Inside Look Into Terror Cells
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.</s>MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST: Good morning, I'm Michael Smerconish. Breaking news this morning just one week after the terror attacks in France. Thousands of police and soldiers are now spread out across neighboring Belgium guarding government sites, schools and synagogues. And that high alert extends all over Europe amid frightening new evidence that terror attacks are planned across the continent. We have new information developing on suspects in those cells that we'll get to in just a few moments with CNN's Deborah Feyerick. But first, this map shows some of the country's Americans love to visit when they travel abroad, but intelligence sources tell CNN these are the nations where terror cells could be ready to strike, in France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. There as many as 20 sleeper cells and between 120 and 180 people said to be ready to attack. What does that mean here at home? In an exclusive interview, CNN's Fareed Zakaria put that question to a man who would know, former CIA director Leon Panetta.</s>FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): It sounds like, Secretary Panetta, you are more worried based on what has happened over the last few weeks and particularly in Paris and you feel that this could happen in New York. This could happen in many, many places in the world.</s>LEON PANETTA, FORMER CIA DIRECTOR: I don't think there's any question. I think what we're seeing, as I said, is a much more aggressive chapter, and a much more dangerous chapter in terms of the war on terrorism. What has happened in Paris, what happened in Ottawa, what has happened in Belgium is something that we need to understand that these terrorists are now engaged in a much more aggressive effort based on recruiting, based on what's happening in Syria and Iraq and Yemen. They are engaged in a much more aggressive effort to conduct violence not only in Europe but I think it's a matter of time before they direct it at the United States as well.</s>SMERCONISH: Right now we have the angles of these story covered by reporters all over the world. CNN's Ivan Watson in Brussels. Nick Paton Walsh in Yemen, where the French attacks were reportedly planned and Deborah Feyerick in New York with the latest on the investigation. Let's start with Ivan Watson in Brussels where soldiers are patrolling in front of the Jewish museum. A scene of a deadly attack a year ago by a gunman suspected of having joined ISIS in Syria. Ivan, what is the very latest?</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Michael, the Belgians have deployed, for the first time in years, really, decades, perhaps, armed forces on the streets of two Belgian cities, Brussels and Antwerp, guarding a number of installations, including the U.S. embassy, protecting a number of Jewish buildings - the synagogue here in Brussels, the Jewish Museum as you mentioned and different places in the Jewish district of Antwerp. This is clearly a response to the raid that Belgian police carried out on Thursday night where the suspects opened fire on the police as they carried out their raid. It was in an eastern town called</s>SMERCONISH: Ivan, you've spent many years covering Turkey. So I want to ask a follow-up about the claim that the country is becoming a pathway for jihadists who are seeking to go back and forth between Syria and Europe. Germany's head of domestic intelligence said recently that 90 percent of the jihadists in his country travel through Turkey. Turkey is one of our strongest allies, thought to have strong anti-terror operations. But I guess my question is how good is their intelligence?</s>WATSON: Well, there's no question that Turkey has been the main transit point for people, from fighters, wanna-be fighters going to Syria. It has a very long border, more than 900 miles long and ISIS controls a big chunk of that border. The Turks say that they've cracked down over the course of the past year, that they've been intercepting thousands of people trying to get into Syria. Some of them suspected wanna-be jihadists. But it's clear that it's still an important transit route. If you look back to the beginning of this month, the kind of partner or wife of one of the "Charlie Hebdo" attackers in Paris, her name is Hayed Bumijean (ph). She actually traveled from Madrid to Istanbul, Turkish officials say on January 2nd and is believed to have since then traveled to Syria. So even though the Turks claimed that they are cracking down, they showed me some of the measures they've taken along that border to make it less porous. There's no question that supporter and sympathizers of ISIS are still using it as way to get in, as are some of the enemies. Some of the fighters from militant groups that are combatting against ISIS. And that's going to be a major challenge still for the Turks to deal with. Michael.</s>SMERCONISH: Ivan Watson, thank you for an excellent report. Now to Yemen, the remote and dangerous country that is the headquarters of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula or AQAP. CNN is the only major news network that has made it into Yemen. Joining ne now from the capital of Sana is CNN senior international correspondent Nick Paton Walsh. Nick, I understand that you have breaking news for us.</s>NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We just heard in the last few minutes that according to one Yemeni official briefed on security matters, two French citizens have been detained in Yemen. There were detained on suspicion of offering logistical support to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, in the south. I should point out that this official says this detention occurred as they were trying to leave the country a few months ago. So we are talking about someone that way pre-dated the Paris attack. That doesn't necessarily mean that these individuals had no connection or knowledge of what happened in Paris, but it doesn't mean this is a reaction to investigations happening inside Paris. We are told these individuals were not</s>SMERCONISH: Nick, why does Yemen seem to be the pre-9/11 Afghanistan? Why do all terror roads today seem to go through that country?</s>WALSH: Well, that and northern Syria, for obvious reasons, similar reasons here in Yemen. We are talking about a failing or failed state. The economy is on the edge of collapse. Soon the government would not be able to pay their meager salaries. It does need to pay and then, of course, there is the increasingly deadly and increasingly sectarian civil complex that has racked the country for years. Little complex but worth listening to. The Hufi (ph) side that has swept in the past few months, they are close to the Shia side of the Muslim divide. They moved in and taken over the streets of this capital. And you see their check points in many areas. They are the enemies of Al Qaeda and Sunni tribes here, and some say, in fact,</s>SMERCONISH: Thank you for that exclusive report, Nick. Stay safe. And now what we're learning from intelligence sources here. CNN's Deborah Feyerick has been working her sources to get new information on the terror cells in Europe. Deb, what are you learning?</s>DEBORAH FEYERICK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We do know that U.S. authorities are very interested, Michael in finding a man by the name of Salim Bengalaim. He is on the State Department's capture list. He essentially is identified as an executioner for ISIS. He is a Frenchman. And now we are learning that he does have ties to the suburbs with the two Kouachi brothers grew up, the so-called</s>SMERCONISH: Did you just tell me that there is a two degree of separation between those horrific beheadings that we're all familiar with and the Kouachi brothers?</s>FEYERICK: Well, there's a Frenchman that they want to find who is directly connected to the suburb where they all grew up. This is a gang. This is a cell. This is an ideology that has extended over a period of time. The reason that we see this level of aggression right now is because of the fact you have an ideology that you can arguably in modern daytimes with Osama Bin Laden, who said look down the road. We're going to create a caliphate. We're going to create a world of political islam. A caliphate. And now the way it has happened especially with a man like Anwar Al Awlaki - this preacher, this western cleric, born here in America, his message resonated so deeply with his young group of disenfranchised men that the caliphate is not decades or centuries in the future. The caliphate is now. And that really established with what's going on in Syria now with these young sort of thugs.</s>SMERCONISH: One quick followup because that intrigues me. Has the motivation changed? With Bin Laden, and I've read many of his writings, it was all about "the interventionalist foreign policy of the United States." Today it seems as if it's about economic despair among young Muslim men.</s>FEYERICK: There's no question. That is a huge motivator that's going on right now. But rather than go elsewhere to fight the war. What they're now being told is go elsewhere. Get a little bit of training. Really doesn't take a lot to pick up a gun and fire it and then come back and carry it out against the countries where you are living. And so it is a very different kind of war. It is a ground war going on in Europe.</s>SMERCONISH: Deb Feyerick, thank you as always for your report. Intelligence agencies in Europe, the United States and other countries are working around the clock to track down connections to the Paris attacks and Belgian cells. It's a formidable job. A major manhunt to find and shut down terror networks. I want to drill down on just how you do it with an expert, Lt. Col. James Reese. He's a counter terrorism expert and former member of the Army's Delta Force. He joins me now from Raleigh, North Carolina. Colonel, I understand that the other night there was an unprecedented telephone conference call among FBI field offices. What can you tell us?</s>LT. COL. AJME REESE (RET.), CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ADVISER: Michael, good morning. You're right. The FBI met at the Washington field office, and by the director of the FBI had an all-hands video teleconference saying to all of the joint terrorism task force throughout the U.S., all of the FBI offices throughout the U.S. and the intel fusion centers around the U.S. to make sure everyone was on the same sheet of music. That everyone had the foundational logic and the after action of what happened in Paris, what was going on. So everyone is on the same sheet. That's great for us. It's interesting to see in 2015, it's the first time that we have done it. But good news are all around.</s>SMERCONISH: Well, I'm glad that we're all on the same sheet domestically. It begs the question, who is calling the shot internationally? We put that map up a few moments ago so that CNN viewers could see the worldwide implications. Are those efforts being directed from Washington? From somewhere else? And who is calling that shot?</s>REESE: Well, Michael. You have what I'll tell you is you have an inter agency task force that works with Interpol, with the other country's security services. We literally have FBI, you'll have CIA agents that are posted to these places here and so everything works back to the national intel service back here in D.C. and then links up with the different countries where we are right now, in France and these joint terrorism task forces. But there's not one place internationally that you would think that everyone comes back to in one place. It would be too difficult. But I will tell you this, from my experience in working with these all throughout my years, these folks do this pretty well and they work it really hard.</s>SMERCONISH: Colonel, it would seem to me, you just answered my question from a law enforcement perspective. It would seem to me this also puts an increased burden on our diplomatic efforts. Can you speak to the importance of that?</s>REESE: Yes, I can, Michael. We all look at things what I call the elements of national power. And whether they're diplomatic, informational, military intelligence and economic, right now, all we really see, you know, all our viewers are watching right now, they're seeing the intelligence and the military or law enforcement security aspect. Or more really the kinetic piece of this whole thing. I think what we're really missing right now is the diplomatic and what I call the informational or the counter propaganda to what the Islamic jihadists are doing, and we see this, but I just don't think it's in parallel and as much of the gas pedal going on the diplomatic end to counter propaganda.</s>SMERCONISH: Colonel Reese, thank you for your report.</s>REESE: Thank you, Michael.</s>SMERCONISH: We're going to take a short break and then come back with a radical islamic cleric. A chance to really understand what motivates Muslim terror. You want to hear this guy. And I'll talk one on one with a brand new member of the House intelligence committee. The first Muslim to serve in that role. An appointment that sparked some controversy. Plus the first we heard from Mitt Romney on his plan to run for president again. Is the third time the charm?