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Tighter Security in U.S.; Community Holds Rally after Mosque Vandalized; Mali Declares State of Emergency; Video of Police Shooting to be Released Soon; American Band Describes Concert Hall Attack. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired November 23, 2015 - 10:30   ET

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


[10:29:45] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And here in New York, preparations are under way for Thursday's annual Macy's Day Thanksgiving Day parade.

Deborah Feyerick is here with more on the security angle in this city. Good morning.

DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning there -- Carol.

And you know, it's fair to say that the air of complacency is really over. People understand that they need to be on the alert.

And there's no specific credible threat that's what all law enforcement will tell you but there's a presumed threat. And the stakes are very different now that you've got multiple active shooters, possibly the threat that they may suicide bombs on them. And that is what law enforcement is dealing with today.

Now the NYPD conducted a drill over the weekend. This is a drill that they had been planning for more than a year. And they had tactical teams going into the subway, with these assault rifles, these so-called long guns.

Speed is obviously critical when you have an active shooter situation, you know. They have minutes to respond in order to minimize any potential damage. You see the tactical teams. They move towards the sound of the gunfire. They want to neutralize the threat. That is their goal.

And you've got to keep in mind, with what we saw in Paris, there could be multiple incidents. It could be happening all at the same time, different locations. So, that's the new mind set of the NYPD as they mobilize these specific teams. You're going to see a heavier presence during the Thanksgiving Day parade and throughout the holiday season because, again, while there is no credible intelligence, and the FBI director will tell you a propaganda video is not intelligence it's simply propaganda, there is a presumed threat.

We've been dealing with it in the city with potential active shooters. Now we've got to sort of look at it in the context of Paris. And that's what everybody is really dealing with right now -- Carol. COSTELLO: So people will be coming in from all over the country,

into New York City to watch the parade. Should they know anything special?

FEYERICK: Again, the air of complacency is over. Everybody has to be on the alert. Everybody has to be aware that something could be happening speaking to a lot of people over the weekend. And now people are, in fact, acting a little bit differently. They're looking at crowded places. They're not going sort of smack into the center of places. People may be staying and walking kind of on the edges of the streets as opposed to going where there are large crowds.

When people are going into movie theaters or into restaurants, they are making sure that they see who's around them. When I go into Penn Station, Carol, it amazes me, having covered the Boston Marathon attacks that people are either looking at the big board to see when their train is coming or they're on their iPhones. There's no situational awareness.

And I think that's what police are really asking people to do during this holiday season and that is you've got to be aware. The DHS secretary is saying that they are increasing security, TSA is going to be doubling its efforts, looking for things that are going through.

So there is a threat, it's the new reality, but people have to just be smart and make sure -- they really just stay cognizant of what's going on around them.

COSTELLO: All right. Deborah Feyerick -- thanks so much.

The Department of Homeland Security confirming five Syrian refugees have turned themselves in at the Texas border. Officials say the group which includes a man, woman and child, were part of a family and arrived at a checkpoint in the city of Laredo on Friday. The group was handed over to immigration officials for processing. Authorities say records show no ties to any terror groups.

This is the second time in one week a Syrian family has presented itself at the Laredo entry point.

While many in the U.S. are afraid ISIS could infiltrate their community, residents in one Texas town are banding together after a local mosque was desecrated. These are pictures from a rally over the weekend outside of Austin, Texas. Their message -- everyone is welcome.

That rally comes after an Islamic center was defaced by vandals. Members found feces smeared on the sidewalk and torn pages of the Koran scattered outside. Some residents like Laura Swanson (ph) says that behavior -- well, their community won't tolerate that behavior.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA MORTON, RESIDENT: It's disgusting. It's gross. It doesn't matter what you believe or I believe or he believes or anybody believes. All faith is important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: When Swanson's 7-year-old son heard about what happened, he wanted to help. So he drained his piggy bank and donated $20 to the mosque.

With me now the mosque board member who received that donation, Faisal Naeem. Welcome -- sir.

FAISAL NAEEM, ISLAMIC CENTER OF PFLUGERVILLE: Hi.

COSTELLO: Hi. What did it mean to you that that little boy, Jack, made a donation?

NAIM: Well, I have a son who's about the same age as Jack. So what it means to me is that, outside the media sound bites, there are still people, kids, next generation -- my son is a born American. And that they can get together, that they can get beyond the headlines and have that understanding.

So, it means a lot that we can still -- when we step away from our computers and our devices and build those relationships, person- to-person, point-to-point, that the love and the understanding of your neighbor can still flourish regardless of what may be going in the global scale.

COSTELLO: So, are we making too much of the rhetoric that's out there at the moment?

[10:34:54] NAEEM: I think so, because, like I said, there's nothing that beats personal relationships whether that's in sales, whether that's in your career, whether that's knowing your neighbors, whatever have you. If you don't know the other person, then I can come and paint a picture which may not accurate, which is -- it could be somebody else's picture I'm trying to superimpose.

So I think if people just walked to their neighbor, and I mean both -- I'm specifically talking about United States, but it's applicable globally, the Muslims walk to the non-Muslim neighbor; the non-Muslim neighbor walk to their Muslim neighbors. Just find out who's sick, what's wrong, can I help?

That will beat any recruitment of any nasty ideology that may be trying to recruit. Maybe trying to be painted as, well, this large body of people is the same as a few handful of individuals. That's only going to get defeated at the grassroots level. It's knowing the neighbors around you. Everybody does the same and that will work.

COSTELLO: What would your message be, then, to whoever vandalized the mosque?

NAEEM: We've already given this message. The mosque community, the Islamic community of Pflugerville, we have forgiven them. He did what he did or -- he or they or whatever, in a fit of rage and emotion. We would like to welcome him or her to come and talk to us. Understand the real Islam not what's presented on the news media. Not what some -- every group has their looneys, every group has the fringe.

If you take the fringe group and try to paint the whole group as them, there's no real practitioner of Islam would do what these terrorists have tried to do -- have done and tried to claim it under the name of Islam. There is no real practitioner of Islam that would do that.

Even the most ignorant but basically taught somebody with a very basics of Islam would know that. These guys don't even meet that criteria when they claim this thing in the name of Islam. And my message would be that, you know, just get to know each other and for that person to come and talk to us.

Come talk to us. We have already forgiven them. We want to understand what fueled his rage and how does that reflect upon us? You know, somebody did something in Paris. That doesn't reflect upon me. Just like this person's actions do not reflect on Pflugerville, upon greater Austin, upon Texas or upon the United States. Do I paint all Texans defile places of worship? Absolutely not. If this is one guy's act, so come talk to us. Forgiveness is our message.

O'REILLY: All right. Faisal Naeem -- thanks so much for being with me this morning.

NAEEM: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM: Mali in mourning and in a state of emergency after that deadly hotel attack. We'll have the latest for you -- next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:42:19] COSTELLO: The state of emergency continues this morning in Mali as the country mourns the reported 22 lives lost in Friday's deadly rampage inside a hotel that was hosting delegations attending peace talks. Victims include people from China, from Russia and America.

CNN's David McKenzie has been talking with survivors. He joins me live from the capital. Hi -- David.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi -- Carol. That's right. They were survivors, many of them, some say because of the swift actions of the Special Forces from Mali, and they were assisted by Americans and French in that operation.

I spoke to one American who is a senior member of the Centers for Disease Control, and she said she was determined to make it home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATHIE FZEKAS, SURVIVOR: I e-mailed my husband and I just -- I said something like, there is something going on and I want you to know that I love you. And then when a few hours later when the fire down the hallway, I wrote another e-mail and I said, I do believe there are shooters here. If I don't make it, I want you to know I love you and my family and my CDC. But I am coming home.

I do this because I love doing this work and where we are in the world that we need to continue on.

MCKENZIE: You're committed to the work no matter what?

FAZEKAS: No matter what. This wasn't about Mali. This was about what I call idiots.

MCKENZIE: When the signal came, what went through your head?

FAZEKAS: Oh, gosh. I'm so glad to see you guys. I don't know much French but I could say merci beaucoup -- I said it all the way down the hall and I'll say it again. These guys, every one of them that I mentioned put their lives on the line for me that day and I so appreciate that.

And there's a group of people who didn't make it out. And my heart goes out to their families. But I believe they were here doing what they love and what they're committed to. If they were to come for me, someone would be saying that about me as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKENZIE: Well Carol, Kathie is back in Atlanta at her home. And she certainly wanted to give her family a hug and just be back there. But extraordinarily, she's committed to coming back to Mali and finishing the work she began. She says her extended family, the CDC and others she worked with here have become like family to her through this ordeal -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. David McKenzie reporting live for us this morning.

Time now to check some other top stories for you. It's 44 minutes past. This is a new video just in to the CNN NEWSROOM of France launching its first airstrikes from an aircraft carrier moved into the eastern Mediterranean. France scrambled the Charles de Gaulle there to better target ISIS in Iraq and in Syria.

[10:45:05] A bloody end to a music video shoot at a park in New Orleans -- 16 people rushed to the hospital after someone shot into the crowd of hundreds, including kids and teenagers. Investigators now trying to track down surveillance footage of the shooting and the suspects who ran off on foot. The victims are all expected to be ok.

Iran's state news agency reports "Washington Post" journalist Jason Rezaian has been sentenced to prison for espionage. It did not say how long he would be in prison. His lawyer says Rezaian was charged with being a spy but the "Washington Post" says he was only doing his job and called the sentence a sham. The U.S. State Department is calling on Iran to vacate his sentence and send him home. He's been locked up now for nearly 500 days. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Chicago on edge -- any day now,

the city releasing video of a white police officer shooting an African-American teenager. We'll take you to Chicago next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:35] COSTELLO: In Chicago, a lot of anxiety right now over the pending release of a video showing a young African-American man fatally shot multiple times by a white police officer. Community leaders are urging calm ahead of that release.

CNN's Ryan Young live in Chicago with more. Good morning, Ryan.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. 16 shots were fired during this. I can tell you community members are worried about it. In fact, over 200 community members met this weekend to discuss this and more meetings are planned today.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG: The video is said to be very disturbing. Police dash cam video showing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald being fatally shot 16 times by a white officer. It's ordered to be released to the public no later than Wednesday.

Many who have already seen the footage from October of last year say it's tough to watch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even when he was on the ground, the officer was still shooting him.

YOUNG: In October 2014, police were called to investigate a man with a knife trying to break into vehicles. Authorities say McDonald had a four-inch knife and was acting erratically, slashing an officer's tire. Police say when McDonald, who had PCP in his system, ignored orders to drop it Officer Jason van Dyke unloaded 16 rounds into his body.

MICHAEL ROBBINS, MCDONALD FAMILY ATTORNEY: There was a narrative put out there by the Chicago police, by the union initially that he was -- that a police officer had to shoot him in self-defense. That he was approaching a police officer -- lunged at a police officer with a knife. It's not true. He was shot while he was walking away.

YOUNG: The autopsy shows that some of the bullets entered his back. Officer van Dyke says he shot McDonald in self-defense.

DANIEL HERBERT, ATTORNEY FOR OFFICER JASON VAN DYKE: We're confident that my client's actions were not only lawful, but also within department policy and within his training.

YOUNG: Now the city of Chicago is bracing for the possibility that the video of McDonald's death will ignite violent protests. Activists are calling for calm.

WILLIAM CALLOWAY, ACTIVIST: Upon us seeing it, you know, we have the right, the First Amendment right, to assemble peacefully and express our grievances against our government. And that's what we plan on doing.

YOUNG: In April, the city reached a $5 million settlement with the McDonald family.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG: Now, the officer has not been charged but he has been placed on desk duty. Look, a lot of people in this community have been talking about this. The family -- McDonald's family says they don't want to see the video. But look, a lot of people are bracing themselves because everyone that's talked about this video or seen this video says it's pretty disturbing to watch.

COSTELLO: All right. Ryan Young reporting live from Chicago this morning.

Checking some other top stories for you at 53 minutes past.

New protests in Minneapolis overnight following the fatal shooting of an African-American man by a police officer. Hundreds of people now calling for the release of video showing the death of Jamar Clark -- the 24-year-old was gunned down by police. Officers say he was interfering with paramedics during an assault call. They say making the footage of the shooting public would compromise their investigation.

And could this be a papal miracle? The little girl kissed during the Pope's visit to Philadelphia has a rare inoperable brain tumor, but her parents say the girl's tumor has been shrinking ever since their daughter received the Pope's blessing. See for yourself.

The family says this scan is from August, before the Pope's visit. You can see the tumor circled there. This scan is from this month, the tumor hardly visible. The parents credit divine intervention.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the capital of Belgium may have been placed under the highest possible terror alert, but rather than give in to fear the country's responding, well, in an inventive way.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:58:29] COSTELLO: Members of an American band reliving those horrifying moments when terrorists stormed the Bataclan Concert Hall in Paris ready to kill. Speaking to Vice they talk about the gunshots, how people ran for cover or played dead to survive. The heart-wrenching scenes they will never forget.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSE HUGES, EAGLES OF DEATH METAL: Several people hid in our dressing room and the killers were able to get in and killed every one of them except for a kid who was hiding under my leather jacket.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Killers got in your dressing room?

HUGHES: Yes.

People were playing dead. And they were so scared.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A great reason why so many were killed is because so many people wouldn't leave their friends. And so many people put themselves in front of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Today Belgium's capital, the capital city of Brussels, remain under the highest terror alert because of a serious and imminent threat. Many Belgians now refusing to give in to fear. Over the weekend authorities asked residents not to tweet about police operations because it could potentially alert targets. Cue the adorable kitten photos. The Twitter-verse responded with pictures like these.

The #BrusselsLockDown flooded with cat memes and kitten pictures bearing any intel and police movements that might have been shared.

Earlier today, Belgian federal police tweeted out their "thanks". This is what it was -- a picture of a bowl of cat food. It reads, "For the cats who helped us yesterday." That's really awesome.

Thank you for joining me today. I'm Carol Costello.

"AT THIS HOUR" with Berman and Bolduan starts now.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: I'm Pamela Brown. This is --

[10:29:45] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And here in New York, preparations are under way for Thursday's annual Macy's Day Thanksgiving Day parade.>