New Warnings: Terror Cells Ready to Strike
BLITZER: We're following the breaking news, a source now telling CNN police discovered the Belgian terror cell possessed powerful explosives and some members of the terrorist cell remain at large. The shootout in Belgium and the Paris terror attacks highlight the growing threat posed by terror cells, including cells possibly operating, possibly, right here in the United States. Brian Todd is joining us here in THE SITUATION ROOM with a closer look at how these so-called sleeper cells actually operate. What are you learning?</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is the danger of sleeper cells that we are looking at tonight, Wolf. A Western official with knowledge of the Paris investigation tells CNN there is huge concern over sleeper cells in Europe and elsewhere. The fear is over the unknown, when, where and how they'll strike.</s>TODD (voice-over): A terror cell disrupted, but Europe is still bracing for more attacks. A Western intelligence source tells CNN there could be several sleeper cells ready to strike in France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands. Tonight, new concerns about their planning and timing.</s>ED HUSAIN, FORMER RADICAL: Then the worry is how and when will they be activated.</s>TODD: Former jihadists and intelligence officers tell CNN a sleeper cell is usually made up of a few operatives. They're either acting on behalf of a foreign country or a terror group taking instructions from it or are simply inspired by a group and acting on their own. As Paris gunman Amedy Coulibaly appeared to do. They are living in the city where they want to strike, selecting targets.</s>MIKE BAKER, FORMER CIA COVERT OPERATIONS OFFICER: They already are there and they have that ability to cross borders, they have that ability to live without being on the radar screen.</s>TODD: They are highly skilled at blending in, appearing like the guy next door.</s>MUBIN SHAIKH, FORMER JIHADIST: He will have regular jobs, you might see them at the strip joint, drinking alcohol. Anything to take off the claim or suspicion that they might be extremist Muslim terrorists.</s>TODD: The 9/11 hijackers did that, reportedly drinking heavily in bars, some even going to strip clubs. Mubin Shaikh is a former jihadist who almost went to Iraq to fight. He broke away, went undercover for Canadian intelligence and helped bust a terror cell in Toronto. He says many sleeper operatives don't communicate with their handlers by phone or over the Internet. Some are told don't go to mosques, don't give a hint of your religion.</s>SHAIKH: Could be shave your beard, remove your religious garb. Anything to blend in. That will be determined by the handler or sometimes even the operatives in the cell itself.</s>TODD: Sleeper operatives stay isolated, experts say, sometimes lie dormant for years.</s>HUSAIN: They wait for an opportune moment when world attention is turned away, when their planning phase is over, to strike.</s>TODD: And the sleeper cell dynamic is always changing. One U.S. counterterrorism official tells me terror cells these days do less sleeping. They actively plot. They hope to avoid suspicion and often direct a terror strike themselves rather than wait for a signal -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: And these days, the sleeper cell operatives, Brian, they are a whole lot more tech-savvy, aren't they?</s>TODD: Tech savvy is right, Wolf. A counterterrorism official told me this is a new generation of terrorists. They understand the more their operatives call, e-mail or otherwise message their handlers, the more likely those communications are to be intercepted. So they just find other ways to communicate. This official says this is partly the result of the Edward Snowden leaks.</s>BLITZER: Brian Todd, good reporting. Thank you. With us now here in THE SITUATION ROOM, CNN intelligence and security analyst, the former CIA operative, Bob Baer. Also, Philip Crowther, the Washington correspondent for France 24 Television. Our CNN global affairs analyst, retired Lieutenant Colonel James Reese, and joining us once again our terrorism analyst Paul Cruickshank, who's been breaking a lot of news on all of this for us. Paul, we know the Belgian terror suspects out there, they were supposedly ready to attack possibly only hours away from launching their strike. How many other terror cells potentially could be out there actively plotting attacks right now?</s>PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, there's concern both in Belgium and Europe. The concern in Belgium is they didn't get all of these guys, that they only got part of the network. They are confident they got the part of the network they were sort of most worried about, but that they fear that there are others still out there and that they could avenge the fact that Belgium security forces killed two of their comrades in Verviers in eastern Belgium. On the European level, there's concern that there's connections between some groups in other countries and this network in Belgium, that the Belgians believe that there are actually connections and that they've also got some marching orders from ISIS to launch attacks in Europe, and European intelligence agencies have received indications that ISIS are pivoting towards launching attacks in Europe to retaliate for those air strikes against it in Syria and Iraq. Several European countries involved in airstrikes over Iraq -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Bob Baer, how are these sleeper cells monitored? How big of a role does the United States play in assisting these allies?</s>ROBERT BAER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Wolf, it's huge. The National Security Agency has these super computers and they run this metadata through them. And if there's a call, for instance, from Brussels to an exchange in, let's say, Dubai that's suspicious, that will send up a red flag. Enough of those red flags, they have a suspect and then they will inform the Europeans. The National Security Agency is very, very good at this. Their algorithms are very sophisticated. It doesn't tell you where an attack will be but it will start associating people which is enough to launch an investigation.</s>BLITZER: Colonel Reese, we now know that those terror suspects in Belgium, they had police uniforms, the original assumption was they were going to use those uniforms and target police facilities throughout Belgium, but now the suspicion is they were going to use those uniforms simply to get through police lines and go after other targets. This is potentially a pretty sophisticated operation.</s>COL. JAMES REESE (RET.), FORMER U.S. DELTA FORCE OFFICE: Well, Wolf, we've seen this in Iraq and some other places where they will steal police uniforms and then use those uniforms to use as a cover for action. People see the police uniform, they think they're the real police, they let them get right through the lines, and it's a great opportunity to attack using that cover for action as police.</s>BLITZER: Philip, what's going on in France right now? I assume the sweeps are continuing there. They are trying to close up these sleeper cells as well.</s>PHILIP CROWTHER, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, FRANCE 24: Yes. Two separate situations we're looking at here. The terrorist cell in Belgium and then of course what happened in Paris last week. There is no clear overlap at this point but what we are seeing, though, are arrests, for example, in France earlier today of two people who are suspected of being in connection with that Belgian terrorist cell. So there's a way the two police forces probably are working together. At the same time we're still seeing some developments in France. There have been plenty of arrests in connection with what happened in Paris last weekend, more specifically with Amedy Coulibaly, the man who attacked the grocery store. The people who have been arrested over the last day or so they are supposed to be the people who have been organizing the logistics for Amedy Coulibaly, not part really of a big terrorist cell, but those who may be organized some weapons for him, at the very least some kind of transportation, a car, maybe. These are the kind of people who might get some more information on how he functioned, maybe also how the Kouachi brothers functioned because after all we know there was contact between those brothers and Amedy Coulibaly. There are developments in France these last few days, but nothing of a real breakthrough at this point.</s>BLITZER: And we know that Jewish schools and institutions throughout France are getting extra security right now.</s>CROWTHER: In France and in Belgium as well. There is that type of protection. It's been in place for quite a few days now with 10,000 French soldiers on the streets of French cities. They are protecting government offices but, as you say, Jewish schools, synagogues as well, and the same at this point is happening partly in Belgium. There is some overlap there as well. It doesn't mean that these are connected events, really, but certainly the same types of risks and the same types of precautions that not only the military is taking, all sorts -- all the security forces in both France and Belgium.</s>BLITZER: Well, let me ask Paul because he's got -- done some excellent reporting on this. Throughout Europe right now, they're worried about these Jewish institutions, but give us your sense of what's going on specifically in Belgium.</s>CRUICKSHANK: Well, they are working around the clock to try and find the other parts of this terrorist network in Belgium, Wolf, who are behind this. Very significant ambitious terrorist plot that not only involved Kalashnikovs and grenades, but also involved the making of TATP, a high explosive, much more powerful than the explosive that we saw in the Boston attacks. I was told by this source that when the Belgian forces went into this building, there was just one hell of a firefight. The returning fire they got was really quite extraordinary. That the special forces guys who went in there, the police that went in there, had never witnessed anything like this ever in Belgium. They had Kalashnikovs, grenades. Eventually the Belgians were able to take them out and they were able to capture one of these suspects. That suspect is not talking at the moment, not giving up any more operational detail. They will obviously be trying to make him talk about possible other individuals in Belgium and even in other European countries because the belief is that this group, this network in Belgium, did have connections to other potential cells in other European countries. So this is all linked back to ISIS -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right. We're going to have all of you stand by because there's a lot more to discuss. Coming up, exploiting chaos to train a new generation of bomb makers. We have exclusive reporting from a CNN crew inside Yemen. And a U.S. terror suspect goes to court. We're going to hear from a CNN reporter who was inside the courtroom, heard the outburst by the suspect's father.