How France's Most Wanted Woman Turned Radical; Knife Attack Near Jewish Center
BLITZER: You're looking live at the West Wing of the White House. Jordan's King Abdullah will be arriving there any moment now to meet with President Obama. We'll have coverage of that. They're both getting ready to make a statement. We're also watching other important developments in the global war on terror. A man with a knife slightly wounded two French soldiers today. Those soldiers were patrolling near a Jewish community center in Nice, in the southern part of France. The suspect, who was apprehended, has the -- same last name as the gunman who attacked that kosher supermarket in Paris last month, killing four Jewish men inside the store, although officials say they don't know if these two men are related. We're also getting new information about the woman who lived in Paris with the -- that attacker at that supermarket. Let's bring in our senior Washington correspondent, Joe Johns. He's getting more information. What are you learning?</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, Hayat Boumeddiene is seen as a probable accomplice to the Paris attack but her intelligence value may outweigh anything she can add to the criminal investigation and that is why the French government is pressing hard to try to locate her.</s>JOHNS (voice-over): France's most wanted woman, believed to be in Syria, a picture of terror. Newly discovered pictures obtained by CNN from someone close to the investigation show a young woman going from bikini on a beach to a fully veiled, crossbow-totting Islamic radical. If captured and questioned, authorities see 26-year-old Hayat Boumeddiene as a potential gold mine of information. Not just about the Paris attacks but also about everything that ISIS and al Qaeda, and how women get recruited.</s>JEAN CHARLES BRISARD, INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM CONSULTANT: We'd better learn the role of women as backbone to these networks. We've seen that already in the past and especially in the context of Syria and Iraq.</s>JOHNS: There are questions only Boumeddiene can answer, whether she was a common law wife first or the instigator who helped Amedy Coulibaly, her husband, go from a two-bit criminal to total terrorist. Gunning down a police woman and killing four more people at a Jewish supermarket. Among the clues to Boumeddiene's state of mind found in her personal effects, according to a "Washington Post" report, a copy of a jihadist book authored by the radicalized woman Malika el-Aroud, who made clear her intentions to wage war on the West in this CNN documentary in 2006.</s>MALIKA EL-AROUD, JIHADIST (Through Translator): It was Osama bin Laden who stood up against the biggest enemy in the world, the United States.</s>JOHNS: Much was already known about Hayat Boumeddiene, including that she and Coulibaly visited at least once with radical recruiter Djamel Beghal. But the "Post" uncovered other details. At 8 years old, her mother died, placed in a group home at 13, later a pilgrimage to Mecca, and a friendship with the wife of one of the Kouachi brothers who staged the terror attack on "Charlie Hebdo." A young woman radicalized as many other recruits with troubled lives.</s>BRISARD: They think they will find through this organization and their ideology some kind of recognition that they couldn't have in their normal life. So, yes, indeed, by both means, they are attracted one to the other.</s>JOHNS: One of the many facts that appears clear as day in hindsight is that Boumeddiene was not seen as a threat before the Paris attacks. Now authorities in France are realizing they should have paid much more attention to her.</s>BLITZER: They certainly should have. All right. Good report. Thanks very much, Joe Johns. Let's bring back our terrorism analyst, Paul Cruickshank. Paul, this attack -- with a knife, these two French soldiers who were stabbed, they were patrolling outside a Jewish community center in Nice, it follows that new ISIS video calling for knife attacks on French police. Do you think there's a connection here?</s>PAUL CRUICKSHANK, CNN TERRORISM ANALYST: Well, there could be a connection, Wolf. Just today French ISIS fighters in Syria released a video calling for knife attacks on French police in France by ISIS supporters and then we saw this attack in Nice by Moussa Coulibaly who in the previous month was apparently trying to get across the Syria but was prevented from traveling, deported from Turkey, returned to France, and then carried out this attempted attack today. So quite possibly a connection. ISIS have been repeatedly calling for these kinds of attacks in the West. Also in the United States, knife attacks, gun attacks, running people over with cars, that kind of thing in retaliation for these airstrikes against Iraq and Syria -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Is it just a coincidence that the terrorists who stabbed these French soldiers today, his name is Moussa Coulibaly, and the guy who killed those people in that kosher supermarket, Amedy Coulibaly, got the same last name? Is it just a coincidence or might they be related?</s>CRUICKSHANK: Well, we don't know that yet for sue. At the moment it's being reported in the French media that it was just a namesake. It's a fairly common Malayan name and Amedy Coulibaly was Malayan, as I believe this individual was in Nice that launched the attack today. But authorities will be looking at any possible connection. Obviously a huge coincidence that they have the same name.</s>BLITZER: Indeed. All right, Paul, stand by. We're going to get back to you as well. Coming up, a key U.S. ally vowing revenge after ISIS burns to death a caged Jordanian F-16 fighter pilot. King Abdullah, he's getting ready to meet in the next few moments with President Obama over the White House. We're going to have all the breaking developments.