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Russia: Bomb Brought Down MetroJet Flight; Source: ISIS Leaders May Have Planned Paris Attacks; Kerry Meeting with Hollande in Paris Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired November 17, 2015 - 04:30   ET

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


HALA GORANI, CNN ANCHOR: I am as well, actually. I'm interested in seeing if the heads of state portion of the summit will be sort of scaled back to one day as opposed to two.

[04:30:07] I think all that will become clearer over the next few days. But they symbolically are saying to the world, all our official events are still on. The president will leave the country to visit Barack Obama in Washington.

So, interesting there, statements coming from the Elysee.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A lot of breaking news here in Paris. Our coverage continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. Welcome back to the viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John Berman here in Paris.

GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani. You are watching our special coverage of the Paris terror attacks.

BERMAN: All right. So much happening here in the investigation in Paris, but there is breaking news involving ISIS elsewhere, news out of Russia.

The Russian President Vladimir Putin just essentially announcing in this staged media event that Russian officials now believe it was a bomb, a 1 kilogram bomb that brought down MetroJet Flight 9268 over the Sinai Peninsula.

GORANI: So, what we're hearing is that the plane was brought down by a kilogram bomb, a little more than two pounds. This is according to the head of Russia's Federal Security Service. You remember that the jet crashed last month in the Sinai Peninsula desert, after departing from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and all 224 people on board died.

BERMAN: Let's get the latest on this from Moscow. Matthew Chance is there.

Matthew, up until this point, Russia had been slow, hesitant to say this was terrorism. But now, this dramatic announcement from the Russian president essentially himself.

[04:35:01] MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, if I'm not mistaken, this is the first time that it's been confirmed from anyone that a bomb is the cause of the crash of that MetroJet airliner with the loss of 224 lives in the Sinai Peninsula. So, the Russians have been out front essentially saying that this was definitely a bomb that did this.

The head of the Russian security service, the FSB, in a televised meeting with Vladimir Putin, saying that we can say unambiguously that this was a terrorist act, according to Alexander Bortnikov, who is the head of the FSB. Traces of foreign made explosives were found in the airliner debris and in the passengers' belongings. He said the homemade device described by the FSB chief had up to a kilogram of TNT of explosives inside it, which he says accounts for the scattering of the fuselage across a wide area and why it is difficult for the investigators, of course, to pick up all the little pieces of the airplane as it was scattered across the Sinai peninsula.

Vladimir Putin rapid in his response in the same televised briefing, addressing state media saying this, "We will search for them everywhere -- the culprits that is -- no matter where they're hiding. We will find them any place on the planet and we will punish them." Vladimir Putin, according to his remarks, threatening to expand the search wherever it may lead them in the world.

BERMAN: Matthew, just to be clear, did the Russian leader use the word ISIS this morning? Did he blame ISIS for this attack?

CHANCE: N, he didn't. That was very clear. They are saying it is a terrorist attack. A terrorist incident. Of course, previously ISIS have claimed responsibility for this.

At the moment, the Russians are not saying it was definitely ISIS that did this. Obviously, this is a group that claimed responsibility. This is going to be the main focus of the retribution.

In terms of the retribution against ISIS, Vladimir Putin did talk about that. He said this, "Our military operation inside Syria won't simply continue. It will be intensified so the criminals understand that revenge is unavoidable." And, of course, Russia says that its campaign inside Syria is targeting primarily ISIS fighters. And so, by implication, they believe a Syrian group is responsible for this attack.

GORANI: All right. Our senior international correspondent Matthew Chance in Moscow -- thanks for that report on our breaking news that Russia is now saying a bomb brought down that MetroJet flight. We also heard from the U.S. secretary of state. He met with the French president Francois Hollande. He says ISIS is losing territory. It comes after France declared war on ISIS.

BERMAN: The French ministry of defense says an aircraft carrier, the Charles de Gaulle, is headed to the Syrian coast in the Mediterranean. It was already headed there, but I believe it has been accelerated and will now certainly play a much bigger role. And overnight, French war planes, they launched more strikes in Syria, strikes in Raqqa.

GORANI: And here's what we know about the investigation into the attacks: a cross border manhunt is under way for Salah Abdeslam. He was last seen near the Belgian border shortly after the attacks on Friday. Now, and this must be maddening, by the way, for authorities. He was actually stopped, he was interrogated but because he wasn't a suspect at that time, he was let go.

BERMAN: French authorities have also named the person they believe to be the mastermind behind this attack. Abdelhamid Abaaoud, he could be the ring leader here, a Belgian citizen who has direct ties to senior ISIS leaders believed to be in Syria or Iraq, but they are not sure.

GORANI: Let's bring in our senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen. He has been following the investigation.

So, more and more -- with each day, we learn more about the identities of the suspected bombers and attackers.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's interesting because they seem to come from Belgium and from France. So, you can really see the cross border nature and also the way that the planning and plotting of all this went through large swaths of Europe without being detected. We know that at least two of the attackers were Belgians. We know that some of the others involved were French people who were living in Belgium and then, of course, we learn more about the ones that were sort of coming from this area.

We have one man named Sami Amimour, who came from northeast of Paris, from a place called Bobigny. I was around that area yesterday. And speaking to the people there, you can see how shocked they were with all this that came out. And, obviously, his parents had tried to warn something was wrong with him. And they say that the authorities just didn't listen to them.

BERMAN: You were in Bobigny because of significant developments, word of the attackers rented an apartment in this Paris suburb.

[04:40:03] PLEITGEN: Rented an apartment for a week in the Paris suburb. Really very close to the place where Amimour lived, and this apartment was rented by the brother of the man who is now being wanted all over Europe. His name is Ibrahim Abdeslam. And it seems as though, at least the final stages of what went on here on Friday were planned and were prepared there in that apartment.

GORANI: And there's an important aspect to this attack. These were suicide bombers. This is the first time in France's history that suicide bombers attacked targets anywhere in France. But the actual explosive material used is very volatile.

I mean, it is something that needs to be made close to where you detonate it.

PLEITGEN: It needs to be made close to where you detonate it, and it needs to be made very, very carefully, so that it doesn't detonate prematurely or that it doesn't for instance fall apart and then doesn't work. So, it is something that requires a large degree of sophistication. One of the things we have to keep in mind with that is that the suicide vests that the bombers or attackers were wearing were all identical. They were all made exactly the same way.

And to manufacture something like that is difficult. We have been speaking to French authorities here who are saying that you basically need a bomb maker to do that. You need an explosive specialist to be able to do that. And in most cases, we have seen in the past and covering the wars in Iraq where you had suicide attacks as well, the bomb makers usually are not the ones that conducted the attacks.

BERMAN: The knowledge is very valuable.

PLEITGEN: Very valuable, exactly.

BERMAN: TATP -- TATP is the explosive they believe that was used in these attacks. AT this point, Fred, what are they doing in this apartment to find out if they can see?

PLEITGEN: Well, they're going to see if there's any traces for instance of TATP in that apartment. Any traces of anything else. I mean, obviously, they're going to be looking for DNA samples, fingerprints, things like that.

But also, look to see if anything was left behind. For instance, a computer, a phone, anything else. It is not clear at this point whether this is a furnished apartment or unfurnished apartment. So, we have to wait and see.

But that apartment is being searched. Sami Amimour's apartment is being searched. I was there yesterday. There was a lot of police presence there as well as they try to piece together not only how they were able to do this without being detected, but also what the wider network, because it is unclear with the links to Syria how big a group is here in Europe.

BERMAN: There is a frustration I think. There is something of a dark period in terms of communications and whatnot between these terrorists and period leading up to the attacks.

Fred Pleitgen, thanks so much.

GORANI: And officials are saying they believe -- the foreign minister of Belgium, in fact, was speaking to us just yesterday saying we are quite sure it is a larger group of individuals connected to these attacks.

Now, in the United States, security is being stepped up in Washington after ISIS apparently threatened to carry out an attack there.

BERMAN: Now, CNN cannot independently confirm the authenticity of this video. It was posted online. It claims the terror group will, quote, "strike America in its own stronghold, Washington."

GORANI: Well, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security say there is no specific credible threat to the U.S., but law enforcement officials are in the capital taking these precautions and in the light of what happened in Paris, there is some nervousness obviously.

BERMAN: Understandable.

All right. After the break for us, you're going to hear from one man who lived through all that gunfire at the Bataclan concert hall. An amazing story of survival, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:46:37] BERMAN: I'm John Berman along with Hala Gorani in Paris.

And the French capital has shown a quiet but fierce determination as it tries to get back to work. There are more people on the streets today, by a long shot.

GORANI: I was just thinking that myself this morning. Paris just feels like Paris again after a few days where people really stayed home, you felt that the streets were quieter, emptier. In this case, I feel -- I don't think our viewers see it behind us, traffic everywhere. People walking and taking the metro, going to work.

Now, the survivors of the attacks know better than anyone how difficult it will be to get back to normal. I talk to Jerome Lorenzi. He lived through Friday night's massacre inside the Bataclan concert hall. Here is what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME LORENZI, BATACLAN ATTACK SURVIVOR: We are thinking it was fireworks at the beginning when they shot the first time. We realized it was not fireworks, but it was something bigger.

GORANI: That it was bullets.

LORENZI: Yes. I realized that. I said to my friends lay down. Everyone laid down at the same time. I was with my right neighbor and left with our friends. I said lay down and don't move. Don't touch. We need to stay calm, as calm as we can.

I saw during two seconds, one of the shooters which was behind me, it was normal person like you and me. So, you cannot imagine the guy wanted to kill so much people and what he wanted to do.

This is scary because he could have been your neighbor.

GORANI: Yes.

LORENZI: He was reloading his weapon and shooting. He was doing that. They did it in about three or four times. One of my friends on my left was saying, "I need to see my daughter and my wife. I cannot die. It is important I'm still alive for them."

I don't have any children. I was just telling to myself, OK, this is the end. So, just, how you are going to go away from this world to death, do you want to be in a stress or do you want to be like calm and having kind of serenity. I closed my eyes and saw my father and said, OK, I'm ready to die. The guy shot my two friends on the right side. And he missed us. He shot between my friend on my left side and myself.

GORANI: What is the memory that you think is going to be the most difficult to forget about Friday? What do you still have in you that you think about --

LORENZI: The values. And the smell of the powder gun.

GORANI: The gunpowder?

LORENZI: Yes. The gunpowder. And the third thing is the noise of the Kalashnikov reloading. It is in my mind. It's in my mind. It's turning, turning, turning in circles and saying, wow, I'm alive.

[04:50:03] I don't know -- why me? Why me instead of another person?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GORANI: There you have it. You could sense a bit of survivor guilt. Still traumatized. Jerome Lorenzi.

BERMAN: All over Paris, there had been makeshift memorials to mourn those who died, 129 people slaughtered in these terror attacks.

GORANI: Well, the attacks have left the city shaken. There was even a panicked stampede as people gathered at the memorial.

Jake Tapper speaks to Parisians who are trying to recover from the fear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNE QUENTARD, STUDENT: I was watching the news and it told me that near my school. We were all shocked.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It started Friday evening in the outskirts of the city with suicide bombers at the Stade de France.

(on camera): About five minutes later, about five miles away in this ordinary French neighborhood where Parisians are sitting outside, enjoying a nice Friday night dinner, a black car pulls up and two terrorists open fire expending more than 100 rounds and killing 15 people at this outdoor bistro and this Cambodian restaurant, wounding countless others.

QUENTARD: I have lots of people that live in the (INAUDIBLE)

TAPPER: A few minutes later, a few blocks away, the terrorists again attacked, killing five people who were just eating outside.

If you look over there on the wall of this restaurant, you can see a picture of American college student Nohemi Gonzalez on an overseas study program. She was 23 years old. Near her picture, you can also see bullet holes. (voice-over): This man stopped to show us how the terrorist sprayed

bullets all over the neighborhood, bullet hole after bullet hole, a mark of indiscriminate evil, sparing no one in intent, including this halal kebab shop. Our guide, a Muslim French shop keeper came from Tunisia more than 40 years ago.

(on camera): These people are doing this evil in the name of your religion. What do you think?

(voice-over): "That's false", he tells me. "That's false. To kill an innocent in the name of Islam, that's hell. You're going to hell."

The sidewalks are marked by makeshift memorials, each one symbolizing heart breaking loss. A 4 1/2-year-old girl left this note. "I'm thinking of you," it says. Just steps away from where bodies fell stands a flower shop. It is doing brisk business today.

They come here to mourn. They come here to pray. They come here because they do not know what else to do.

(on camera): It must be very unsettling to have this happen right in front of your store.

(voice-over): "Like you," he tells me, "You almost have tears in your eyes. We are all like that. We are unable to sleep. We are thinking only of this. We are talking only of this."

The florist Issa leaves us for a second and returns clutching a printout picture of Gonzalez. "I got this to show my children", he says, "To explain to them anyone can be killed. She is just the age of my daughter."

A musician arrives pulling a piano by bicycle to inject some hope into the sadness.

Paris today, trying to imagine a world where they feel safe again.

Jake Tapper, CNN, Paris, France.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GORANI: All right. Well, we had breaking news this hour. Just recapping it for viewers.

The Russian president -- apologies, here we are -- has confirmed a bomb, they believe now, brought down MetroJet Flight 9268 over the Sinai Peninsula. Significant news this morning.

BERMAN: This is the first time that an official anywhere has said he has evidence it was a bomb that brought down that plane, a 1 kilogram bomb, says the Russian leader, along with his intelligence chief. And Vladimir Putin promising vengeance to take the fight to whoever did this. He did not name ISIS specifically, but he made clear he would take the fight whoever did this and intensify the attacks inside Syria. GORANI: Also this morning, the U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry

visited with President Hollande of France at the Elysee Palace and then made announced that the French president would be leaving France and visiting Washington next week.

BERMAN: And the climate change summit here in Paris in two weeks will continue as planned.

GORANI: I'm Hala Gorani. Thanks for watching our special coverage

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. CNN's continuing coverage of the Paris attacks continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[04:59:11] GORANI: Vladimir Putin now says the MetroJet A-321 crash was indeed brought down by explosives.

BERMAN: A one kilogram bomb.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a homemade explosive device inside the aircraft.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: New air strikes against ISIS targets in Raqqa, Syria.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The manhunt is on for the eighth suspected terrorist.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ISIS leaders may have been directly involved in planning the attack.

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why can't we take out these bastards?

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We'll do what's required to keep the American people safe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is some 11,000 jihadi suspects across France today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm surprised we have not had this kind of attack in the United States yet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.