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Two Americans Confirmed Dead in Belgium Attacks; U.S. Missionary Injured in Bombings Speaks Out. Aired 2:30-3:00p ET

Aired March 25, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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


[14:30:03] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm just curious what you think of Secretary Kerry's comments.

JAMES O'NEILL, CHIEF OF DEPARTMENT, NEW YORK POLICE: That I appreciate his comments. But this is something that we're highly tuned into. I've had the shops since November 2014. And most of my day's occupied by crime, but, you know, as of late, Paris, San Bernardino, Brussels, this is consuming more and more of my time. And I think the NYPD is absolutely prepared.

BALDWIN: I want to talk about New York in a second. But as we're learning more, we're talking a lot about TAPT. And from what I have been reading and this is something that dates back years, this is, you know, it's not difficult to find these ingredients. You can go to a beauty supply store. And I'm curious what you make, how fearful you are of these newer generation bombs that seem so simple to make.

O'NEILL: Well, you know, we have a terrific bomb squad and it's not just within NYPD. We have great federal partners. We have the FBI, DHS, and we work very closely with everybody. As things develop, as new things appear, we're on top of them and we're able to deal with that technology.

BALDWIN: That doesn't worry you, you can walk in a beauty supply store and buy 90 percent of these products?

O'NEILL: Brooke, there's a lot of things that worry me.

BALDWIN: Yes.

O'NEILL: You know, it's not only terrorism but it's crime also. So, you know, it's a complicated job but the NYPD is extremely nimble.

BALDWIN: What do you say to Americans just generally who see what happened? I talked to a lot of them in the wake of what happened in Paris. What happened this week in Brussels? You think, oh, my goodness this is happening there. What happens? How could -- this could happen there. And they're worried. What would you say to them?

O'NEILL: Well, you know, what? It's okay to be worried. I think the world is real small right now. And anything that happened throughout the world, obviously, it affects everyone. Especially in New York City. This is something that I look at. You can worry, but you also have to keep your eyes open. You know, we hear it all the time. If you see something, say something. This is -- law enforcement is on top of this. Our federal partners are on top of this. But we needed everybody to be aware of their surroundings.

BALDWIN: Even since a lot of lessons learned after 9/11. We talked about interoperability and agencies communicating and so much of that has vastly improved. When you look at the situation in Europe, a lot of critics are jumping on and saying, well, how is there not communication et cetera, in addition to that, you know, as recent as November with Paris, even New York City's police department, phenomenal police department, was saying that they couldn't be prepared for a spread attack or coordinated attack until you've quadrupled your resources, is that what I'm hearing?

O'NEILL: Well, we've stood up a couple of different groups. We have the critical response to men and that comes on the John Miller. And they are at stationary posts throughout the city at high-level buildings, high-level locations. And in addition to that, we have the strategic response group. Which is extremely mobile. You'll see their explorers, their Ford explorers, and they're ready to respond. But the pointy edge of the spear is our emergency services unit. I'm sure everybody that works in Manhattan or visits Manhattan, they've seen the Hercules teams out and about. So, we are nimble. We are spread out throughout the city. And again, working with our federal partners. As soon as actionable intelligence becomes available, we act on it.

BALDWIN: Speaking of the Feds, I know that there has been a proposed $90 million cut on federal anti-terror funding. Specifically for New York City. I know the commissioner. I'm sure you, I've seen the mayor, are furious. But the pushback to that would be when you look at the more recent -- for example, ISIS inspired terror plots or in cities like San Bernardino. And so some of the rationale perhaps for the federal government would be let's take a little bit away from the huge, huge cities like New York, like D.C. and spread the wealth, what would you say to that?

O'NEILL: Well, the proposal is to cut half, $90 million. That's not taken the -- away. This is money that we need for our main awareness system. Most people are aware, we have -- given all of our cops smart phones and that's driven by this domain awareness system. It costs a lot of money to constantly run. We have money to constantly run. We also have the new -- dogs, that graduated the other day, very expensive but they are extremely critical part of keeping the city safe. And that money, if we don't get that money from the federal government, we're going to continue to do what we do but that money has to be taken from other places. And we have -- our primary responsibility is to keep people safe in the city. And that's from terrorism. And also from crime. So if we take that -- that money gets taken away from us that's going to put us in the hole.

BALDWIN: Before I let you go, I do want to ask you about Senator Cruz's comments earlier in the week, essentially and I'm paraphrasing, you know, in the wake of what's happening in Brussels, he's saying we need to step up, we being law enforcement in this country, we need to step up patrols in more Muslim dominated neighborhoods in this country. I've already heard, you know, the commissioner earlier this week blasts him. What say you? O'NEILL: Ted Cruz -- Senator Cruz is a politician. I'm a police

officer. My responsibility is to keep the people in the city safe. But I will say that Bill Bratton is a man of integrity. A man I've known for 25 years. This is the third time I've worked for him. If anybody knows how to keep the people in the city and this country safe, it's Bill Bratton.

[14:35:14] BALDWIN: Chief Jim O'Neill, thank you so much for coming by.

O'NEILL: Thanks, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

Coming up next, America is under attack, those are words from John Kerry himself, Secretary of State spoke with Erin Burnett in Belgium. Hear what else the Secretary revealed.

Also ahead, sad news just in about the boyfriend of the young American woman. I talked to earlier this week. She had been frantically awaiting word. He was on a train heading to the Brussels airport when the bombs went off. We have an update on their situation. Next.

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[14:40:40] ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Erin Burnett live in Belgium this afternoon. Earlier today, Secretary of State John Kerry laid a wreath where I am right now at the Brussels airport also to honor the victims of this week's terrorist bombings. We now know at least two of those killed in the attacks were Americans. Before Secretary Kerry headed back to the United States, I sat down with him this morning and I asked him whether he believed these horrendous attacks targeted America. We discussed the fight against ISIS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Americans of course we now know are dead in these horrible terror attacks here in Brussels. Do you consider this an attack against America?

JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: Whenever Americans are killed, of course.

BURNETT: So you do consider it an attack on America? Do you think Americans were targeted?

KERRY: I think it's an attack on America. It's an attack on Europe. It's an attack on civilized people in countries all around the world. It's an attack on people who weren't even here and who weren't killed. Because it is an attack on everybody's ability to move freely. To live without fear. And that's what the terrorists want. And that is precisely why we have to continue as we are to go after Daesh with full determination to destroy them and I'm confident we are going to. Law enforcement and intelligence community, people have to get it right to prevent an attack every minute of every day, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year.

If somebody wakes up one morning in their apartment, decides they want to go out and kill themselves and take some people with them, they can most likely find a place on a subway, on a bus, in a market, somewhere, to do it, unfortunately. So it is a very, you know, this is a difficult challenge. And frankly it's quite remarkable that our law enforcement community, our intelligence community, our police, have done as good a job as they've done, of protecting us here both in America as well as in other parts of the world.

Now, that doesn't excuse one single event. When it happens. Everybody's focused on it with the intensity we see here in Belgium right now. But I am convinced that we are slowly and steadily deteriorating Daesh's ability to recruit, its ability to prosecute its neolistic you know ideology, and over time, we are going to get back to a world where we feel that we can travel with impunity and feel safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BURNETT: Travel with impunity again. We are following the fast moving developments here in Brussels. Sources telling CNN, French authorities recovered nearly four-and-one-half pounds of the explosive TATP in a raid last night near Paris. The bomb ingredient known as the Mother of Satan. Some experts have said that could kill more than 100 people. It's the same homemade explosive that brought so much death and bloodsheds here in Brussels at the Paris airport using TATP on metro station also in Paris using TATP made from materials that are incredibly easy to get, acetone, hydrogen peroxide.

Joining me now, Pieter Stockmans, Brussels based journalist for the Belgian magazine, co-author of the book "The Jihad Caravan." You know so much about this. TATP of course as just a material -- has been called the material of choice. And you know, some people say, oh, it's so easy to put a TATP bomb together because of the materials are easy to procure. Others say then actually assembling is more difficult but the training is relatively simplistic every one of these raids so far, they have been recovering TATP. And it does creates a real fear how much more is out there.

PIETER STOCKMANS, CO-AUTHOR, "THE JIHAD CARAVAN": Yes. I think we should look at the bigger picture here. Belgium has been sending or seeing 500 of its young people going to Syria ending up there in the most widespread international terrorist network that recent history has ever seen. And they are getting linked into expertise on making weapons, making explosives.

BURNETT: Right, trained.

STOCKMANS: They're getting linked into increasing indoctrination with hateful ideology. And some of them are returning with a mission of destabilizing European societies which in the end are their own societies. So, I think we should really, really pause there and think about it, that this is our own youth coming back with a mission of revenge on our own society. So, me as journalist, I wonder where we have failed as a society. [14:45:20] BURNETT: You know, I spoke to one young man who said, you

know, 10, 15 people who have gone to fight ISIS in Syria and that's obviously very common in Molenbeek, a lot of people know each other and they know people have gone to Syria. And he said, look, I just want to have a job. I want to have a job. That's what I want and I can't get a job because I'm Muslim. And I look how I looked. And he also happened to have the name, same name as one of the Paris attackers. So, someone will look at his resume and that's obviously another horrible strike against him. So he's afraid he can't get a job. And he says, I don't buy into that ideology but I understand why others do. And that was a very chilling thing to have someone say, I understand why someone goes and fights for ISIS.

STOCKMANS: Yes.

BURNETT: And that seems so incredibly common in these neighborhoods.

STOCKMANS: I think it's not only common in these neighborhoods. Me as a journalist I try to understand the motives of young people joining these groups. So, I try to understand them as well. And areas like Molenbeek, if you study the social and economic fabric of these neighborhoods, they have long been neglected in this capital city of Belgium. The education system is not very well. Lack of economic opportunities for young people there. So -- and then they're getting linked into an ideology of resistance, of getting respect. And they have long been neglected. And then all of a sudden they have become these big important persons where they can get respect and I think we as a society should give them respect so they don't need to go and find it elsewhere.

And what I think is very damaging to say this and to conclude here, I have heard Belgian politicians, prominent politicians, making polarizing remarks about Molenbeek. That they're going to clean this neighborhood. That it's not normal that they have not gone to the police and report on the presence of Salah Abdeslam.

BURNETT: Right.

STOCKMANS: But I think how can an entire community being held responsible for having one terrorist in their midst? I think this is very polarizing and dangerous statement by politicians.

BURNETT: All right, Peter Stockmans, thank you so much. And Brooke, you know, when you hear that, that's exactly the same fight going on in the United States. Ted Cruz, police the Muslim communities. Hillary Clinton saying, don't do any such thing. Same exact discussion happening right here. Back to you.

BALDWIN: Striking difference among all these candidates and how'd they've all responded to what happened where you are in Brussels. Erin, thank you. We'll be back in a second.

Coming up next, you have to watch this. Just a stunning moment, American parents walking into this hospital room, reuniting with their son who survived his third brush with terror. We are there for the moment. You will hear the interview. Stay here. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:52:00] BALDWIN: Welcome back. We are now hearing from the very first time from this American. He's an American missionary badly injured in the Brussels Airport bombings. Nineteen-year-old Mason Wells is recovering his burns all over his body, shrapnel wounds. And this is the incredibly powerful video here, exclusive to us at CNN, showing Mason and his parents walking into the hospital room to finally see him. Here he sits covered in his hospital bed. And I mean, listen to this. And this exceptional coincidence. This young man was also at the Boston marathon when the bombs went off there at the finish line, that was in April of 2013 and he was in France during last November's Paris attacks and here he was in Belgium.

CNN's Phil Black talked to Mason and perhaps what is surprising most of all is exactly how much this man remembers everything.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MASON WELLS, BRUSSELS BOMBING SURVIVOR: I was actually conscious for all of it. We tried to pull out my friend's tickets at a small little station, you know, my friend's tickets to go to the United States. And the machine wasn't working actually. So was working with a Delta attendant. She took us to the back of the line, the checking line. I'd actually pulled out my iPad to look at something. So, as part of my responsibilities on the mission. And I was starting to look that up. I was looking at my iPad when the first blast went off. It was really loud.

It really came out of nowhere. I wasn't expecting it at all. I was looking down. All of a sudden, a huge blast. I believe my body was actually picked off the ground for a moment. And my iPad that was in my hands, I don't know what happened. It just disappeared. I think it actually might have hit me in the head when it got blasted out of my hands. My watch I wear on my left hand disappeared. My left shoe just was blown off. And a large part of my right body got really hot, then really cold. And I was covered in a lot of fluids, a lot of blood. And a lot of that blood wasn't mine either.

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: How close do you think you were to that additional explosion?

WELLS: Within 10 to 15 meters. When the blast went off after I have those feelings of warm and hot, I was actually -- I saw fire in front of my face and around my body. Fire literally almost engulfed the four of us. There was fire around us from the blast.

BLACK: Do you remember the second explosion?

WELLS: I do. It took my body about a second, half a second to realize that it was a bomb that went off. And of course I'm sure my body was in complete physical shock. I knew that I'd been wounded. I didn't know how bad it was. I located an exit. I looked up, I looked at it. And I started to run towards the doors that we came in through. And I took a couple steps, about three seconds after the -- three or four seconds after the first blast. The second bomb went off. I actually felt the explosion on my right side. I could feel the blast but I don't believe I was hit by anything, any shrapnel or anything.

BLACK: A couple of days later, I guess what are the thoughts and the feelings about what you've experienced?

WELLS: I just -- I feel love for those who were injured. I feel so bad for those. I was so lucky. I was so lucky, being how close I was. And I saw a lot of people that were injured worse. I heard a lot of people that were injured badly. And my only thoughts, only feelings, just for the people that were out there, I hope that they're doing okay. I just wanted to pray for them. I've been praying for them since it happened. That's the feeling I have, I hope they're okay. Because I'm very lucky. And I know there were some that were maybe not as lucky as I was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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