A sense the French do not want to allow what happened on Friday to happen again. Of course, these are early days. We are talking about the investigation and three days of mourning have ended.

You will see these questions. How could this have happened with all of these increased resources have slipped through the net.

CAMEROTA: Melissa Bell, thank you for the great information. Great to see you this morning. We are following a lot of news for you this morning. Let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A one kilogram bomb brought down that plane.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Russian authorities say it was a homemade bomb.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Significantly stronger support for the kremlin's campaign in Syria now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A mastermind who has ties directly to the leader of ISIS itself.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: None of the bombers identified so far in the Paris attacks had been on any U.S. watch list.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have to step up our efforts to hit them at the core.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nearly half of the governors are saying they do not want Syrian refugees in their states.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Many of the refugees are the victims of terrorism themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Muslims are suffering. They are being persecuted.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Has the global community really done enough to combat ISIS?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would anticipate that this is not the only operation that ISIL has in the pipeline.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. You are watching NEW DAY.