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Police Attacked in Copenhagen; Anbar in Critical Danger; Blizzard Warning for New England Coast; Reports: Police Attacked In Copenhagen; Shelling In Ukraine Ahead Of Ceasefire; Hernandez Jurors To See Key Video; Three Police Officers Shot At Freedom Of Speech Panel

Aired February 14, 2015 - 11:00   ET

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


CHRISTI PAUL, CNN HOST: All right. Thank you so much for sharing your day with us. Happy Valentine's Day to you. We want to get you to some of the breaking news now.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN HOST: That's right. There is much more still ahead. Let's pass it now to our colleague, Fredricka Whitfield. Hey -- Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you so much. Good to see both of you.

It is the 11:00 Eastern hour right here in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The NEWSROOM starts right now.

And this breaking news we continue to follow that we'll get to in a moment.

Happening right now in the NEWSROOM: ISIS forces making stunning advances in Iraq seizing large chunks of territory; now hundreds of U.S. troops are in harm's way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We know that there were some 20 to 25 militants who moved on this base, as many as eight of them were suicide bombers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Plus, fierce fighting continues in Ukraine hours before a cease-fire is set to begin.

And another blizzard -- here we go again -- a blizzard warning yet again in effect for parts of the northeast. Hurricane-force winds, dangerously cold temperatures, and nowhere to put all of that snow.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

All right. Breaking news this hour: we are hearing reports from Danish media that there has been a shooting incident in Copenhagen. Three police officers were shot and wounded at a panel discussion about freedom of speech. That event was organized by the Lars Vilks committee. Vilks is a Swedish artist who was attacked a few years ago after drawing the Prophet Mohammed. The French ambassador to Denmark was at that event and he tweeted that he is still alive in the room.

So, as we get more information about all that's taking place there in Copenhagen, we will bring it to you.

Meantime, let's talk a little about the measure of threat, how to gauge it right now, based on this incident. Let's bring in Phil Mudd, he's CNN counterterrorism analyst. He's also a former CIA counterterrorism official and currently on the National Intelligence Council.

So Phil -- good to see you. You've been on the ground in Iraq. We're going to talk about that situation happening there.

But as it pertains to what we know of this Denmark incident and this shooting, three police officers shot, and it also happens to target a location of the namesake of someone who really rattled the Islamic community for drawing the Prophet Mohammed. Based on the information we have so far, how do you try to come to terms with what has happened, try to extrapolate what may have happened, what may have precipitated it?

PHILIP MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Boy, the hardest thing in this situation, Fredricka, is to keep your cool. The problem you've got in this case is the initial information is going to be bad. At least half of it is going to be rumor and innuendo. It will take several hours to start sorting through the spaghetti to figure out what's good information and what's bad.

When you're doing that sorting, there's an initial question you have to focus on. There's already been a tragedy in Den mark. Is there a further conspiracy like the kinds of conspiracy we saw in Paris a few weeks ago that suggest that there's more threat out there. In other words, are there other individuals who were involved in a cell who might be looking at other targets?

So the first question is a tactical question, obviously, of securing that site, but immediately you've got to go through several hours of looking at things like e-mail and telephone from the fellow who was the perpetrator to say was he in contact with other players?

WHITFIELD: And it's difficult to know whether it was sheer coincidence that this event would be targeted or take place at a location of the namesake of someone who drew the Prophet Mohammed and angered a number of people worldwide or whether indeed this event was targeted as a result of that. At what point do you believe some of those answers will rise to the top?

MUDD: I suspect some of those answers will start to clarify pretty quickly because you're going to be looking at things like whether this individual was in contact with ISIS members if, in fact, this was related to cartoons that depicted the Prophet Mohammed. Was there communication to people who were part of a broader network, maybe the same kind of network that we saw in Paris? Was he in contact with other people who might have provided training or money? That kind of information should be fairly quick to develop over the next day or two. It won't come in, in hour or two, I don't think --

WHITFIELD: I know.

MUDD: -- but by -- let's say by Monday we ought to have the beginnings of the picture.

WHITFIELD: At the same time, it's happening as we're speaking and just looking at the tweet from the French ambassador saying, still alive in the room, says that people are still hunkered down in their safe places there in that building. So there is still a possibility, wouldn't there be, that maybe in a matter of minutes if not hours, a lot more would be revealed about the motivation, who would be involved here, whether people are being held against their will, particularly as police or law enforcement authorities will be more willing to talk and reveal something as they may want the public's assistance, wouldn't you think?

MUDD: That's true, but let's get behind the scenes for a moment to understand how hard this is to figure out. If you look at sort of the arms of the octopus, in a conspiracy like this, there's a number you've got to look at -- the most significant co-conspirators. Are there other people out there?

Then you start to look at things like travel, money, training, facilitation that is somebody who is helping them get -- helping somebody like this get in touch with the terror organization if, in fact, this person was in touch with anybody.

The problem in this case is proving the negative. It's not simply finding an e-mail on his account to suggest he was in contact with somebody. It was assuring that a year ago, two years ago, that he wasn't doing it. Proving the negative in all those areas -- money, travel, et cetera -- is really difficult. So it's harder than you might think to come to a firm conclusion about what happened in a case like this.

WHITFIELD: What do you know about Danish police or law enforcement counterterrorism and again we don't know how this attack is being classified but what do you know about law enforcement authorities on the ground there in Copenhagen?

MUDD: They're going to be pretty good at looking at knowns. That is, once you identify someone who came back from a situation of radicalization in a place like Yemen or Iraq or Syria -- when that person goes up on an intelligence radar, that kind of person gets a pretty high priority.

The problem, and I've worked with all these European security services including the Dane, the problem in these situations is twofold -- Fredricka. The first problem is the numbers of people you have identified in the past few years, as a result of radicalization from this expanding ISIS fight that is too many people for any security service to handle. Same kind of problem we saw in Paris. How do you prioritize 100 or 200 cases? In my world that is simply a volume problem you can't get on top of.

The other problem is how do you find people who aren't in contact with any kind of a network? So let's assume we have a series of lone wolf operations in Europe. The definition of a lone wolf in a democratic society is someone who's using the same communication facilities you might be using -- looking at radicalized videos, communicating with people on Facebook. If somebody is not part of a network just finding that kind of lone wolf in a democratic society is pretty much impossible.

WHITFIELD: And then what do you know about Denmark or at least that country and how open, how willing that country has been, for people who are transient or even for a law enforcement there to have sophisticated counterterrorism networks, infrastructure in order to look for these networks that you speak of?

MUDD: Like a lot of Western Europe, I think Denmark has been open to the influx of refugees from places like the Middle East and Africa, relatively small security service. Again when you get to a security service that size think of where we were 20 years ago and the kinds of problems we faced. Organized crime, maybe trafficking, human trafficking, trafficking in persons. Now we're dealing with relatively small security services in an age of information explosion -- e-mail, phone, Facebook, travel -- that have to handle an influx of radicalized people that is like nothing what somebody like me witnessed at the CIA or the FBI.

Just the numbers alone here for a small security service make this a unique problem. You can handle ten people at a time, 20 -- when you start getting into 100 or 100 plus people for security service that has to deal with technical monitoring, things like e-mail, and then physical monitoring, surveiling a potential terrorist, that kind of volume is not something a security service in Western Europe is designed to handle.

WHITFIELD: Ok. All right. When we get more information on what's happening in Denmark -- again, a shooting taking place, three police officers who were shot while this freedom of speech forum was taking place there, of course we'll bring that.

Meantime let's talk about all that's taking place in Iraq. And the real volatility that seems to be revealed there, particularly since we're now seeing that ISIS forces are making stunning advances in that country, seizing large chunks of territory and also threatening the wherewithal of U.S. troops that are there. We have about 300, at least 300 U.S. military personnel at an air base there.

So talk to me about your concerns about what ISIS is doing. We understand that al Baghdadi as of yesterday -- they have taken complete control of al Baghdadi and now there are threats to al Anbar province and the al Assad Air Base, also coming under attack. What are your concerns this morning?

MUDD: Let's step away for a moment from what we're seeing tactically on the ground. I'm not particularly concerned about what happens at that air base today or tomorrow. I suspect the Iraqis with U.S. help, will hold it.

But I think over the past six months or since the summer of last year when we saw these ISIS advances, there are a couple of things you've got to focus on more broadly that we're seeing play out day to day, week to week

Let's step away for a moment from what we're seeing tactically on the ground. I'm not concerned about what happens at that air base today or tomorrow. I suspect the Iraqis, with U.S. help, will hold it.

But I think over the past six months or since the summer of last year when we saw these ISIS advances there are a couple things you have to focus on more broadly that we're seeing play out day-to-day, week-to- week and what we're seeing at that air base is a snapshot.

Number one, when you're dealing with religious-based insurgencies, as with ISSI, you've got to think about endurance and what we've learned since the summer of last year is the endurance to withstand the onslaught of an organization like ISIS, is going to take years. The commitment of a religious-based insurgency is more significant than the commitment of other insurgencies I witnessed -- people who are focused on politics or economics as the basis for an insurgency.

WHITFIELD: But Phil -- I hate to interrupt on that --

MUDD: Think 2025, think 2035 -- yes. Go ahead.

WHITFIELD: I hate to interrupt on that because when you talk in terms of years, and we're seeing this kind of progress so to speak in a matter of days and weeks as, you know, the world has been watching ISIS go from threats to, you know, seizing more control in Iraq to actually doing it and now we see it actually happening, particularly in al Baghdadi, you know, taking control according to, you know, sources that CNN is now confirming, taking control of an entire city and then threatening to take -- seize control of an entire province, it's hard to believe that we're talking in terms of years now. It seems very short term like right around the corner?

MUDD: They're making short term progress but remember they also made short-term progress up in northern Iraq and were turned back by the Kurdish Peshmerga. That's the Kurdish, sort of the militia, up in the north and suffered setbacks through the fall.

My point here is, you've got to look not only at the progress of ISIS, they had the element of surprise last summer, now they don't. The real question here is not just how ISIS advances towards the capital of Baghdad and they're pretty close, the question is whether the Iraqi military has the backbone to fight them.

If they do, this campaign and that's where I go back to the point of how long this will take, this campaign will take years because it's going to take a long time for an Iraqi military with backbone to reverse the advances that we've seen thus far. You can defend territory if the Iraqi military. The real question is whether then you can regain Anbar Province once you lost it. That is really tough.

WHITFIELD: Ok. Phil Mudd -- thank you so much. We're going to talk some more --

MUDD: Sure.

WHITFIELD: -- so don't go too far. Appreciate it.

MUDD: Ok.

WHITFIELD: All right. Still ahead, let's talk about blizzard warnings now for parts of New England yet again. And coastal flooding and hurricane-force winds are also threatening.

Will Ripley will also be joining us. What Will Ripley in the snow?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, people here in Massachusetts are wondering where they're going to put all the snow when you have drifts that are piled up this high and we have another blizzard, just hours away. There's a lot of concern here about what the next 24 hours could hold.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back.

This breaking news we continue to follow out of Denmark. We're hearing reports from Danish media that there has been a shooting incident in Copenhagen during a free speech forum. Three police officers were shot and wounded at this panel discussion. And that event was organized by the Lars Vilks committee. Vilks is a Swedish artist who was attacked a few years ago after drawing the Prophet Mohammed.

The French ambassador to Denmark was at the event and he tweeted that he is still alive in the room. More information as we get it.

All right. Now to our other big story, right here in the U.S. of A., an icy hurricane, that's what Boston could feel like as blizzard conditions close in tonight. This in a city with snow already piled higher than car roofs in some places. And also a big concern, hurricane-force winds, whiteout conditions, and possible flooding from storm surge. Millions are in the path of this latest winter blast.

Joining me right now, CNN's Will Ripley in Cape Ann, Massachusetts; and Ryan Young joining us from Boston. All right, lots of snow on the ground in both places.

Ryan, let's begin with you as we talk about this snow that continues to pile up, already a nuisance and a danger, but now what?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Fred. Of course I'm 5'11. If you look over to the side here, look at how high this is packed up on the side of the roads. We've seen this everywhere. Sometimes the snow drifts more than 12 feet.

Look, people are tired of this. Because we're getting hit round after round with the snow and you know that comes with a lot of work especially when it comes to yards. People have been doing a pretty good job shoveling trying to get the stuff out of the way. But that -- that's only half the problem.

If you look out toward the road here, they've done a good job in downtown Boston making sure the ways, the roadways, are clear. But the issue here is, dealing with the snow drifts and making sure people don't jump out and get in the way of cars.

Yesterday, it took us more than an hour and a half just to go four miles in this city because people were driving so slowly. They've also closed down schools to deal with the weight of the snow on the roofs. In fact, we talked to a mayor who says it's not only about closing down schools at this point, cabin fever is also setting in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH CURTATONE, MAYOR OF SOMERVILLE, MASSACHUSETTS: My wife and I, we have four children -- eleven, nine, eight, and six and I can tell you Ryan, I'm begging for them to go back to school last week. I mean cabin fever is at the extreme here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: So you can understand that from a parent's perspective. Look, the tour buses are still running in the city right now. People are getting out. It's actually warmed up just a little bit -- it's 3 degrees right now. It's not as cold as it was as we came out this morning. The sun is out. Although people are tired of it, they don't want to get hit with another round but it is coming.

WHITFIELD: Ok. So Ryan that's hilarious. The warm-up of 3 degrees. Oh, my gosh. Folks there are very hardy.

YOUNG: You feel it. You definitely want it. Yes, you know what, people are talking about they're just dealing with the snow and so far so good. It's only out here on the roadways where they get a little antsy about dealing with all the traffic they've had to deal with. But you can see it looks pretty good out here on the roads.

WHITFIELD: Looks pretty good. And that he car is swinging by there, navigating; another one swinging by and navigating pretty well there. All right -- and getting that mail delivered as we see. Ryan -- thanks so much.

Hey Will Ripley, let's check in with you. Usually we see you in tropical, subtropical locations and here you are now wearing winter gear with snow piled up to your -- the top of your head there.

RIPLEY: Yes. We don't see this in Tokyo, Fred, that's for sure. And it's really remarkable what people here in coastal Massachusetts have been dealing with. Road conditions as you see here are good. We've actually seen plows already out just kind of checking things out. But the road conditions here expected to deteriorate.

But the big problem for a lot of people, I mean you see the snow piled up, Fred. Look at this backyard. You couldn't even walk through there if you wanted to. It's going to be a long time before all of that melts. You go beyond -- you look at the rooftops there -- we've seen a lot of snow covered roofs and with another, you know, heavy, wet snow expected to come, there could be the potential for some roof damage, even roof collapse people are worried about.

But another big concern out here, Fred, the winds along the coast are expected to pick up. This is going to be blizzard conditions. Here they have managed to keep the power on in previous storms, however, if the power goes out, a lot of people say it's going to be a very, very cold night.

And while this is happening on a weekend, keep in mind it's happening on a holiday weekend and this is an area where there's a lot of bed and breakfasts, especially along the Massachusetts coast. Valentine's Day, a lot of the hotels are booked and people are really being told if they don't get out of here today, they might have to ride this storm out tomorrow into Monday. If the lights stay on it could be a very romantic cozy weekend. But if the lights are out it could be very cold very quickly, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Oh gosh. And then Will, Cape Ann, help me out with the geography there -- is this a place that we have to take a ferry in order to get there? How far outside of Boston is it?

RIPLEY: Well, normally it's only about an hour drive outside of Boston. But as Ryan was mentioning it was very, very slow traffic yesterday and that's just because of the volume of people that were heading here because again, this is a weekend where the places are booked up. Getting out right now, not so bad -- you see traffic is moving along just fine. But it's going to be a few hours before things are expected to pick up here and travel conditions are expected to deteriorate very quickly -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh. Ok, very serious matter. Will Ripley, thank you so much; and Ryan also joining us from Boston. Thanks to both of you, gentleman. Appreciate it.

Hey, let's bring in meteorologist Ivan Cabrera. Ivan --

IVAN CABRERA, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes.

WHITFIELD: -- this is becoming like a broken record, you and me here.

CABRERA: It absolutely is. Last weekend, the weekend before that, and the weekend before -- I've lost track. But I know we started some time in January -- unbelievable.

WHITFIELD: It's been a lot.

CABRERA: All right. So geography-wise, Cape Ann right here -- this is where Will Ripley was. And that right there, you can see that is Ipswich Bay. I think that's going to be one of the areas that's going to be hit by those north winds and by the potential for coastal flooding. Of course, Cape Cod here as the winds come out of the north that's going to be an issue for you. That's where the blizzard warnings are in effect and will continue to be in effect through tonight and into tomorrow.

Let's track it for you. Saturday 11:00, nothing going on as you saw there with our live shots. By the afternoon, we'll get this first band of snow beginning to move into New England, New York, as well. Although again for New York, this is not going to be a storm but for you this is going to be New England, Boston and points to the north in fact.

Along the southern coastline, of course, of Connecticut and Rhode Island as well they're going to be impacted. Sunday morning -- that's when the storm gets going. You see the swirl here -- that is the low that's going to be intensifying deepening offshore and that's when we're going to involve very strong winds, the hurricane winds, and heading into Sunday.

And then by then the storm will be done but the weather will not be done. The winds will still be howling. As far as the snowfall, anywhere from eight to ten inches, 15 to 18 inches, couple of feet possibly down east Maine out towards Bal Harbor (ph) you're going to get hit well.

I want to track this for you here Saturday evening, watch this, watch what happens near Sunday morning. You see this -- that would be the eye of the storm if you will. And by then, look at Nantucket getting into 70 mile-an-hour wind gusts close to hurricane force. I think we'll have some hurricane force wind gusts through the day on Sunday -- no question.

And then Monday morning, still, 30 to 40 mile an hour winds. Why is that important? Well, because we are still at that time going to be talking about an arctic air mass. That's going to make it feel unbelievably cold.

Look at this. This is Sunday morning, zero in Boston, minus 3 in New York. Fast forward to Monday morning -- minus 21 is the way it's going to feel as you step outside in Boston. That's not just cold -- that is dangerous stuff.

WHITFIELD: That's ridiculous.

CABRERA: Yes. And so basically you are going to be inside I think for the next couple of days even though the storm will be done by Monday.

WHITFIELD: Yes, that is frostbite weather. I mean that is like all extremities must be covered, period.

CABRERA: Yes, indeed.

WHITFIELD: I don't care how hardy you are.

CABRERA: Stay inside with your valentine.

WHITFIELD: Stay inside. That's the best advice. All right. Thanks -- Ivan. Appreciate that.

All right. When we come back we'll have more on that shooting taking place in Denmark. Three police officers injured -- details next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. More on that breaking news. New information about the attack at Copenhagen, Denmark -- the attackers are on the loose. Danish police say that these attackers that we're going to better describe fled the scene in a Volkswagen Polo. Apparently someone or some people walked in to this location where there was a freedom forum and opened fire killing -- I'm sorry -- shooting and wounding three police officers at this panel discussion on the freedom of speech panel.

And this event taking place and being organized by the Lars Vilks committee. Vilks is a Swedish artist who was attacked a few years ago after drawing the Prophet Mohammed. And the French ambassador to Denmark, who was at that event, also tweeted that he is still alive and in the room. So still unclear whether this is, indeed, an active situation. We're trying to reach out to law enforcement there on the ground to get a better sense as to what is happening there, whether doors have been locked, even though it is believed that the perpetrators have fled and are on the lookout but it's unclear whether people have been allowed to leave any locked up rooms or even this building, whether their stories are also being expressed now to law enforcement.

All right. Phil Mudd back with us now. So Phil, all we're learning additionally now is that these alleged gunmen -- and still unclear how many -- may have taken off in a vehicle, their whereabouts unknown. How will this investigation be unraveled?

MUDD: Well, you've given me one statistic, one fact that I think is hugely significant and that is, if it is true that there is more than one gunman, in my mind as a former professional in this business, that changes the game substantially. When you have only one individual, we call a lone wolf, the chance that that person is emotionally unbalanced, the chance that the motivation is as much something that went wrong in that person's mind as it is some sort of political motivation, like a cartoon of the Prophet Mohammed, is pretty high.

When you start getting more than one conspirator to my mind you get into a more organized conspiracy and likelihood that it's just related to emotional instability is lower. You have to look in this case as a second critical fact and again, there's a parallel I think to Paris.

In my experience when somebody takes the step, the emotional step of murdering or attempting to murder somebody as we just evidently saw in Denmark, they've crossed over an edge. These guys, if it is, in fact, men, I doubt will go down alive because they have already gone over to a place where they think that it's what they've done is right and they're prepared to conduct operations after this event.

So I think there's a possibility of more violence, possibly between police and these guys, and I think the chance of a conspiracy is much higher when there's not one individual involved.

WHITFIELD: OK. It hasn't been specified to us how many, but I think the notation certainly was the assailants did take off in a vehicle so more than one. And then, you know, in terms of investigation, what's the concentrated effort right now with law enforcement to try to back track, try to look at any kind of communication online.

You know, try to see if there were any flags raised that maybe were overlooked, or, you know, especially post-Paris, so much learned about how people were -- the wives or girlfriends were on cell phones planning?

MUDD: I think you have to look at two parallel investigations, especially in the coming hours. This is sort of similar to what we witnessed in the Boston case. The first piece of the investigation is obviously how do you secure the city, what warnings are you giving out to people? That's a law enforcement response.

When you get into my business that is intelligence at the same time as that law enforcement response is under way, you've got a variety of intelligence services looking at categories of activity. Once you have a name you're going to look at, did that person's name show up in travel to a place like Turkey, which is obviously a springboard into Syria?

Did that person have unusual transfers of money? Obviously what does that person sell and e-mail traffic tell you or even a Facebook posting, does it tell you they're in communication with other people who are either participants in a conspiracy or supporting a conspiracy?

So think of the tactical response at one level and then the long, it will take weeks or months, intelligence response at another level.

WHITFIELD: And you know, Phil, this is a very difficult one because there's so much we don't know. We don't have information in terms of whether these alleged attackers walked in, said something, looked for a police officers in particular, targeted them, it's just unclear.

We're looking at some new images coming from the scene, but I don't know how much of a story it tells. As we look at these images we see the bullet ridden windows here, we see investigators outside, we saw an image of someone being pulled out on a stretcher, unclear if that's one of the police officers, but so much unknown here.

How do you suppose, you know, investigators are trying to piece together this sequence of events, whether it be involving a number of the attendants from the event, what else?

MUDD: You've got to look from the initial investigation at everything from looking at all the video in this sort of concentrated video world we live in, in urban areas, of all the video before and after to find information that suggests what the vehicle was, whether there are more individuals with these people.

If there was more than one, who went into the facility, but I tell you, Fredricka, one of the problems with an investigation like this that I witnessed. I remember being in Europe at the time of an attack in a Western European city about ten years ago, is from an intelligence practitioner's perspective you have to be frustrated at the outset because you can't do anything.

You might as well go out and have a cup of coffee in my world because you have to wait for some facts to come in before you can start to build the intelligence investigation. You've got to confirm the name, the cell phone, et cetera.

Sometimes from my intelligence world to start to kick in, you'd have to sit there and sit on your hands for a couple hours because you didn't have enough information to go on.

WHITFIELD: Does Denmark have any kind of recent history that shows its concerns about being targeted, you know, and I know you use the term lone wolf, but if we were talking about more than one alleged attacker, does that constitute the same kind of potential definition or would that already be a type of network because it involved more than one?

MUDD: There's one thing we have to look to in terms of looking at Denmark and the rest of Western Europe, regardless of whether this individual was a lone wolf, if you're a Danish security official in the wake of Paris you have to be thinking about are individuals who aren't affiliated with any ISIS network going to see an emotional trigger in Paris that leads to them to say I've never been to Syria, never been to Iraq but I, too, agree that these cartoons are unacceptable and I'm going to do something about it.

So again, regardless of whether you saw evidence of activity in place like Denmark you have to be on the alert because people in these situations get very emotional and that emotion leads to agitation and action. I suspect that there's going to be something that indicates this individual or individuals somehow watch Paris and that helped to trigger the action today.

WHITFIELD: All right. Phil Mudd, thanks so much. Always enjoy your expertise. Thank you so much. We'll check back with you momentarily.

All right, meantime, coming up, the ceasefire in Ukraine, Eastern Ukraine, set to begin in less than six hours, but guess what? The violence still hasn't stopped and now Ukraine's president is threatening to impose Marshall Law if separatists don't put down their arms. A live report from the conflict zone next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back to the NEWSROOM. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko warns if separatist do not adhere to a planned ceasefire, he will impose Marshall Law throughout the country.

Tonight's deadline is set to begin at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, that's midnight Kiev time, but in the run up to the ceasefire violence, has not stopped. Shelling could be heard in at least two cities including Central Donestk.

And today Reuters is quoting a military spokesman as saying seven Ukrainian service men have been killed in just the past 24 hours. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is in Donetsk in Eastern Ukraine. So Nick, what more are you hearing in regards to the shelling and whether this ceasefire will be honored?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It looks increasingly precarious midnight will see an end to violence. We have heard from the separatists, who say they claim they will stop firing at midnight, but there's a big question mark about their intentions over the town called Debaltseve, a key area, much fighting is happening.

Strategic for both sides hundreds if not thousands of Ukrainian troops have encircled in there. It's unclear what's happening apart from intense violence in and around it.

Now the separatists have suggested that they consider it their territory already and those Ukrainians should give themselves up. That's one key problem here because in fact the separatist leader says he doesn't believe the Minsk agreements mention Debaltseve.

And therefore it's an issue of some sort of not contention, but frankly I think mystery exactly how that will play out, unlikely to go well, though. The shelling another issue we've heard shells land close to where we are in the city center.

But that frankly is just part of a number of instances across this separatist stronghold which many will blame on the Ukrainian military here. We saw a large crater what must have been a rocket earlier on.

We are hearing from Russian state media that Petro Poroshenko, the Ukrainian president will speak to both the French, German and American leaders, Barack Obama tonight ahead of that cease-fire and also the Russian Foreign Ministry, very intensely involved in spinning this crisis.

They have said that they believe western leaders are reassessing or changing their opinion of the contents of the Minsk agreement. A lot of people trying to cast blame for how badly this could go wrong and we haven't seen midnight yet.

WHITFIELD: Gosh, all right, very precarious indeed. Thanks so much, Nick Paton Walsh, appreciate it in Eastern Ukraine.

Let's now get back to one of our other top stories. ISIS making critical advances in Iraq, this time coming within just nine miles of hundreds of U.S. troops stationed at an Iraqi military base.

CNN's Erin McPike is covering the latest on the ISIS attack and joining us from Washington. So Erin, as we've reported, 13 Iraqi soldiers were killed when insurgents attacked near the air base. What are you hearing from Pentagon officials?

ERIN MCPIKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, the Pentagon's big message in the wake of this attack has been to keep it in perspective. Spokesman Admiral John Kirby spoke to CNN yesterday about it and hear him downplaying the concerns about the immediate and imminent danger to American troops. Listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REAR ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON SPOKESMAN: We readily admit that Al-Anbar is a contested region that ISIL continues to want to pose a threat there, but again, this is a huge sprawling base, roughly the size of Boulder, Colorado. I mean, it's not just a small outpost somewhere.

In fact, there's many bases inside the big base so very, very big area, and I would say that this incident, though, not that we're not taking it seriously, happened nowhere near where U.S. or coalition forces were operating.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCPIKE: The Pentagon is stressing that this attack is mostly another example of ISIS propaganda. Simply knowing they'd make a big splash by hitting this huge protected base, but Kirby pointed out that it was a suicide mission so ISIS wasn't going to gain substantial ground anyway.

At the same time, we've been hearing for months the deep skepticism on Capitol Hill about Iraqi security forces that they may be ill prepared, or at least under prepared, for this war, but because they beat back ISIS in this case, defense officials are casting this event almost as a success because it gives them a way to say that these Iraqi security forces can defend their own territory.

But look, that is a tricky assertion to be making just a couple of days after those Iraqi forces couldn't stop ISIS from recapturing that nearby city of Al-Baghdadi and, in fact, American air power was a significant factor in defeating the attack on the base.

We're also now hearing from some military analysts who warn of mission creep and the call for potential involvement of American ground troops is becoming a little louder even though the Pentagon says for now the policy is still no combat mission for American troops.

But look for lawmakers on Capitol Hill that want to step up American involvement in Iraq and Syria use this attack to make their case as debate heat up in Congress over the authorization for the use of military force -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Erin McPike, thanks so much in Washington.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: The judge presiding over the murder trial of former NFL star, Aaron Hernandez, is allowing jurors to see a key piece of evidence. The video of the athlete destroying his cell phone, that video was taken the day after Odin Lloyd was shot and killed.

Jurors only heard two days of testimony this week, but it was emotional. Here's Susan Candiotti.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SUSAN CANDIOTTI, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The night Odin Lloyd's bullet riddled body is found among dirt piles in an industrial park, police quickly find clues.

OFFICER JOHN GRIM, NORTH ATTLEBORO POLICE DEPARTMENT: Inside of that wallet we've located a Massachusetts driver's license, which we were able to I.D. the young man who was laying on the ground as a Mr. Odin Lloyd from Boston, Massachusetts.

CANDIOTTI: And keys to a car rented by former Patriot tight-end, Aaron Hernandez. About four hours later, it leads investigators straight to the star football player's home, about 10:00 that same night. This video from his own security cameras shows two investigators trying to find him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is Trooper Sherman doing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Knocking on the door.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What are you doing?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ringing the doorbell.

CANDIOTTI: Lights are on but no answer. In court, jurors watch investigators on video using flash lights, looking around-the-house. At one point one cop uses his hands to boost his partner high enough to peek inside Hernandez's garage window looking for the rental car. The defense demands to know why Hernandez should have to answer his door at that hour.

JAMIE SULTAN, DEFENE ATTORNEY: Do you know any requirement why a private citizen of North Attleboro has to answer his door at 10:30 at night, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, he does not have to.

CANDIOTTI: Finally, Hernandez comes outside telling them he was watching them on his security system. Police asked him about Odin Lloyd and a rental car.

DETECTIVE DANIEL ARRIGHI, NORTH ATTLEBORO POLICE DEPARTMENT: He informed up his Boy O has it. He informed us that he was up his way yesterday.

CANDIOTTI: Police testify Hernandez gets aggravated.

ARRIGHI: He became agitated and upset, and that he turned away from us.

CANDIOTTI: He goes to the police station voluntarily, but is not arrested until nine days later. Prosecutors also show new crime scene photos, two bullets, one with fibers. They say sifted from dirt below the victim, shot six times. And a .22-caliber pistol found in a wooded area just outside of the crime scene. It's not the murder weapon, still missing. On cross- examination, the defense repeatedly attacks investigators, accusing them of sloppy work in measuring the crime scene.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you wrote five to ten feet in your report that was not accurate is that what you're telling us today?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was an approximation, sir.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So when you said 5 to 10 in your report, would you agree with me that that was a mistake?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was an approximation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did anybody measure it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, we did not. We weren't instructed to take any measurements.

CANDIOTTI: Susan Candiotti, CNN, Fall River, Massachusetts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: This breaking news we continue to follow overseas in Denmark where there was a freedom of speech forum taking place and a shooting also unfolded. Now police are looking for the alleged attackers that opened fire and shot and injured three police officers at this freedom of speech forum.

It was arranged by the Lars Vilsque Committee, which also happens to be the namesake of a Swedish artist who had drawings, artist, satirical drawings of the Prophet Mohammed and there was great outcry in the Muslim community over it.

Again unclear whether this incident, this shooting is at all related to that artist. But it did take place at this freedom of speech forum taking place.

Now I'm joined on the phone by Dennis Mayhoff Brink. He is a satire researcher and was at the freedom of speech discussions when this attack happened. So Dennis, I understand that you heard loud and clear a number of shots fired?

DENNIS MAYHOFF BRINK, SATIRE RESEARCHER (via telephone): Yes. That's right. About 3:30 we heard a number of shots, I'm not sure how many, 30 shots from next door and we also heard a person yelling something, I think it was in an Arabic language, and everybody, of course panicked in the room and tried to run to the door or hide behind the door or tables or chairs, stuff like that.

I was on my out myself. Then we heard a number of shots from the street as well, and then that's when we run out and we were just hiding as good as we could and hoping for the best.

WHITFIELD: So, Dennis, you were the first person we've had a chance to talk with. You are really painting a picture for us. You heard the shots coming from inside. You say you were in a room, you know, next door where you heard these some 30 shots.

Was anything yelled out as far as you could remember, or recall before you heard the 30 shots? Was there any anxiety, any worries or concerns about anything prior to those shots being fired?

BRINK: No, no. There was nothing before the shot. It was quiet and peaceful debate. French ambassador had just said a few words about the "Charlie Hebdo" incident and, yes, it was just a meeting about the conditions of freedom of speech today and the limits on art and self- censorship. I think there were 35 people there. It was very peaceful until we heard the shots like out of nowhere.

WHITFIELD: And this building this forum was taking place in, can you describe it for us? Is it a very small intimate seating. We're looking at video, but all we can see is the entrance and there are other buildings nearby. It's hard to tell whether this was a large building, conference center, small intimate space. Can you describe it for us?

BRINK: Yes. It was a small intimate space. It's a small theater, actually in Copenhagen where it took place. I don't know, maybe could fit 80 people in the room or something like that. And we were, I think 30 or 35, and yes, so it was small really.

WHITFIELD: And the police officers as far as you can tell, you said you heard the shots that were in the room near where you were, but the police officers, were they shot in the interior of the building? Were they outside on patrol? Can you tell?

BRINK: Well, when we arrived at the building there was a police check similar to what you experience in an airport. There were two officers in uniforms and there were other people who looked like they were from the intelligence, of course not in uniforms.

And so there were police there around the building, and after about, when we panicked inside the room, we were just lying around hiding behind tables and chairs and hoping for the best, then suddenly the door opens and two persons come running into the room with their guns and it turns out people panicked immediately.

But it turns out they are from the intelligence and they tell us to calm down and they don't seem to be in control of the situation themselves. One of them is shot in the leg and is bleeding and they are trying -- it seems they are trying to secure the other doors so that nobody gets in from anywhere else.

WHITFIELD: And are you calling us now from that same building? Are you at a new location?

BRINK: No. I'm now in the police station, close by. We're going to be interrogated, all of us. Yes -- to tell what we've seen.

WHITFIELD: For how long would you say you were kept at that building where this conference was taking place shortly after the shooting? I'm trying to understand how long the search for people looking for people who were hiding behind the tables and chairs as you put it, how they maybe tried to sanitize the area, you know, to see if there were any more alleged gunmen.

BRINK: Well, we were inside the building, I think until half an hour ago or something. We were only evacuated with buses from the building about a half an hour ago. But it was relatively quiet after I'll say 20 minutes or something because I think after 10 or 15 minutes, I can't say for certain.

But about 10 or 15 minutes after the shots we heard the sirens from the police cars and we knew that there were lots of police and ambulances around the place and we started feeling more safe at that point.

And after an hour or so we actually continued our little conference, but then about half an hour or so we were told we would be evacuated to the police station where we are now.

WHITFIELD: Dennis, prior to the conference getting under way, had you thought about security or your safety particularly the subject matter and you say the French ambassador was there to talk specifically about the "Charlie Hebdo" incident in Paris where many were killed at that office. How concerned were you about your safety in attending this forum?

BRINK: I actually wasn't really concerned. There has been several similar arrangements, which I have participated in and there was nothing provocative about this meeting. It was a dialogue and a debate about what was going on.

But in Denmark, if a person somehow made a cartoon or made a cartoon of Mohamed or something similar, any time they participate in some public arrangement there's always a security issue and I knew there would be there, of course, but I actually had not expected anything like this.

WHITFIELD: You're talking about the committee, which sponsored this free speech event. The namesake was the Swedish artist who is known for depicting the Prophet Mohamed and certainly upsetting a lot of people within the Muslim community.

So you're talking about while the committee has arranged a number of things, usually there was some layer of security or those kinds of precautions usually taken when they are involved in projects like this.

BRINK: Yes. That's right.

WHITFIELD: OK, and so now what? Now what are your concerns? What -- how do you process what just took place? You were in this building, for this forum, talking about free speech, and you would hear 30 shots fired, three police officers would be injured there in Copenhagen, you know, Denmark, now how do you process what just took place?