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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Rampage Inside Airport in Turky; Obama Travels to Ottawa, Canada. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired June 29, 2016 - 12:00   ET

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


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[12:00:09] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): I just recognized the gunshots and then heard this huge explosion. And I knew immediately it was a bomb.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): It was just pure panic. People falling over themselves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): We saw a lot of people running around. They were - they were all covered in blood.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): It was just total desperation in that moment.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): There were a lot of, you know, people falling down on the ground not knowing what's going on. Sort of nothing was really clear about what was happening.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Just chaos it seems. It looks like someone has gone around with a - with a bulldozer and just shredded the whole entrance to the terminal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. And this is LEGAL VIEW.

One of the many unanswered questions surrounding the deadliest terror attack in Turkey so far this year, the biggest question may be who is responsible for this and what will Turkey, in concert with its NATO partners, do about it? Authorities now say 41 innocent people were killed, 239 were wounded when three gunmen opened fire and then set off bombs in three separate areas of Ataturk Airport in Istanbul. The third busiest airport in all of Europe. Police questioned and then released the taxi driver who took the gunman to the airport.

Almost 24 hours later, there are still, however, no claims of responsibility for all of this carnage, though the choice of target and apparent coordination though led the Turkish government and many experts to lay the blame fully at the foot of ISIS.

The chaos, the panic, they come through loud and clear in survivor accounts and surveillance video. And you should know a clip I'm about to show you in a few seconds is very graphic. You may want to look away. First, this scene of terrified passengers running away from what proves to be a bomb.

(VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: And a second clip released shows what appears to be a police officer shooting a terrorist who falls to the floor. His gun goes flying. And then, seconds later, after struggling like this on the ground, he actually detonates. He blows himself up. All of it on video. You can see the officer has already run away when he realizes that that was about to happen.

And here is a scene that may surprise you. This is Ataturk Airport. This very terminal reopened about five hours after the smoke had cleared. You might remember it took almost two weeks to reopen the Brussels Airport after the bombings there back in March. But not business as usual, but they sure do want it to be so. Pictures just this morning in Istanbul at the airport.

Our coverage beginning this hour live with CNN's Nima Elbagir, who is standing right there at the terminal.

And correct me if I'm wrong, Nima, but you're actually standing amidst the broken glass. We're not even 24 hours since those bombs detonated and they're trying to get things back to normal, aren't they?

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sadly, the Turks have grown all too used to and perhaps all too efficient at trying to put those pieces back together. As I'm talking to you, files - rows - lines of passengers and crew are filing past. It is extraordinary. Some of the people we saw this morning had actually been in the airport when the attack happened. They had had to run for their lives and they were returning today to pick up luggage and some of them trying to get back on flight to get out of here.

The Turkish government is so keen to return to normality. And this is a country that has spent most of the last few months, most of the six months so far of this year, reeling from attack to attack. But as you said, it is an attempt at business as usual. It's not quite business as usual because it is this reality of who else is out there. Who supported this broader network? And already we're hearing from senior Turkish officials. So they have begun the process of identifying the bodies of the attackers, what little remains of those bodies, and they believe that these were foreign nations, and that makes it even more crucial to move quickly because they need to know who else, as part of that broader network, was able to get in and whether they're trying to get out now, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: So, Nima, I wanted to ask you about this last little bit of information that's just come in about the taxi driver. This is eerily reminiscent of what happened in Brussels, the killers, the murders in Brussels were brought to the airport by a cab driver. That cab driver alerted authorities. And yet again, in this murderous attack, we're hearing about a cab driver brought in, questioned and released. Do we know anything more about this driver and what role was played? [12:05:25] ELBAGIR: Well, so much of this is - is, as you rightly put

it, eerily reminiscent of Brussels, including that attempt to scuff out any crumb trail that could lead authorities to that broader network and the fact that they have released the cab driver after initially questioning him lends credence to this working assumption that this taxi driver, similarly to Brussels, was just someone who was used to drop them off so that a link to that support network couldn't be established. So they used a stranger, a driver from the street, and that's why authorities were able to release him.

But if it plays out in any way like Brussels played out, they're going to be looking for those small details. What did you see when you picked them up? Who did you see when you picked them up? Where did you pick them up for - from? All of this is helpful. But the M.O., the targeting of a soft target before trying to force their way through using automatic weaponry and then detonating, even the survivors stories, Ashleigh, just bring to mind what we were hearing in Brussels, the falling ceiling pane causing so much damage even to those that were far from the epicenter of the blast. One woman described slipping and sliding across those blood-soaked tiles, almost word for word a description that I heard in the Brussels attacks. This is intentionally mirroring. That's what we're hearing from so many intelligence sources. This attack and Brussels are intentionally being - are intentionally echoing each other. And that's why they believe that this is the work of ISIS, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: So, Nima, I'm going to ask you another question, but before that, I'm just going to let you know that the president of the United States, Barack Obama, has traveled to Ottawa, Canada. He's having meetings today with the leaders of not only Canada but Mexico. And at any moment he's about to make a live address. So I'm going to break into our conversation when I can get to that. He may actually be doing a live address to tape and then the tape may be released to us, but I want to get that to our viewers as soon as possible. So if I interrupt you, that's the reason.

But the question I still have for you is, there seems to be some confusion as to three different sites where these murderers exacted their vengeance for whatever cause they have. And I wanted to know if we're getting a better idea of a strategy that they were playing out. Were they trying to deflect energy and attention away from the main terminal where the bulk of the people were so that security forces would be drawn away and they'd have a better access to the - to the pool of the venerables?

ELBAGIR: Well, our sense is that they - what they were trying to do is to crack that security perimeter because just to let you know, more security forces are arriving. There's an ambulance driving past us. Of course, this is still very much a situation that's being reinforced by the authorities.

So our sense is that what they were trying to do is to crack that security parameter. The difference between Ataturk and Brussel is that Ataturk is a much better secured airport. So they started at the far perimeter, at the taxi pickup and drop-off point. And once they started shooting, their intention was - and they succeed - was to push through the security, the checking - the security clearing point and scare off the police. And it was actually that police officer that we showed in the video and his engagement with one of those attackers that really stopped them from getting any deeper into the more vulnerable and softer parts of this terminal.

BANFIELD: It's really astounding, you know, to be able to see that. I think this is perhaps one of the very first times we have actually witnessed moment by moment the takedown, the attempted takedown of one of these murders and then the actual pulling of the cord on those suicide vest. It was - it's just astounding to see it.

Nima, I'm going to let you go because I know you've got some reporting you need to do, especially with those new arrivals that are just coming in to your left.

In the meantime, I also want to take this opportunity to hear from some of the people who were there when this happened. Thomas Kemper is the head of global ministries in the Methodist church. He just so happened to be flying to Japan on a mission trip. And he was taking a nap in an airport lounge - yes, in that airport - when all hell broke loose. Have a listen to this?

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THOMAS KEMPER, AIRPORT ATTACK SURVIVOR: There was no instruction. You ran into one direction and then somebody called, no, the terrorists are over there, and then you ran in the other. So we then started to hide. And we - I went into the kitchen of the lounge in some back room and tried to hide behind some boxes, because you have all these images of the terrorists coming and trying to kill you while you were hiding. So it was very tense and very scary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:10:07] BANFIELD: One the witnesses to what happened. A survivor of what happened.

And I'm joined on the telephone now by yet another survivor. Moira Vural, she is an ex-pat from South Africa who's listed in Istanbul for over a decade, and yesterday she was seeing a friend of hers off at the airport.

Moira, thanks for joining us.

I just wanted to get your account of what it was you saw moment by moment. Can you take me through this?

MOIRA VURAL, SURVIVED AIRPORT ATTACK (via telephone): Sure.

We were - I had just got my friend Kristen (ph) and I was going to check to the check-in desk to help her. And suddenly I heard this sound. I've got to tell you, the airport was quite empty. I go to the airport often, and it was really quite empty. It was quite late at night. I heard this popping noise and I thought, no, that can't be. And I looked up and I could see people had stopped and everyone was looking in the direction from which this was coming. And then there's more popping and they started to run. And I thought,

this can't be real, you know? I dived under a check-in desk with two young (INAUDIBLE) staff girls and, you know, cowered, just thinking this is just a joke. You know, it was very quiet except for the sound of the gun. And then an explosion. And then guns and explosion. And like that. And we just sat there, just totally helpless, totally exposed, actually, even though we were under this thing, in this quiet.

And then suddenly there was a shout saying, "come quick, come quick, it's clear," and we could run back into the police security part where a lot of people had been collected.

And from then it was a matter of waiting, (INAUDIBLE), and hearing little bits of stories that somebody had seen someone up - a chubby man in a black waist (ph) coat shooting and someone else had heard maybe - you know what it's like, you're getting all these stories.

And we had to walk down five flights of stairs, probably one of the scariest moments, because it would be so easy for a stampede. But people were really quite calm. You had to wait (ph) down in the bowels of the airport (ph) in a secure room. And there were one or two (INAUDIBLE) people who were (INAUDIBLE) quite quiet. And we gave our phone to people to phone others and people were doing - helping each other to contact because that's the most important thing.

BANFIELD: And, Moira, can I ask you, of these little stories that you are piecing together as you sort of in terror were waiting for some security force to give you the all-clear, did you hear from anyone that actually got a look at any of these terrorists?

VURAL: There was one man who said he had seen a man, a dark man, wearing a black jacket, in a black waist coat, and he looked (INAUDIBLE). Maybe it was the jacket. I don't know. But he was shooting. He had seen that. And we, you know, not run around. So, yes, but, you know -

BANFIELD: Was he - was he able to give any sort of description as to - did he see a gun? Did he see him shooting? Did -

VURAL: No, that was it.

BANFIELD: That was it. he could just describe the person. How did he know that that was one of the - of the murders?

VURAL: I'm not sure, but he was clear he probably had a gun. Because I think it was a large gun we were told. He must have - that must have been what it was that he knew. Um, yes.

BANFIELD: Can I ask you, Moira, I can only assume that you are not unlike the rest of us who have seen these things play out -

VURAL: Certainly. Certainly.

BANFIELD: On your television screens over and over from different parts of the world. No matter where we live in the world, we've all seen it. We've all grieved. We've all sent our prayers. And then you found yourself in the middle of it. And I wonder if you - you knew right away, I'm in the middle of a terrorist event -

VURAL: Oh, yes.

BANFIELD: Or if you were so stunned -

VURAL: Oh, yes. Oh, yes. And there I was, under this thing, and with the two girls. And the one girl was crying. So maybe it's kind of easier because I'm saying like, OK, we'll be very quiet. And when you have someone to comfort, it's easier. And but all of the time, I just kept saying, this is a joke. The shotgun (INAUDIBLE). It's just, what is going on? You know, you don't really - it's like bizarre because you always see and you think what it will be like, but it's quite actually as it happened. And then it was. And, yes.

BANFIELD: Did you feel as though you had any - any insight just in terms of what to do, where to go? Anything different than say what might have been five or ten years ago when this would have been an astounding shock and it would have been perplexing to everyone involved?

[12:15:00] VURAL: You know, looking at it and also the way the police dealt with it and stuff, I mean, it's so difficult because you never know where people will come from. But I think the most important thing I suppose is to stick with other people. I think that was really important. The fact that I had two people to cling to and two people to say, no, no, OK, let's be calm or they told me they can - they heard when a man shouted all clear. So I think it was - it was almost like a herd instinct. You look and you see other people running and then you know, yes, this is serious. It's not just, you know, party balloons popping or something. You know it's serious. And the fact that people were very helpful with each other.

One thing, very important, was having a cell phone, you know, because we lost touch with one friend, couldn't find her for two and a half hours, wondering around not knowing where to go. And people couldn't really help us because of the way the airport is, they had been hiding in different - different areas. So to collect everyone up took a long time. But, you know, my son saw her on CNN. She didn't have a phone with her. She's a tourist and I think it's really important to keep connected.

BANFIELD: Well, Moira, I am - I'm happy to say we're able to speak with you today and I'm glad that both you and your friend are safe. And I am so sorry that you've had to live through this and you have joined what I always call an unwelcome club. But I thank you for your insight and for your first-hand account for us. Thank you.

VURAL: Thank you. (INAUDIBLE).

BANFIELD: As we say good-bye to Moira, I want to take you live to Ottawa right now. Well, it's actually live to tape, if I - if I can tell you, this is - this is laid to tape and released to us. The president is in Ottawa for a northern American leaders' summit. He's having meetings today with the prime minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, and the president of Mexico Enrique Pena Nieto. So we're just getting these. This is the first fray (ph). Let's listen in.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Our trilateral meeting.

Before I discuss the importance of the U.S./Mexican relationship, let me just publicly extend my deepest condolences to the people of Turkey for the terrible attack that took place in Istanbul. I had a chance to speak to President Erdogan earlier today to discuss with him not only how heartbroken we have been by the images of the injured and those killed, but also to reaffirm our strong commitment to partner with Turkey, with NATO, with the broad-based alliance that we have structured around the world to fight ISIL.

You know, it's an indication of ground (ph) unable to govern those areas that they've taken over, that they are going to be defeated in Syria. They're going to be defeated in Iraq. That have an impact on the entire civilized world. And I know that that view is shared by Mexico. It's shared by Canada. It's shared by all the people of this hemisphere. And it's shared in every region of the world.

So we stand with the people of Turkey. And we intend to do what's necessary to make sure that these kinds of terrible events are not happening.

Now, on a happier note, the cooperation that's been taking place between the United States and Mexico across a whole range of issues has been outstanding. We had the opportunity to discuss the continuing strength of our business, commercial, trade, politics, our business. And at a time in which, you know, we all too often are hearing rhetoric that ignores the enormous contributions that have been made by Mexico, that we draw from the relationship with our good neighbor to the south, it was - it's been useful for us to reaffirm all the different issues that we've been working on today.

BANFIELD: So the president now just - were making some references to the North American Free Trade Agreement, which is clearly on the agenda because this is a series of bilateral meetings, not only with the Mexican president, but then with the Canadian prime minister later on today, and a trip to parliament here, where he'll be addressing - the president will be addressing the Canadian parliament.

[12:20:03] And this is probably the last time that these three key members of the North American Free Trade Agreement will be together face to face discussing what is becoming an increasingly unpopular concept, globalization and open trade markets. This is the kind of visit where the president is going to be touting the benefits of the trade agreements that they have.

That's what you call the pool spray. So, my apologies for the camera work. We are not in control of that. But that's one of those taped moments where you get to see the leaders. They've already had their critical meeting, though, and we were not privy to that.

One person who knows a thing or two about what goes on in those meetings is our White House correspondent, Michelle Kosinski. She happens to be traveling with the president in Ottawa, that's Canada's capital. So these meetings are crucial. They are behind closed doors. And then we get these public pool sprays. But what's really on the agenda here, Michelle?

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, I think all of the topics you would expect. Of course they want to talk about trade. Of course they're going to be talking about climate change. They already announced some deliverables and some goals in that area. But you know that at the crux of this are the most pressing issues facing the world right now. Of course terrorism and ISIS, even though you might not consider North America being as immediate a threat as Europe and other areas are right now. But that's on their minds.

But also Donald Trump and the American election. I mean the president said himself that talking to leaders, it takes up time in these private meetings because they want to talk about that. They want to get the president's thoughts. They want to talk about the latest developments politically and especially now when Mexico is involved.

But I think what strikes you here in the president's remarks, first thing out of the gate, talking about offering condolences for yet another terrorist attack. I mean how many times have we seen this happen while the president is traveling abroad and wants to be focusing on other things and other relationships? I mean this happened after the Paris attacks. He was in Cuba when Brussels happened. And, again, the president has to address this.

So even though we heard kind of the standard remarks there - and the president wanted to go a little bit further and talk about the fight against ISIS, even though this was just what we call a pool spray. Remember, there is a press conference later this afternoon at 3:00 where all of these leaders are going to be facing tough questions from reporters. And that's when they can't really control the message. They have to answer those questions. And that's when we're likely to hear more.

I mean a focus here too is that phone call this morning between President Obama and the Turkish president, Erdogan. I mean this is a relationship that's been called into question many times from reporters asking, is Turkey doing enough in the fight against ISIS? Today the White House wants to emphasize prioritizing the work there, trying so seal that border, which has been difficult over time. We heard from the White House recently saying that there's about 60 miles of that border between Syria and Turkey that ISIS still has control of. That's a significant improvement. But, again, that's still 60 miles where foreign fighters can go back and forth. And as the White House said today, obviously, there's more work to be done there.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Sure. Well, you can bet that Turkey's going to be mad as hell after this one. And not only that, all of the countries that represent the foreign nationals who were murdered at that international airport in the capital - actually, not the capital, but in Istanbul. Michelle Kosinski, thank you. Appreciate that. She's traveling with

the president. She'll continue to report back throughout the day. CNN's coverage of the president's trip to Canada.

About five hours after the bombs went off and the guns stopped firing, the airport in Istanbul in Turkey was back open for incoming and outgoing flights. Passengers saying, you could still smell the fire and the smoke from the explosions. How does that work from a forensics perspective, when you're still trying to solve the crime, identify the killers, identify the victims, figure out whose bombs they were? We have the expert who know the answers to that. They're coming up next.

And a reminder, you can watch LEGAL VIEW any time, cnn.com/go. You can also find me on Twitter, please do, @cnnashleigh, or you can head over to FaceBook as well.

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[12:28:02] BANFIELD: I want to get you back to our breaking coverage. This is the news out of Istanbul, Turkey, and the terror attack there. The president of the United States speaking just moments ago, expressing his condolences once again, this time to Turkey, vowing to stand with the country in their bid to fight terror.

The explosions and the gunfire at Istanbul's International Airport happened about 9:20 local time. And the airport reopened about five hours later. Planes landing, passengers boarding flights in the same airport where 41 people had just been murdered when three suicide bombers blew themselves up after opening fire on as many people as they could target. Again, just five hours later, passengers were on the move.

And, of course, it wasn't exactly business as usual, but use this as a comparison. The Brussels Airport was closed for about two weeks after the suicide bombing there back in March. Our Larry Kobilinsky chairs the Department of Sciences at John Jay Criminal College of Justice and explosives expert Tony May (ph), retired ATF officer, is with us live as well to try to piece through this.

So, first to you, Dr. Kobilinsky. I was astounded to think that this massive crime scene was being compromised to the extent it must have been - there's absolutely no way 41 people could be murdered and within five hours you could have traffic going through what would be unadulterated.

PROF. LARRY KOBILINSKY, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: I find this totally astonishing. This is a huge scene. There are actually two scenes in the airport and in the airport -

BANFIELD: Three.

KOBILINSKY: And outside of the airport.

BANFIELD: Yes.

KOBILINSKY: And you've got 41 people dead so far. There may be more. Hundreds injured.

BANFIELD: Two hundred and thirty plus injured, yes.

[12:29:47] KOBILINSKY: There are bodies and body parts. There's all kinds of evidence dealing with the bomb and perhaps shrapnel and other things that we need to put together, the materials used to construct the bomb. All of this is physical evidence that will help us understand what happened, how it happened. It might lead to the source. Everybody wants to know, was the bomber one of those three suicide bombers? The person who made the bomb, was he in there? Or was it somebody else?