Fugitive Paris Driver; Airport Security. Fugitive Search
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And good evening. 8:00 local time here in beautiful Paris, France. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Of course, continuing our special live coverage of the terror attacks. You're watching CNN. Today, some breaking details about one of the suspects investigators are trying to hunt down. A source close to the investigation tells CNN that Mohamed Abrini traveled to Syria last year and somehow returned to Europe undetected, which is extraordinarily concerning for investigators. Keep in mind, Abrini is this new suspect. This is the same man who we talked about this time yesterday who was caught on camera in a gas station en route from Brussels to Paris with the other fugitive who they're also looking for, Salah Abdeslam and saw them on this footage just two days before the attacks. So I can tell you that an international arrest warrant is now out for Abrini. Another huge concern for investigators here in France, watching for signs of radicalization among airport and public transit workers. A French counterterrorism source says the monitoring actually had been going on for a number of years. This is not new. This did not just start. But that is continuing as well. There apparently had also been some complaints among some of the union that that had been happening, this radicalization had been going on. But it so happens that one of the men that attacked the Bataclan theater two Friday nights ago here in Paris had been a bus driver here in the city of Paris until three years ago. France is also stepping up its attacks against ISIS even more in Iraq and Syria. They have now carried out hundreds of air strikes since the attacks here in Paris. French prime minister says there is no alternative. French president says there is no alternative, that ISIS has to be destroyed. Moments ago, President Barack Obama echoing that concern, reminding Americans how the United States and other nations are going about taking out ISIS.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So far, our military and our partners have conducted more than 8,000 air strikes on ISIL strongholds and equipment. Those air strikes, along with the efforts of our partners on the ground, have taken out key leaders, have taken back territory from ISIL in both Iraq and Syria. We continue to work to choke off their financing and their supply lines and their - counter their recruitment and their messaging.</s>BALDWIN: CNN international correspondent Ivan Watson joins me now here in Paris. And, Ivan, let me just begin with this new fact, that this new suspect, Mohamed Abrini, had apparently gone to Syria as recent as last year, returned to Europe undetected, which has to be extraordinarily concerning for investigators here.</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And that - especially because a number of the suspects who were involved in the Paris attacks were believed to have come back from Syria. It raises some serious security challenges for Europe. That's part, Brooke, of why it's important for the German and the French leaders, who just concluded a press conference here in Paris, and about a half hour ago they were behind me at Place de la Republique at this makeshift memorial laying flowers together to victims of the November 13th attacks. It's part of why their meeting is important right now, to try to deal with some of these very serious challenges facing Europe. How is it that so many people who went to fight alongside ISIS were able to get back into Europe and then carry out devastating attacks here in Paris? And another challenge that the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, just raised was the enormous flow of hundreds of thousands of refugees and migrants that have been crossing borders illegally to get into Europe. These are challenges that these two European powers are having to face. It's part of why the French government has proposed a 10 billion euro fund to try to shore up Europe's borders and to improve intelligence sharing. Those are two key areas where there have been some major gaps and flaws revealed by these devastating attacks here in Paris. Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: We'll get to the gaps and the flaws with my next guest in just a moment. Ivan, thank you so much. But back at home, in the United States, listen, tomorrow is Thanksgiving. And with the terror attacks on so many minds of so many Americans heading into the holiday, President Obama has just spoken, saying every possible step is being taken to keep the United States safe.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Right now, we know of no specific and credible intelligence indicating a plot on the homeland. So as Americans travel this weekend to be with their loved ones, I want them to know that our counterterrorism, intelligence, homeland security and law enforcement professionals at every level are working overtime.</s>BALDWIN: So let's head straight to one of the busiest airports with Jason Carroll, who's live at New York's LaGuardia Airport. Listen, we are about to be part of the busiest travel, you know, part of the year. Are you seeing more security at LaGuardia?</s>JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Without a question, we've definitely seen more security here. More TSA agents we've seen floating around here. In fact, we've seen members of the National Guard walking around, patrolling as well. So we have seen and increased presence here. What we have not seen, Brooke, are the added lines which one might expect on a busy day like today. But take a look, you can see the line there. And that's a line that you would see, quite frankly, on any normal day. But when the line gets really long, it actually ends up extending down the hallway that way. As you know, TSA has doubled down on security and you combine that with one of the busiest travel days of the year, and one would expect to see a lot more out here. But not the case simply because they've just been keeping things moving through very, very smoothly. The travel alert that you know about, that worldwide travel alert, says that U.S. citizens should not avoid travel, just use extra vigilance when they're here at airports or in public spaces. But even having said that, in the number of passengers that we've spoken to out here this morning, most of them saying that they - yes, that they are concerned. It's not going to stop them from traveling. But that travel alert definitely in the back of their minds.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Certainly I think everybody is a little concerned, but I also feel like security's been stepped up so much that hopefully we're well protected.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I feel fine. I feel like if we get scared and don't do it, then they win. So, very - very comfortable.</s>UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We appreciate the security because we know that it's for our own good.</s>CARROLL: And, Brooke, we also did a check on some of the other airports across the country. Checked Atlanta, O'Hare, Dallas, as well as LAX. Things seem to be moving smoothly at those airports as well. Brooke.</s>BALDWIN: All right, I like it. I'll be landing at JFK in time for turkey, I hope. Jason Carroll, thank you so much. Happy early Thanksgiving to you, my friend.</s>CARROLL: You bet (ph).</s>BALDWIN: Back here though in France, the French president, Francois Hollande, has been busy this week trying to bolster more international support to destroy ISIS after the attacks here in Paris. Right now, he is meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. This comes just one day after the French president was in Washington at the White House meeting with President Obama. And it continues. Tomorrow Hollande sits down with Russian President Vladimir Putin. I have terrorism expert Jean-Charles Brisard who joins me now here at our Paris bureau. Nice to see you, sir.</s>JEAN-CHARLES BRISARD, TERRORISM EXPERT: Nice to see you.</s>BALDWIN: Thank you for having me in your beautiful city. But let me begin with, one of the threads tonight is the fact that we're now hearing from counterterrorism officials here in France that they have been looking at and investigating employees at the airports, at Orly (ph), at Charles de Gaulle, you know, buses, trains, potential for radicalization. How long have you known about this?</s>BRISARD: Well, for years now until at least 2004. The concern here is to have radicalized individuals working in transportation companies that could pose a threat to the national security or that could travel abroad, including in Syria and Iraq. And we know that many of them have already traveled. For example, if you look at this situation at the public transportation in Paris. I'm told that tens of employees of that company have already traveled in Syria and Iraq since 2013. So that means -</s>BALDWIN: For nefarious reasons?</s>BRISARD: Sorry?</s>BALDWIN: For - for -</s>BRISARD: For jihad?</s>BALDWIN: For jihad, yes.</s>BRISARD: Yes, yes, indeed. Of course.</s>BALDWIN: Yes. Yes.</s>BRISARD: So that's a huge number regarding one single company. So the issue is to really check these individuals one by one. We've done that already after 2001, after the 9/11 attacks, and we found a lot of preachers, of radicals inside those companies in -</s>BALDWIN: And it makes sense because of the access they would have to trains, to buses, to, of course, planes. We know that they've been looking and speaking with companies who represent employees who were working on tarmacs at the major airports in Paris and have access to the planes. Beyond that, I think for an American audience, can you explain, though, as well here in Paris, to know that one of these suspects, this driver, Mohamed Abrini, had gone to Syria last year, comes back to Europe. No one - no red flags go off. But he returns to France. How?</s>BRISARD: Well, the problem is the following. We can have people on watch lists nationally, and we had several of the suspects in our watch list, whether in France or in Belgium or elsewhere in Europe. The problem is, with the Schengen (ph) borders, external borders. We have no more internal borders in Europe between our -</s>BALDWIN: What do you mean by that?</s>BRISARD: We have - we cannot check our citizens traveling from France to Belgium, for example.</s>BALDWIN: Yes.</s>BRISARD: We only have external borders. Someone coming from abroad entering the Schengen space will be controlled, except the Schengen citizens, our own citizens. We cannot do systematic control of the border against our own citizens. And this is a shame. We - we are -- we've been telling that for years, and France has requested that systemic control be in place at the external borders of Schengen because today we're seeing that the threat is internal. It's coming from our own citizens who have been able to go abroad to Syria and Iraq and coming back to commit terrorist acts here. And we cannot do any control.</s>BALDWIN: Crossing borders.</s>BRISARD: So we're blind. Sorry.</s>BALDWIN: No, you're blind.</s>BRISARD: We are blind. We're blind.</s>BALDWIN: I mean it's almost like thinking, for people who have never been to Europe, hopping on a train and going, you know, from country to country to county is like being in America and hopping in the car and going from state to state to state. It's quite simple. So for the fact that, you know, they've been able to go Belgium, France, it's really - it's the Syria part of the equation, especially if somebody was on a watch list -</s>BRISARD: Exactly.</s>BALDWIN: Or flagged previously, that that person could slip though, back to this part of Europe, that's the frightening part.</s>BRISARD: An American citizen coming to Europe will be controlled because he's a foreigner. But the French citizens - citizen coming from Syria -</s>BALDWIN: But this individual was Czech and Moroccan.</s>BRISARD: No. The Moroccan had the information that this individual was in - had entered back into Europe, but we didn't. We couldn't check that.</s>BALDWIN: That's right, because it was also the Moroccan intelligence -</s>BRISARD: Exactly.</s>BALDWIN: That led the French authorities to know that a lot of these people were in France, thus the raid overnight in Saint-Denis last week.</s>BRISARD: Because they were doing surveillance on members -</s>BALDWIN: Yes.</s>BRISARD: Of their families in Morocco.</s>BALDWIN: Jean-Charles Brisard, thank you so much.</s>BRISARD: Thank you.</s>BALDWIN: Thank you. Thank you. So much more to talk about here in Paris. But coming up next here on CNN this evening, breaking news involving the Russian jet that was shot down. Turkey now releasing audio of this alleged warning to these pilots before the jet was taken down. But the surviving pilot tells a much different story. Plus, Donald Trump says he can predict terrorism before it happens. Another eye-brow raising remark that he says will not hurt him whatsoever. And, Chicago, why did it take that city 13 months to charge a police officer in the death of an African-American teenager? The video is out. The outrage putting the city on edge. I'm Brooke Baldwin, live in Paris, and you're watching CNN's special live coverage.