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EARLY START

Terror Suspect Arrests; Icy Road Danger; Middle Class Relief?

Aired January 19, 2015 - 04:00   ET

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


CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: The world on high alert this morning as authorities close in on suspects linked to terror plots. Several arrests over the weekend show how wide the web of terror cells has spread.

Ice danger. Frozen roads lead to car pileups across the Northeast. The treacherous weather closed bridges, even caused flight delays. What can we expect for the remainder of the week?

And relief could be on the way for middle class. President Obama about to unveil new tax proposals. But will they make it pass the Republican-controlled Congress?

Good morning and welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans. John Berman has the morning off. It is Monday, January 19th. It is 4:00 a.m. in the East.

Police across Europe remain on high alert this morning as investigators try to unravel a web of suspected sleeper cells. New arrests include five in Belgium, two more in France. Prosecutors say these suspects were crossing into Italy.

And this morning, Belgian officials are seeking extradition of one of several people arrested in Greece, following Friday's police shootout in Belgium that left two terror suspects dead and one injured. Police there out in numbers not out seen in some 35 years, patrolling the streets, guarding embassies and guarding the country's National Jewish Museum.

Standing by live in Brussels is senior international correspondent Ivan Watson.

Ivan, what is the latest this morning?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Christine. You've got European diplomats meeting for the first time here in Brussels today since the deadly attack on the "Charlie Hebdo" offices in Paris and that other raids right here in Belgium where suspected jihadists opened fire on police and two of them were killed. They were alleged to be plotting to attack Belgian police officers.

The top foreign policy chief for the European Union says counterterrorism efforts will be on the top of the agenda at today's meeting. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FEDERICA MOGHARINI, EU HIGH REPRESENTATIVE FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS: We start with obviously a discussion on how counter terrorism not only in Europe but also in other parts of the world, being it the Mediterranean and Africa. I'm just heading now before we start to meeting with the secretary-general of the Arab League, as the threat is not only the one we face in Paris, but also spreading in many other parts of the world, starting from Muslim countries. And we need to strengthen our way of cooperating together, first of all with Arab countries, and then internally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Now, Christine, the Belgian investigators here are dealing not only with the homegrown problem, five of the suspects that they have arrested and charged with participation in terror organization are all Belgian citizens.

But also an international problem over the weekend, Greek police arrested one that officials linked to that alleged plot to attack police officers here in Belgium. The Belgian authorities have requested the extradition of that individual. They have also requested the extradition of two more suspects linked to the plot who were arrested by French authorities while trying to cross the border from France into Italy last week. This is an international phenomenon -- Christine.

ROMANS: It certainly is.

You know, let me ask you this, Ivan, we've got these separate issues. We've got Belgium and you have what happened in France. Now, you have the Greek angle to the Belgian arrest. Is there a feeling -- are investigators saying these are all somehow connected or these are separate sleep cells or terror cells that are coming alive all the same time. .

WATSON: It is a good question. They have taken care not to link the attacks on the "Charlie Hebdo" in Paris to the jihadist plot to attack police officers here in Belgium. Those -- they kept those two cases separated. However, Belgium investigators have said that there does seem to be a common thread running through the suspects that they've detained, and that is almost all of them have previously traveled to Syria and have had membership in the ISIS militant group. And that's similar to the suspects who were involved in those terrible gun battles and those killings of innocent civilians in France.

ROMANS: All right. Ivan Watson for us this morning in Brussels -- thank you, Ivan.

In France, a source with the knowledge of the investigation into the Paris terror attacks tells CNN police are seeking two people two people whose DNA was found on Amedy Coulibaly's belongings, including DNA found on a gun magazine. Coulibaly killed four hostages in a kosher market before police shot and killed him. Three women held in connection with the Paris attacks were released on Sunday. The prosecutor's office says nine others -- nine others -- are still being interrogated.

I want to bring in our senior correspondent Nic Robertson. He's live for us this morning from Paris.

Good morning, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning, Christine.

So, the DNA found on an ammunition clip, magazine clip, bullets for a weapon inside Amedy Coulibaly's apartment. That's one of the leads that the police are following. Whose DNA is that? They certainly want to talk to that person. And DNA found in a car that French media believes was used by Coulibaly as he went to the kosher supermarket that he laid siege to and killed four people on the Friday after the "Charlie Hebdo" attack. So, two key suspect for the police they are now looking for.

The popularity of the president here has taken a boost in the polls, up 21 points. The prime minister up 17 points. That clearly a validation of the French people here that they think that the government is handling this well.

That comes on a day when one of the Coulibaly's victims, the French police woman, who was shot on Thursday, the day after the attack on "Charlie Hebdo", she will be buried today Clarissa Jean-Philippe will be buried today in France -- Christine.

ROMANS: Nic, thank you so much for that in Paris this morning.

And today, as Nic was saying, the funeral will be held for that officer gunned down by Amedy Coulibaly, the day before he murdered four people in that Parisian kosher market. As Nic Robertson just said, her name, Clarissa Jean-Philippe will be laid to rest in Martinique. Jean-Philippe was shot in the head after she stopped the terrorist for a minor traffic incident.

All right. Now to a possible truce as the battle for power intensifies in Yemen. A Yemeni official says an immediate cease-fire has been agreed to between with the government and Houthi Shiite rebels.

Now, fighting between the two sides apparently is still raging near Yemen's presidential palace. But there may be a larger looming threat. As the government deals with this, there are concerns that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula may ultimately benefit.

Our senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is the only Western TV journalist in Yemen. He joins us now live to explain to us, explain to our viewers this morning this complicated web and how every one of these moves has an equal and opposite reaction somewhere else. It's incredibly dangerous.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Every time Yemen spirals greater into chaos, it benefits al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. That one thing is clear. And the chaos this morning absolutely evident from where I'm standing.

We've heard in the last hour the shelling, exchange of artillery seeming to intensify. It is concentrated around the presidential administration and basically every Yemeni official you talk to says who controls that controls the country.

Let me wind back a little bit to how we got to this morning of clashes. The president's chief of staff as we reported two days ago abducted in the city center of Sana'a. The fear that, of course, of most government officials, that more could be abducted. People they are facing, they consider their facing opponents here, the Houthi movements -- loose collection of tribes and militia who swept into the capital recently, putting up their own checkpoints, said they detain the chief of staff, to stop the new constitution coming in place.

The government puts some streets here on lockdown to try and defend their remaining key officials. The Houthis didn't like that. They say they went to them, on the streets and then were attacked. The government said actually it was the Houthis who attacked them and are now moving against the president administration.

The president, he is safe. He's in his house. But it's hard for people to come to him, for him to meet the opponents, political opponents and try to negotiate a cease-fire because the roads are blocked. It's too dangerous.

So, right now, we are hearing basically the battle in Yemen being decided on the streets. A cease-fire is declared, but we're not hearing it holding here.

ROMANS: So, how does a deteriorating security situation matter to counterterrorism operations going on in Europe? Draw that thread, that connection.

WALSH: Well, as we all know, failing states turn to failed states and then it's very easy for al Qaeda, like in Afghanistan during the Taliban, to have a foothold. They've been here for years. But each time it gets worse. It gets harder for Yemeni officials. We have heard of Yemeni intelligence losing hundreds in the fighting here. It gets harder for the Yemen to put a tab on this. It gets harder for Western intelligence to see through the chaos and look for their targets and stop al Qaeda moving around.

Today, we are seeing a massive escalation lurched really towards sectarian potential civil conflict, even perhaps a change of power at the capital here -- a real fear that things are changing dramatically hour by hour. The worse that gets, the easier it gets for al Qaeda here. And as that sectarian divide between Sunni and Shiite begins to rise here, many Sunnis backing al Qaeda are helping them and that simply makes their job easier.

ROMANS: All right. Nick Paton Walsh for us in Sana'a, Yemen, this morning -- thank you for that. CNN will take an in-depth look at the battle against terrorism tonight with two CNN special reports. At 9:00 p.m. Eastern, Jake Tapper goes inside the Paris attacks. And then at 9:30, "NEW DAY's" Chris Cuomo and Alisyn Camerota, they anchor "The War Within Islam", taking a look at what can be done to eradicate violent extremism.

All right. Ten minutes past the hour.

Below freezing temperatures and rain creating nasty conditions on the roads in the Northeast. This was the scene on Interstate 76 outside Philadelphia. Up to 50 cars involved in the chain-reaction crash. We're told one person died.

The same scene played in the Northwest. 100 people slammed into each other in northeast Oregon. The crash left one Tri-Cities, Washington area man, sandwiched -- look at his, between two semis. He survived. That is a terrifying picture. NEW DAY is going to speak with live about the horrifying crash at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.

Back to cold weather with more storms in the forecast for the northeast. Let's get to meteorologist Pedram Javaheri for an early look at your weather.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hey. Good morning, Christine.

Yes, let's take a look at what is happening here. We had a messy scenario on Sunday with the hundreds of accidents in the Northeast. Temperatures were in the 20s. We had rain showers across the board, a lot of slick conditions.

The storm system is finally on the move, pushing in towards the Canadian maritime, if you're tuning in from the northern portion of New England. Certainly, you're going to get some action here with four to 10 inches in around portions of, say, in Northern Vermont and New Hampshire, one to four inches there. And even some freezing rain possible into the early afternoon hours across this region, about half a million under the advisories and warning. The storm will push out of here with residual moisture. It will be gusty over the metro cities across the northeast.

Look at New York City, the average is 32. In fact, the next few stays at or above average, but it will be very windy, you feel considerably colder than this. And even a possibility for some flurries there on Wednesday morning with some wet weather moving in.

High pressure large and in charge across the Southeast, with temperatures unseasonably mild. You deserve it out here from Atlanta toward Dallas, pushing close to 70 degrees over the next 24 hours, changes in the weather. Another cold spell here ahead of us over the next couple of days. You see the storm as it exits the picture, another storm does drop. We're going to get shots of storms over the next few days. So, we'll watch this as we head in towards the middle of the week.

ROMANS: All right. Pedram, thank you so much.

Now, time for an early start on your money this morning.

European shares slightly higher. The European central bank meets later this week and will most likely announce a bond buying stimulus measures. But Asian shares are mostly lower. China's benchmark index plunged, look at this, 8 percent this morning almost. Regulators there penalizing three brokerages for breaking rules on margin trading, sorry.

The U.S. stock market is closed for the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day. So, a little break in what's been a crazy January. Triple digit moves for the Dow of almost become the norm this year. And we are seeing that volatility in commodities like oil and copper as well. Analysts tell us they expect more big swings in the foreseeable future.

All right. Twelve minutes past the hour.

Much more on the terror raids we have been following. How worried should we be about these terror cells? And President Obama about to unveil new tax proposals aimed at giving a boost to middle class families. But will those plans make it past Congress?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: We are following all of the developments in Europe this morning. Investigators are searching for any possible links between terror sleeper cells, perhaps as many as 20 of them in northern Europe. Police have conducted raids and arrests over the past several days in Belgium, France and Greece.

For more insight on the latest in these police raids, I want to turn to Haras Rafiq, managing director of the Quilliam Foundation.

Nice to see you this morning. You know, when you think of the potential of, excuse me, 20 of these cells, it's really remarkable what these police are trying -- investigators are trying to determine right now. Do you think they are all related or do you think they are separate cells all seeming to operate at the same time?

HARAS RAFIQ, MANAGING DIRECTOR, QUILLIAM FOUNDATION: I think they are separate cells. I think what the common denominator is they believe the call to jihad, the call to terrorist there, activities that both ISIL and al Qaeda called for, and, of course, al Qaeda doing it for the last 12 or 13 years or maybe more. I think that the -- there are a number of people who are in Europe who may not have any allegiance to one particular group or had allegiance to certain groups and moved on. But they really want to do is to try and cause as much fear and panic and so-called revenge for what they consider to be activities that we are undertaking in Iraq and Syria to defend the Yazidis, and all the other people in that area.

ROMANS: What do you make of the police response and investigators response? I mean, we are talking about investigations and sweeps in at least three countries at this point. Obviously maybe more, do you think the police sponsor the investigators response has been correct? RAFIQ: Absolutely. One of the problems that mainland Europe faces is

that we have something called the Schengen visa. That means traveling from one country in Europe to another. It is quite fluid and transparent. You don't have to show any documentation. So, it is very easy for a lot of these terrorists or cells to be linked and travel easily.

I think the response finally is getting to the grips of causing and really bringing about better inter-country cooperation, because obviously what happened in France is a horrific tragedy and affects all of us. We are having better cooperation from the different European police forces and intelligence agencies.

ROMANS: It seems like now what they are trying to do is track people and find people and watch movements of people. See where the people who have been coming back from Syria and figure out where they are going. You talk about how difficult within the European Union to do that because they have freedom of movement and so many people are -- so many of these suspects are French citizens and Belgium citizens. You know, that makes it that much more difficult.

What about the core of this? How much attention is being paid to the policies and environments causing people to be attracted to these movements?

RAFIQ: I think what herein lies one of the problems. The different countries in Europe are all reacting in different ways. At the crux of what they need to do, there really has to be a twofold response. The first part of the response has to be that, obviously, catch the people that we suspect may be preparing to carry out terrorist activities and also look at the people that have been identified as coming back from Iraq and Syria. In some cases, not having gone there in the first place and really provide de-radicalization and rehabilitation programs, as we are in the U.K. and other some of the countries in Europe.

But, ultimately, we want to win this struggle long term. We really as a society need to get involved in the battle of ideas.

ROMANS: Right.

RAFIQ: We need to look at the root causes of what drives these youngsters, these individuals to this radicalization. And, first and foremost, it's the jihadi narrative that says they belong to a global political Muslim Umrah that basically they feel is at war with everybody else and vice versa.

And, secondly, the theological justification of not only does God want you to do this, but God will reward you. And this is something that the people talk about the battle of ideas now for a few weeks. We really need to do that, if we long term we want to win this battle, we can't do it purely and simply through other legislation or through criminality, and through looking it through criminality. We must as Europe and the rest of the West as well, get a grips with this whole battle of ideas. And if we don't do that, we're never really going to win this long term. ROMANS: Yes, what causes that attraction to the jihadi narrative and

figuring out what that is.

Thank you so much. Haras Rafiq, so nice to see you, of Quilliam Foundation. Thank you for your time this morning.

President Obama gives his annual State of the Union Address to Congress, and the president's marquee proposal: tax cuts for the middle class. The president wants to make sure middle income earners benefit from recent improvements in the economy. He wants the cuts paid for with tax and the fee increases on banks and wealthy Americans. We'll have more on that right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: President Obama gives annual State of the Union Address to Congress and his marquee proposal this time, tax cuts for the middle class.

CNN's Erin McPike has more from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Christine, President Obama is unlikely to get what he wants here because of how he wants to raise the revenue.

Let's talk about that. He wants to raise tax rates on capital gains and dividends right now. That rate is 20 percent. He wants to raise it to 28 percent. He also wants to impose a new fee on large financial institutions.

As you can imagine, this was big talk on the Sunday morning shows. Dan Pfeiffer, a senior advisor to President Obama, was on NBC's "Meet the Press" and Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz was on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION." And as you will hear here, they were on very different pages.

DAN PFEIFFER, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR COUNSELOR: A simple proposition that now that the economy is in a stronger place it's been in a very long time, we need to double down on our efforts to deal with waste stagnation and declining economic mobility. And so, the simple proposition that we should ask the wealthy to pay a little more and invest more in the middle class, give the middle class a raise.

REP. JASON CHAFFETZ (R), UTAH: It's a nonstarter. We're not just one good tax increase away from prosperity in this nation. This nation had its all-time highest, the record number of receipts coming into the Treasury. Are you going to actually grow the economy and jobs, our entrepreneurs are going to be better off or small businessmen are going to be better off with more taxes and more government? No.

MCPIKE: But here are the tax cuts that President Obama ultimately wants to offer. He wants to give a tax credit for dual income families up to $500 and then, also, he wants to triple the child tax credit to $3,000. Now, keep in mind also that this is just a starting point and we'll be hearing a lot about this over the next few months as both Republicans and President Obama wrangle over tax reform -- Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Erin McPike, thank you for that.

The Secret Service and the FBI are investigating who fired multiple gunshots from a car outside the sealed perimeter around Joe Biden's house in Delaware over the weekend. The vice president and his wife were not home at the time. Agents have been searching the area for bullets and shell casings. Police reported a second shooting nearby a short time later. It's not known if this two are related.

For the first time, Boko Haram insurgents have crossed the Nigerian border, attacking a village in Cameroon, kidnapping 80 people, killing three. Once again, many of those abducted are children. This as thousand of troops from neighboring Chad are beginning to arrive in Cameroon in the help in the regional battle against Boko Haram.

The Super Bowl XLIV is all set and it's a heavyweight bout featuring the NFL's two best teams, Tom Brady and the New England Patriots punched their ticket by crushing the Indianapolis Colts 45-7 in the AFC championship game. In the NFC, the Seattle Seahawks staged an improvable fourth quarter rally to beat the Green Bay Packers in overtime 28-22 to earn their second straight trip to the Super Bowl. The defending champs and the Patriots will meeting in Super Bowl XLIV in Arizona on February 1st. The Seahawks will try to become the first team to repeat as Super Bowl champs since the Patriots did actually it in 2003 and 2004.

Authorities cracking down over fears of an imminent threat from sleeper cells. Security being stepped up in major sites. We are live on the ground.

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