Terror Sleeper Cells Activated in France; Global Hunt For Dead Terrorist's Girlfriend; World Leaders To Attend Paris Unity Rally; Grading France Terror Attack Response, Able to Prevent More
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Brianna Keilar in New York.</s>JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto in Paris. Welcome to our coverage of events in Paris, in France, including a new terror warning tonight. A fresh wave of fear rising in Paris. A French police source tells CNN terror sleeper cells were activated just over the last 24 hours inside France. Police officers have been told to erase their social media accounts and to carry their guns now at all times. Up next I'll talk to a CNN analyst who spoke with French police about those terror cells. Meanwhile, the hunt is on for a woman personally connected to all three terrorists who launched attacks in and around Paris this week. Hayat Boumeddiene is the only person suspected of connections to the terrorists in Paris who is still alive. A source tells CNN that Boumeddiene entered Turkey on January 2nd from France, a French store says, she may be on her way to Syria. Meanwhile, Hezbollah's leader is condemning the terrorists who slaughtered 12 people at "Charlie Hebdo," a satirical magazine. Listen to what he had to say --</s>UNIDENTIFIED MAN (through a translator): And those through their actions, words and shameful, heinous, violent, inhuman and brutal practices, offended the messenger of god. The religion of god, prophets of god, the book of Allah and the Muslim nation more than his enemies did. Even those who have attacked the messenger of god through books, depicting the prophet or making films depicting the prophet or drawing cartoons of the prophet.</s>SCIUTTO: In Paris today crowds gathered outside "Charlie Hebdo's" offices to honor the victims. The magazine plans to issue a million copies of its next issue. One terror suspect remains on the loose today from the terrifying and deadly events in and around the city this week. This is that suspect, a woman, one of few pictures we have of her that shows her face during a police hostage standoff Friday. French officials believed at the time she was with another suspect holding hostages inside that kosher grocery store. Today there are new reports that she was not there. In fact, not in the country. Frederik Pleitgen is in the eastern part of Paris where that store standoff happened. Fred, who is this woman and where is she believed to be right now?</s>FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, she's 26 years old and she has been living with Amedy Coulibaly apparently for the past five years. In a suburb in the south of Paris. We actually had a crew, one of our crews, go down to the apartment where she and him were staying before all of this happened. And they said that it was still all full of police. That obviously the police there was also questioning people that she might have known. People also that she might have associated with. But, of course, the news that perhaps she wasn't even in the country when all of this happened is something that is going to be very significant to this investigation as it moves forward, of course. The police was hoping to confirm a lot of details with her. Also confirm possibly the motivations of not just Coulibaly but also the Kouachi brothers because apparently there was quite a bit of back and forth between herself and the wife of one of the Kouachi brothers which seems to indicate that possibly there was a higher level of coordination between all of them than previously thought. But, remember, that one of the things that Coulibaly said when he was on the phone to a journalist is that he said that he had been synchronized with the Kouachi brothers. So, certainly it would have been very interesting for French authorities to speak to her. Nevertheless, that is something they would still like to do. Of course, the big question is now would she still be in a place where authorities could get to her. As you've just said the police and the Turkish authorities as well believe that she left this country on January 2nd, went to Turkey, and that her final destination most probably would be an attempt to get to Syria and it's unclear whether or not she might already be there. Certainly if she is, it would be almost impossible to get to her. If she's not, however, there are efforts the French could make to try to extradite her back to this country if, in fact, these Turkish authorities manage to get their hands on her. The big question the of course would be could she shed some sort of light another possible networks that might be operating here, that might be also have had contact with any of these three people and also possibly especially in light of what we're reporting now is that apparently some sleeper cells have been activated, maybe she could also say what she knows about all of that, Jim.</s>SCIUTTO: That's right. If she's essential not just the investigation looking backward but looking ahead. Tied to this terror cell. It is this terror cell that is believed involved in this current threat because it was the hostage taker at that kosher grocery where you're standing that made those calls to other contacts, encouraging them to carry out attacks on police. Really essential to keeping this city, this country safe going forward. I wonder, Fred, if you could talk about what's going to happen tomorrow. A unity rally here in Paris. A number of people from around the country taking part but also around the world. World leaders as well.</s>PLEITGEN: Yes. This is really gained global traction if you will. I mean, if you think about the fact that right after these horrifying attacks happened, how the Je suis Charlie sort of hashtag and saying -- has taken global root, if you will. Of course, that's something that's also fueled this unity march that's going to happen tomorrow and so certainly the people who are organizing it believe that tens of thousands, if not well over 100,000 people, are going to participate in that march that starts on Place de la Republique in the afterhours and also a lot of foreign dignitaries, foreign leaders are going to be participating really on very short notice. Very difficult to -- now something like this on such notice. You have the prime minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, you have the king and queen of Jordan who are going to come here, Angela Merkel of Germany is going to be coming as well as the British Prime Minister David Cameron. So this is going to be a gigantic event, a gigantic show of unity if you will and also a show of how tragic world leaders hold these events to be and how important they believe and how essential the time is now to try and heal these wounds that have been so badly cut into this nation.</s>SCIUTTO: And as you say, Fred, it's a truly diverse group. And it is not just European leaders, Europeans standing up to this, it is other Muslims, the leaders of Muslim countries, the Jordanian king, the prime minister of Turkey coming to join to show that same defiance in the face of extremism. I want to bring in our terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank in Washington. Paul, so many new developments today. First, I want to ask your view, help put into context for our viewers this latest threat warning to police around the country about the possibility of new terror cells, activated or other terrorists activated, encouraged, to attack police. How serious a threat do you believe this to be?</s>PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, Jim, the French are clearly very worried. After all we've had this terrible attacks in France this week. The fear I think is twofold. One there could be more accomplices of this terror cell they took down in Paris this week, and, two, there could be lone wolf attacks against French police and other targets in the days and weeks to come. And we've seen in previous attacks that others have been inspired to take action. For example, in New York in October, Zale Thompson a radical extremist carried out a hatchet attack on the NYPD police officers, right of -- famous events played out in Canada with the gun attack on the Canadian soldier outside the Canadian parliament in an attack to get into the Canadian Parliament by an Islamic extremist over there. A lot of concern in France and that's why some of these warnings are now coming out. A lot of concern that police and soldiers will be targeted. Either by people who have sympathies with AQAP but also ISIS and ISIS have called for attacks on soldiers and police in France.</s>SCIUTTO: Just such a diverse threat. You get it there. There's a whole range of possible assailants in this case. There could be lone wolves, radicalized on their own. No contacts with groups in the Middle East or they could be in the category like the Kouachi brothers who had some contact, some training there, perhaps planned this on their own. That's one new development today. Sleeper cells activated. Another new development from an interview we did a short time ago with Eric Pelletier, he is with "L'Express" magazine, he learned the Kouachi brothers were under surveillance for some three years in France but taken out of surveillance just six months ago. Really a remarkable development. How much of an intelligence failure is that, Paul? Or do you think it's just a measure of how many potential terrorists there are to track and how difficult it is to make those judgments?</s>CRUICKSHANK: Well, my understanding is that there was significant surveillance on these brothers including surveillance of their phones and that ended in June of 2014. And when they sort of were reserving these brothers, they didn't seem to be that radical anymore, so they decided that they weren't a big priority. And this was even after they learned that they probably went over to Yemen at least one of them to get terrorist training with al Qaeda in Yemen. But the reality is, the French have to look at about 5,000 people at any one time that they're concerned could be a threat in France so they have to prioritize. And clearly for whatever combination of reasons, this past summer they decided that these brothers were no longer a top order threat in France. And that raises the question of whether these brothers were deliberately pretending not to be radical so they wouldn't get any more attention from French security services -- Jim.</s>SCIUTTO: Yes. Absolutely. That's a good point. I spoke to the former head of the French counterterror police a short time ago who made the point that with some 5,000 suspected terrorists in France, it takes three to ten people to keep just one of them under surveillance. Imagine those numbers, just impossible numbers, calls for judgment calls, sometimes clearly intelligence services, sadly, get those calls wrong. Thanks very much to Paul Cruikshank our CNN terrorism analyst in Washington. Well, it has been a time of chaos and mourning certainly here in France but this nation is far from the only one suffering right now. We've seen bloody attacks in several countries showing that France is certainly not the only target for extremists. We'll have more on that broader threat right after this break.