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CNN NEWSROOM

France Deploys 10,000 Troops for Security; NYPD on High Alert After ISIS Threat; Search for AirAsia Flight 8501; Why wasn't President Obama at the Paris Rally?

Aired January 12, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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


CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM. Charlie. Liberty. Unity. A country --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They are not going to win.

COSTELLO: And the world.

FRANCOIS HOLLANDE, FRENCH PRESIDENT (Through Translator): We must demonstrate our determination to fight against anything that can divide us.

COSTELLO: Come together as new threats against America are being uncovered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The target is to just go out and kill law enforcement and other officials.

COSTELLO: Investigators learning more about the people behind the attack.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: With an ISIS flag in the background, this video appears to show terror suspect Amedy Coulibaly pledging his allegiance to ISIS.

COSTELLO: Many are asking, where was the United States? Obama in the White House, Biden at home in Delaware. Sharp criticism this morning.

Should our president have been at the rally?

Let's talk. Live at the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello in New York. We'll go straight to Paris in just a minute.

But first, there is a major breakthrough in the AirAsia crash investigation. Investigators say the wreckage suggests the plane exploded around the time of impact. There were previous reports of an explosion in the area which would support that new theory. Another huge development overnight. Search crews find one of the

plane's black boxes and are close to recovering the other. We could have answers within the next two days.

We do have a team on the ground in Indonesia. We'll get to them in just about 15 minutes.

But first, millions marched in Paris after three days of bloody terror attacks. More Parisians took to the streets this weekend than they did following their liberation from the Nazis.

France comes together and so did the world's leaders. Politics and age-old hostilities fade. Israel's leader marches with his Palestinian counterpart. For one iconic moment, solidarity is the greater cause.

Is the U.S.' absence, though, an issue? We asked the American ambassador to France.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANE HARTLEY, U.S. AMBASSADOR TO FRANCE: Listen. I have talked to the French government today, last night just received an e-mail from one of the top people thanking us for our cooperation.

John Kerry is coming back Thursday night. John Kerry has been in Paris, I think everybody knows this more than any other secretary of state. I think this is his 19th or 20th visit. So I don't think there is a feeling of that on the French government side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: I want to bring in my colleague, Hala Gorani, who'll be joining me from Paris throughout this hour.

So, Hala, I'll ask you, is there any French sentiment about President Obama choosing not to be in Paris for the unity march?

HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we asked ordinary French people at the march. And really, I didn't sense from them that there was frustration or even anger. And we'll get to the official Elysee Palace reaction in a moment with my colleague Christiane Amanpour who spoke to a source at the French presidency.

But first, Carol, I want to share with our viewers some new video. Just a couple of hours ago, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visiting that kosher grocery store where terrorists killed four Jewish captives. One terrorist in particular suspected of having done that.

Now Benjamin Netanyahu praised a certain store employee who happened to be Muslim. He is credited with saving the lives of other held hostages. He hid them in a freezer, he turned off the freezer, turned off the light, kept them out of harm's way. Outside the store, a small crowd waved Israeli flags and sang Israeli songs.

Now Prime Minister Netanyahu later told reporters that he expected world leaders to come together to fight terrorism, in his words.

Now we were talking there about Francois Hollande, the response from the French presidency, to the fact that President Obama didn't come to this unity rally, didn't send a higher level representative than the existing ambassador here in Paris.

Now the march for unity is coming back full circle. Should President Obama have attended the unity rally with other world leaders, that's the question.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour spoke to an official in President Hollande's office.

And this has been the big top of discussion, Christiane. And I've noticed this over the last several hours, much more in the United States necessarily than here in France. What is your source telling you about whether or not the French presidency was disappointed that President Obama didn't show up?

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you're absolutely right. It's really not registering at all here. It seems to be a political situation in the United States.

But what I did was take the bull by the horns, call the presidency and say, so, are you offended? Are you upset?

Now they wouldn't go on the record by name but a source very close to the president told me we're not even going to talk about that because we don't want to give any life to that. All we can tell you is this. That we deeply appreciate President Obama being out there amongst the very first on Wednesday calling President Hollande. Was one of the first leaders to do so, making public statements and then they said, and used this word in an exceptional moment of emotional solidarity for us.

President Obama went to the French embassy in Washington and signed the condolence book and again was very forward leaning on all his comments and criticism and solidarity with the French.

So for the French presidency, it's a bit of a storm in a teacup or no storm whatsoever -- Hala.

GORANI: Right. And let's talk also about John Kerry. We're hearing there from one of our reporters at CNN that his visit is scheduled according to pool reporters as accompanying the secretary of state for Thursday of this week in Paris.

Let's talk a little bit about this extraordinary security deployment in this country. Thousands and thousands of police officers and troops and even additional military troops we understand today -- Christiane.

AMANPOUR: The Prime Minister Manuel Valls who I'm going to be speaking to in a couple of hours from now gave an interview on French television today in which he listed the thousands of extra police and military as you say, who have been deployed. Something like, you know, more than 10,000 police and military to be deployed against iconic sites, at Jewish schools, at Muslim mosques, at newspapers, had various, very important, as I say, sites around here.

Plus military and paramilitary as well. They are also saying that, you know, the situation remains highly urgent and in a state of crisis because there is at least, they believe, one ringleader still at large. We simply don't know who that is. A lot of confusion has emerged over the face of that one woman, Hayat Boumeddiene, which was published early on Friday. And many people sort of glommed on to her as being the accomplice. We do not know who the prime minister means by accomplice, but we will certainly ask him that.

And also, I spoke today to the head of the Council of French Muslims. The retro of the grand mosque here who condemned again unequivocally the terrorism against the free press, against Jews here, and made a very dramatic plea for reform inside Islam as a whole and certainly here. To separate politics from the religion. And made a very strong and impassioned plea against Wahhabism, the kind of Islam that is practiced in Saudi Arabia around there, around the very, very radical extremist, harsh, hard line version, and also made a very strong attack against what he called self-declared imams.

All imams, he said, need to have proper training. They cannot declare themselves, imams, they cannot go out and just, you know, falsely tell people that it's all right to kill and it's alright to commit jihad.

So a very strong intervention from the head of French Muslim community here today.

GORANI: All right. Christiane Amanpour is in Paris as well as continue our coverage.

Christiane was talking about leaders of the Muslim community. Yesterday, Carol, during the march we saw the head of the Paris mosque, director of the Paris mosque. He was in a wheelchair. He was front and center in that march. We saw many French Muslims as well, holding up signs saying, I am Jewish, I am Muslim, I am Christian.

And regarding the intelligence and the investigation, it's not just here in Paris where police and the intelligence community are on high alert after all that happened last week, of course, it's where you are, law enforcement officers, intelligence officials in the United States, very much being warned to keep a watchful eye and to be just as vigilant.

Carol, back to you.

COSTELLO: And Hala, that is sadly true. The New York Police Department and other agencies are responding to a threat that resurfaced from ISIS as the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued their own warning.

CNN justice correspondent Pamela Brown live in Washington with that side of the story.

Good morning, Pamela. PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you,

Carol. This latest threat from ISIS according to law enforcement officials is an apparent move to seize on the momentum right after the Paris attack. So ISIS released another propaganda video over the weekend, once again calling on believers to target soldiers, law enforcement, intelligence officials and civilians, particularly in Europe, America, Australia and Canada.

So in light of this, the NYPD put out a citywide notice to police and the FBI sent out a bulletin reminding officers to stay vigilant against attacks. And this follows another warning from the FBI in the wake of the Paris attacks, highlighting the fact it appears the suspect -- the suspect had some sort of formal training. So while AQAP we know has claimed responsibility for directing the attacks Attorney General Eric Holder told CNN's Gloria Border, the U.S. government hasn't determined that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ERIC HOLDER, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: We don't have any credible information at least as yet to indicate who was responsible, who sponsored this act. That is clearly one o the things that we have to make a determination of.

I will say this that AQAP remains the most dangerous of the al Qaeda cells, the al Qaeda organizations and we are constantly focused on them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: AQAP, Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Now Holder was in Paris over the weekend meeting with top European officials and how to combat this problem through better information sharing and in fact that these decentralized, these smaller scale and harder to detect operations driven by in some measure by ISIS and now al Qaeda. It's really the face, the new face of terrorism.

And Carol, what's so troubling id that threat appears to be in perpetuity. Officials are just trying to figure out a way to minimize it.

COSTELLO: Pamela Brown, reporting live from Washington. Thank you.

I want to talk more about this video that resurfaced from ISIL, you know, what Pamela was talking about. CNN law enforcement analyst and former FBI assistant director, Tom Fuentes, joins me now.

Good morning, Tom.

TOM FUENTES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning. Thanks for being here.

It seems ISIS is trying to capitalize on what happened in Paris by re- releasing this propaganda video. Will it work? FUENTES: Well, it might. It's worked already in other countries, the

various propaganda, the videos, and calls to jihad that they've issued over the last several months. I mean, I don't know how much more of a wake-up call you could possibly need. They put that out a couple of months ago and since then we've had attacks in Canada, Sydney, Australia, the streets of New York City and now in France.

So, you know, some people call it, well, the authorities are paranoid. It's not paranoia when it's a legitimate concern.

COSTELLO: Is there any way to prevent this video from being shown? I'm asking you the impossible, I know.

FUENTES: You're right. It's the impossible. You just cannot stop it because even if they shut down jihadi Web sites, other ones go up. And once the video has been published people are going to show it all over the world. And that's just it. The news media will help them get their message out just by even describing that there is a video. So even if the cells themselves, the jihadi members lurking everywhere around the world, yes, you know, even if they see it on their somewhat secret Web sites, you know, we help put it out, frankly.

COSTELLO: We haven't seen in the United States the types of attacks inspired by extremism as we saw in Paris. Why do you think that is?

FUENTES: Well, that will occur I think at a time that they choose if they have capability. You know, if you -- you know, we've talked about "Inspire" magazine which has been published for the last several years out of Yemen and the most recent edition just came out last month, it's described every possible way for terror attacks to occur, whether -- if you know how to make a bomb, great. If you know how to operate weapons and have access, great. But if you don't, drive people over with your car. And we've seen that in several countries.

Or use a makeshift weapon, use a machete, a hatchet, something readily available at a home supply store. So, you know, they've put out every possible way to do an attack at every possible place an attack can be done and they've put that out over and over. So when they choose a different one at a different time and place, it's really nothing that they haven't warned us about for years.

COSTELLO: So authorities have done a great job, they have. But it's tough to prevent those kinds of things, somebody running someone over with their car. It's really in part up to us, isn't it?

FUENTES: I'm not sure what you're asking. In what way is that --

COSTELLO: To be vigilant. Like if we see something suspicious. You know, I'm just talking about --

FUENTES: Well, there's a good example you just brought up, the car. Like the -- like the recent attacks in Israel where people have been run over or in Canada. You know, if you say, yes, I can call police, call 911, and say, hey, I see a car driving 90 miles an hour down the street, running over a bunch of people, do something. It's too late.

COSTELLO: Yes.

FUENTES: That's the problem with this, is that these type of attacks can come with no warning. And if you don't read the minds of the people that are going to the Web sites or talking to their other friends and colleagues, using social media or telephone, or meeting in person in the case of family, brothers, for example, you've really got to be a mind reader. You don't know when they're going to go from thinking bad thoughts to doing bad things. And that's a -- that's just a huge problem it's going to be.

COSTELLO: Tom Fuentes, thanks so much.

FUENTES: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, investigators now have the first AirAsia black box. So can it shed new light on a theory that the plane exploded as it hit the Java Sea?

CNN's David Molko is in Indonesia.

DAVID MOLKO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, big developments here in Jakarta. But there is still a critical piece of this puzzle missing. What it is and why it's so important coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: As investigators finally got a hold of the first black box from AirAsia Flight 8501, there's a shocking new theory they're considering. The plane may have exploded as it crashed into the Java Sea. A senior Indonesian official says the wreckage indicates the left side of the plane disintegrated possibly from an explosion but other investigators say there is no data to support this explosion theory.

So what gives? As a flight data recorder is pulled from the sea and is now in the hands of investigators.

CNN correspondent David Molko joins us now from Jakarta with more.

Good morning.

MOLKO: Hey, good morning, Carol. The flight data recorder, of course that critical part of information. You mentioned comments from one official with the search and rescue investigation. Investigators here saying it's just too premature, too early to tell exactly what happened. Yes, it is clear at this point that the plane did break apart, whether that happened when it hit the water or in midair, too early to tell.

The good news, though, Carol, is that they do have that critical flight data recorder. It is now here in Jakarta. It is in relatively good shape, we're told by investigators. The data from that should take approximately two to three days to download, much like plugging a USB stick into a computer if things go smoothly. The analysis, figuring out what happened, what went wrong when the

aircraft, you know, made that turn that was reported, or was changing altitude to avoid a storm, that may take a little bit longer -- Carol.

COSTELLO: What about the cockpit voice recorder?

MOLKO: Yes, Carol, they're getting closer to that, too, in the search zone. They know -- one search official says, you know, we know exactly where it is. We're 100 percent certain it's believed it's quite near where they found the flight data recorder which is buried underneath a wing. The weather problem here, the weather really governing how fast this search can move. Divers were pulled out of the water late this afternoon because those underwater currents were just too strong for them.

Carol, the other big missing piece here, what they have not found, they found the tail, the flight data recorder, they know where the cockpit voice recorder is, they have found parts of the wings, they have found parts of the engines. What they have not found is the fuselage, the main body of that plane. It is believed that is where more than 100 of the passengers and crew are -- their bodies have yet to be recovered.

Families here, Carol, making a desperate plea saying, we're really excited this has been found, the black box sort of a critical point here. But do not forget about us. The search and rescue chief, perhaps responding to that, has said he will travel to Surabaya tomorrow on Tuesday to meet with those families and hear their concerns -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. David Molko, reporting this morning from Indonesia, thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a sea of unity in Paris. At the front, world leaders from across the globe. But missing from it all, President Barack Obama or any major member of his administration.

Is this as bad as it looks? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: It is lasting image of the unity in Paris, world leaders arm in arm. The stunning omission, no President Obama, no Vice President Joe Biden, no Secretary of State John Kerry. Not surprisingly, the lack of a high ranking administration official is front page news.

Check out the cover of the "New York Daily News." Yes, it says, "You Left the World Down," and they're talking about President Obama.

So did the administration really drop the ball or is this just a missed photo-op?

Joining me now to talk about all this, Hala Gorani is in Paris, along with CNN political commentator and Republican strategist Ana Navarro, and John Avlon, CNN political analyst and editor in chief of "The Daily Beast."

Good morning to you, all.

Hala, I want to start with you all because officials here in the United States say security was an issue. Would it have been a huge obstacle that the president could not overcome to go to France and be safe?

GORANI: Well, I can't talk to the specifics of how security is organized around world leaders. One has to assume that just a few days after two terrible terrorist attacks, at the best of times it's difficult to organize this type of sort of world leader summit such as the one we saw on Sunday even though it was only a march with no speeches.

But what we are hearing is, for instance, regarding the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there have been reports floating around that Francois Hollande may not have been comfortable with his presence at what was qualified as a French unity march.

But now we're hearing from Israeli sources that one of the concerns was, A, security concern, that Benjamin Netanyahu's presence would have made it more difficult, for instance, to make sure that all these leaders would be protected in the way that world leaders need to be. So that it wasn't necessarily a political thing.

That being said we do understand from our sources that once Benjamin Netanyahu did confirm his presence, that then President Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, was also invited and we saw all these world leaders arm-in-arm walking in -- at this unity march in silence. So it was quite a sight.

But I'm seeing from the discussions you're having, Carol, with your guests about President Obama, the discussion surrounding Benjamin Netanyahu's presence, politics are never too, too far from even the most solemn unity marches.

COSTELLO: That is very, very true, Hala.

Actually, Ana, I want to ask you about this because Newt Gingrich tweeted, he said, quote, "Sad that 50 world leaders could show solidarity in Paris but President Obama refused to participate. The cowardice continues."

Cowardice?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Frankly, I think that's a little much. And I think we shouldn't let this issue steal from what was the huge message sent yesterday by that rally. And yes, more than 40 world leaders together in unity, in solidarity against terror.

Was it a political motivation? I think absolutely not. There's no question that France is one of our most valued and trusted allies and that we are helping France and we are cooperating with a lot of what they're doing. Was it a missed opportunity? Did the White House not -- not judge

well the symbolism of it and the significance, not only for the French people, not only for the world, but also for Americans? I think a lot of us felt, gee, I wish we had been represented there. Where was the United States? Where was our recognizable face in that crowd? So it was most definitely a judgment mistake by the White House. And symbolism is important. We know the White House --

COSTELLO: Especially -- especially United States, John Avlon. I mean, we are the melting pot. Like we symbolize the coming together of all different kinds of people.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Absolutely. And look, symbolism matters. If you're going to be the leader of the free world, which we are, that requires leading, that requires showing up at moments when freedom is under attack and symbolism matters. It's not that, you know, President Obama or Joe Biden should have been there per se. From a security perspective that's probably too much to ask for everyone involved.

It's the fact that Eric Holder, the attorney general of the United States, was in Paris for a conference, and proactively chose not to participate in this march, that's the unforgivable unforced error here. It is a matter of symbolism but symbolism matters if we're going to take stance against terror, and the United States needs to be a leader in that united effort.

COSTELLO: Hala, on the other hand the French president came out and said that he felt the United States is strongly on France's side and didn't mind that President Obama or Joe Biden didn't show up.

GORANI: Right. That's the line coming out of the Elysee Palace, that they were very touched by President Obama's phone call on Wednesday right after the "Charlie Hebdo" attacks. This is by the way where we are right now, near "Charlie Hebdo" headquarters. And also happy that the president visited the French embassy in Washington, D.C. and signed that book of condolences.

I think there's one other thing I want to say here, and that is, we were all taken by surprise at the scale of this rally. We thought perhaps a million people. Several hundred thousand. It ended up being almost four million people across France.

Another thing you have to keep in mind is that many of these head of state and government visits were confirmed very close to the time of the rally. This isn't something that was planned weeks ahead of time. It is quite possible that the symbolism, that the impact of this march had been underestimated by some in the United States.

I know even us as journalists didn't expect it to be this huge and be this much the topic of discussion around the world.

COSTELLO: It was an amazing -- it really was an amazing spectacle to see Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas, Ana? It was incredible.