tv With All Due Respect Bloomberg November 13, 2015 5:00pm-5:31pm EST
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used, rifles? mark: when this story was breaking maybe 45 minutes ago, we heard the gunmen who entered the restaurant in paris used russian rifles, kalashnikov rifles. the authorities there have not determined how many gunmen were there or if they were cornered by police, whether or not there was a shootout or whether the gunmen just entered the restaurant and started opening fire. this is a dreaded scenario that dreading foren months since the "charlie hebdo" attack in january. it had gotten to the point where the french president francois hollande had taken a hard line against extremism in the face of threats from islamic state and other groups saying france would pay for its help with the western allies in trying to root
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out islamic extremism. and in particular, to try to route out islamic state fighters as they were taking the fight in syria, iraq, and elsewhere on the european continent and the middle east. this was one of those scenarios where carnage has taken place in the city of paris. once again for the second time this year. do want to point out we are getting updated numbers from the associated press. the numbers are astonishing. one of the police officials who spoke under the condition of anonymity said 11 people have been confirmed killed in a paris restaurant. about 15 have been killed at a theater, a concert hall where there is a hostagetaking underway. that is where we stand now. 15 killed in the theater, 11 killed in the restaurant. it is unclear where that leaves the explosion near the stadium.
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french a.p. has said about three have died there. the death toll keeps being confused. we are updating it. this is the deadliest violence in france in decades. scarlet: let's go producer for bloomberg television. she is in paris on the scene at the restaurant. can you describe what you are seeing? >> this. at the moment, i am arriving at the scene. it is very difficult to reach the scene. the roads are being closed. the metro stations are closed. there are three shootings. i'm heading to the concert venue where the hostage shooting -- situation is taking place. the latest we have from the police is that at least 18 are dead. three different shootings taking place. first, at the restaurant in the 10th district of paris, a very
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popular venue for people going out on a friday night in paris. it is 11:00 p.m. friday night it is a young neighborhood where people are going out. the second shooting took place in the 11th and at the concert venue. the explosion of the stadium where president hollande was extricated from. it is unclear how many are dead. the stadium is on lockdown. president hollande has been brought to the interior ministry in central paris where there is a crisis situation between president hollande and the interior minister. this reminds us of the dramatic agock just a few months during the "charlie hebdo" attacks in january. alix: can you talk about
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security in the area and the change over the last 11 months? >> yes, of course. just on my way over there, we have been passed by maybe 20 or 30 heavy police cars. not the traditional police cars, but the heavy official cars heading towards the east and north neighborhoods of paris where the shootings have been taking place. there are helicopters flying above the different neighborhoods in paris. that is unusual. something we saw in generator and the "charlie hebdo" attack when i was also here covering for bloomberg. since the beginning of the year, security has been stepped up. there is increased security around schools, around religious
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places, around the media, including the bloomberg tv offices in paris. that does not prevent that kind of shooting happening in the in the middle of friday night in central paris. inx: we want to bring someone who covers diplomacy for bloomberg news as well as global politics. one us some broad strokes politically what has been going on behind the scenes in france when it comes to terrorism. >> what stuck out to me is the fact the migration summit in malta where european leaders met with african leaders to decide what to do about the inflow of migrants, and the fact this happened the day after is interesting to me. why is that important? january,e seen in there have been rising concerns about how government should deal with the continuing flow of migrants from the middle east. everywhere from afghanistan all the way to africa.
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there is also the moral duty to accept these migrants and refugees who seek assistance. but at the same time, how do you maintain that there are not terrorists were armed groups plotting terrorist attacks in various capitals in europe? that is important because islamic state, which we have seen over the past three years, the size to which they have grown, they have been pledging a will carry out attacks in major capitals around the world from the u.s. to western europe. fact that the the terrorist groups are watching maybe how the european leaders are struggling to deal with this. i think one thing to think about is the french police and security authorities have had to do a lot of internal revision about how they maintain security in paris. i think "charlie hebdo" was one of the biggest things. it is surprising that in less than a year we are seeing what
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appears to be correlated action in paris. joe: was anything done after the "charlie hebdo" attacks? were there changes in security that came of that? >> i think there were a lot of internal revisions. with government, things take time. there were initial measures installed. we have seen secure levels were raised high after "charlie hebdo." these things take time with any government. alix: we heard from david cameron. obviously, he responded on twitter pledging his full support. what can be the international response to something like this? attack on a train august 21 of this year. "charlie hebdo" in january. this is david cameron's tweet. what can he do to help? >> the first thing governments
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talk about is the importance of sharing intelligence. you need to first know what happened and what threats agencies were foreseeing and who they were tracking. in such early stages of these attacks, you first need to figure out what exactly happened. i think david cameron tweeting that is another show perhaps maybe that they will offer some sort of intelligence information and support in france. not only that but moral support considering the horrific news coming out of paris now. scarlet: one thing we tend to overlook is in addition to the "charlie hebdo" shooting in january, there was this incidents of terrorism on a train in france from amsterdam to paris over the summer. he did not result in anyone dying, if i were number correctly because a couple of people managed to pounce on the shooter. they were americans that did that.
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there has been a lot of rumbling of unrest in france over the past couple months. we tend to overlook that in the united states because we remember what happened at "charlie hebdo." it seems it was quiet to this point. what has been going on behind the scenes when it comes to france and what it has been pushing for at the united nations when it comes to terrorism? >> they have been very active politically and the medically to try to get -- and diplomatically to reach a political and diplomatic solution on the major crises becoming feeders for instability around the world. mainly syria. the problem is the fundamental difference between the main world powers print the syrian crisis has become the emblematic issue basically a proxy war for any major power in the world. it proves to be extremely difficult. i think diplomatic efforts are ongoing. but i think right now what sticks out most is for leaders
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to figure out why again france, what is unique about france that it is yet again seeing another series of attacks less than a year since the major "charlie hebdo" attacks. like you mentioned, the thwarted attack on the train. i think it is too early to say. people need to gather information first and also guarantee you are not spreading false rumors which can also cause alarm in the public which would not be helpful. scarlet: hold on. we also have carolyn conan on the phone in paris. i want to bring in ian the context. why is france such a target for potential terrorist attacks? largest muslim population in europe, about 8% of the population is muslim. it is largely young, largely male, very high unemployment.
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they are not particularly integrated into french society. there has been a significant populace backlash. marine le pen is pulling near 30%. she's going to do better in the presidential election in the first round than many of the moderates would. isis is picking up steam with the refugee crisis and hundreds of thousands streaming over. not that most of them are radicalized, but some are. the ability of europeans to prevent this is very small. it is becoming more of a tinderbox in the region. france has been ground zero for so many of these tensions over the course of the year. mark: this is mark compton. we have been hearing all day reports the u.s. says it is reasonably certain the man known as jihadi john, behind the
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beheadings of the western hostages seen on the graphic videos, that the u.s. is reasonably certain he was killed in a drone strike in syria. is it possible there could be some sort of connection, that perhaps this was not a planned attack but rather a spasm of violence in relation to that? >> i think it is too early to talk about exactly how this was orchestrated. but it certainly looks like it was orchestrated. i think what we are finding that is surprising is you look at what seems to be an isis bomb against the russian plane from egypt or week ago, that was only a matter of weeks after the russians started military engagement directly in syria. around the kind of turn we have never seen with that kind of attack from al qaeda or isis the four. isis is clearly moving quickly
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to becoming more strategic and moving beyond simply going after local enemies and taking those attacks broader throughout the region and also to europe. that is the best i could say to respond to that question at this point. alix: we are getting updated numbers from a.p. we are now looking of a hostage situation at the theater of 100 people. a.p. saying 35 are dead. what is your reaction to this? this is by far the worst terrorist attack in france in decades. it is unbelievable if you are looking at these photos with the police and live shot's in the stadium where we saw the explosion. >> i guess i have two reactions. the first is the french nation is extraordinarily resilient. you remember the outpouring of support from french citizens of all stripes after the "charlie hebdo" attacks that made the west of the world stand in a
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and made all of the heads of state string to paris to show solidarity. i believe the french nation will rise again and the overwhelming response will be one of common cause, of trying to heal, getting past this and showing strength and not reacting with a spasm of violence against files. let's be clear. the fabric of europe is unraveling in front of our eyes. the millions of refugees streaming in, the inability of the europeans to respond in a unified way, the incredible unpopularity of the leadership german chancellor angela merkel has shown in trying to find a pathway for these people to have sustainable and productive lives. this is getting worse. not only now are we seeing 1% of the world's population made into refugees in the last four years
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because of armed conflict, a record the world has never seen before, but we also are now facing the world's most powerful ever terrorist organization in isis. those two things together are aimed directly at the european heartland. the response is clearly going to be not just one we will see in france but when we will see play out across the entirety of the european union. alix: ian, thank you so much for joining us on the terrible news today. we are going to go to mark crumpton who has been looking at all the news and will help us recap these headlines. mark: thank you so much. this story at this point, it seems to be getting worse by the moment with the death toll continuing to rise. it was going down, now going up. here is what we know so far. at least 35 reported dead, multiple acts of violence in paris today, the capital france, including shootings at a paris
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restaurant and explosions near the main soccer stadium. the president of france was in attendance. it was a friendly match between france and germany. there were explosions. the president was whisked to safety. he was taken to the interior ministry. the associated press also citing a police official who says around 100 hostages have been taken at a paris theater. the british prime minister was condolencestweeting saying i'm shocked by events in paris, our thoughts and prayers are with the french people. who will do whatever we can to help. this violence happening on the same day the united states and western allies say they are reasonably sure a drone strike in syria killed the british citizen known as jihadi john. he was the one officials believe was the mast man in several graphic videos in which western
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hostages were beheaded. u.s. officials and western allies saying they believe jihadi john was killed. phil mattingly is saying the white house is aware and monitoring this situation and there is a briefing underway at this hour. the white house no doubt aware of this situation. it will be interesting to see in the hours and days ahead what actions u.s. officials will take to shore up security. bombing lastf the month, the apparent bombing of the russian metrojet over the and isispeninsula, have taken responsibly for that. is interesting to see whether we are now seeing the opening of a new wave of terror. the death toll in paris according to our latest numbers, 35 at least. 100 hostages at a paris theater.
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so far, no one has claimed responsibility for this violence or who is holding those hostages. scarlet? scarlet: thank you for that recap. we did get a headline from "liberation" which reports the police have stormed the theater. apparently, there is a hostage crisis taking place. there is a separate report u.s. security officials believe the attacks in paris this evening are coordinated. so far, no one has claimed responsibility. there have been several incidents with a high death toll, about 26 at the moment. alix: a.p. saying there are 100 hostages at the paris the inner where police are storming. joining us is the director of international security studies at the royal united services institute. he joins us by phone from london. he is a terrorism expert. what is your take away from what we've seen today? >> clearly, we are seeing
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tremendous terrorist attack strikes in paris. we don't really know the contours of what we are dealing with yet. but i think we can definitively say it was coordinated with multiple targets. clearly, people had prepared. it sounds like they have gotten their hands on automatic weapons and explosives. all of which suggests some level of preparation. i think it is very early to speculate about who is responsible for this, but i think clearly we are dealing with a very coordinated and substantial terrorist cell. scarlet: could you discuss your thoughts on the timing of this event? why now? >> it is difficult to know why now. i am sure immediately people will speculate this is somehow connected to the news yesterday mohammed emwazi, jihadi john, was killed. we don't have enough information to speculate in that direction. even if there was a connection, it would be impossible for the group to pull together something
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as organized as this at such short notice. whatever the case, this was in the pipeline for some time. i think the question becomes what group and whether they had decided this date ahead of time or whether preparation was in play and they made a move on this particular day. we don't know the exact reasons why now. scarlet: why have there been no claims of responsibility yet? i wonder if that means there's another wave of attacks to follow? >> we really don't know. it sometimes takes groups a while to claim these things. it could be that they prefer to let the chaos sink in. it sounds like it is an ongoing operation of the moment. we are dealing with something that still might be underway and has not completely played out yet. the revelations around who is responsible might take time. if you think back to the attack against "charlie hebdo," the claims of response ability took a few days to emerge. joe: obviously, europe has been
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on edge about terrorism for quite a while now. is there any level a strategy building to deal with this? is it likely -- do governments have no idea yet how to respond to this to try to avoid future situations like this? >> there is clearly coordination happening across the continent. you just have to look at the arrests earlier this week with the group disrupted largely led by italian police but in other countries as well. that was a very big operation. 20 people or so were arrested across the continent. that shows there is a high level of cooperation and coordination. the threat picture has gone a very worrying direction. that is something authorities across the continent have been aware of for some time. situationrtunately a where you are able to prevent it sometimes. but unfortunately, incidents do
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slip through. alix: we want to play for everyone a vine video of the germany and france soccer match where it seems like you can hear the explosion. this vine video has been shared around the globe and has already been looped seven lean times. take a listen. >that was a staggering video we keep seeing and listening to. earlier, we were speaking with ian bremmer. he was saying the fabric of europe is unraveling in front of our eyes. would you agree? is this indicative of something more systemic in europe? no, idescription -- think that is an extreme description. we are seeing a terrific terrorist attack on a city. it is one of the number we have seen in the past few years.
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to say this is indicative of europe unraveling is jarring with reality. we have not seen these attacks and that many other countries were on that regular of the basis. i think there are problems in europe. issues, but toe say this is indicative of some collapse of the union is an exaggeration. alix: we want to update you. hold on. we want to get to mark crumpton who is looking at all the headlines and is going to update us. mark: we would like to update our audience from around the world and our listeners on bloomberg radio. i am mark crumpton bloomberg world headquarters in new york. this has been an horrific day on the european continent. there has been a wave of violence in the city of paris. shootings and bombings and hostage takings. here is the latest information we have. at least 35 reported that in multiple acts of violence in paris. there were shootings at a paris
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restaurant, explosions near the main sports stadium. french president francois hollande was in attendance but taken to safety. the associated press reporting police officials saying at least 100 hostages have been taken at a paris theater. and lawetting word u.s. enforcement counterterrorism officials are being briefed and are in touch with their counterparts. we are hearing from phil mattingly the white house is aware of the situation and monitoring. as you have been seeing from the video, lots of police on the scene. lots of swat type officials on the scene in riot gear and with heavy machine guns to try to combat this wave of violence that seemingly came out of nowhere. as our guests were saying moments ago, it seems to have been a coordinated wave of violence at the restaurant, at the stadium, and then the
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hostage-taking at the theater. as they were telling you moments ago, we still have not received a claim of responsibility for this violence today in paris. but what we know so far according to the associated press, the death toll stands at 35. we do not know the injury toll at this time. according to a police official telling the associated press, around 100 hostages have been taken at a paris theater. alix, moments ago you were reporting we were receiving reports the police are storming that theater. we are going to continue to follow these developments and bring you the latest as soon as we get that information. back to you. phone isning us on the a journalist at real france international -- radio france international. what can you tell us on the ground? the places are possible to
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cross. there is a lot of police machinery and medical support all over. we can hear police all over the place. there 40 people dead reported now. whereare six places events were happening. there were several shootings. if we speak about the club, there were two or three people very heavily armed. they started to fire. next were three explosions to the french stadium. the french president francois hollande was there at the time and evacuated urgently. meetings having urgent with the prime minister and the interior minister on what is
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going on here. parisare six places in where we have had shootings. there are hostages still in the club. no official statements made. are you getting indications from the french authorities about who the perpetrators might be? we are seeing reports from french media citing a witness saying the attacker a hanley said this is for syria. are you hearing anything along those lines? heard some testimony from the club. they were explaining what they saw. a lot of people dead. people shooting. no one made a statement. i have not heard yet something
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about syria. we will have to wait for president hollande to speak. alix: can you tell us more about what security is like on the ground? we were looking at reports police are saying hostages are still being held at the theater. french police were saying special forces are on site at the theater. can you tell us the security situation? >> there are police everywhere. everyone is armed. the stadium was evacuated. we have several reporters inside. most of the people were evacuated. there is a lot of police and medical support everywhere. that is what i saw. scarlet: hold on one moment. we want to bring in phil mattingly for the latest on the white house response. can you tell us more about the white house response? >> the president has been briefed by his top
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counterterrorism official, lisa monaco. extensive experience in this from the f.b.i., justice department, and now the white house. from folks been told in law enforcement and intelligence sectors of the government that they are in contact with their counterparts in paris. they are not willing to speculate now on what is happening. obviously, eerily reminiscent of tot the u.s. government does the "charlie hebdo" attacks. there are a lot of briefings and connections back-and-forth try to figure out what could happen. as this starts to unfold, paris intelligence will start sharing information with the u.s. they will start working together much like they did with the charlie hebdo attacks to identify who may be involved in this. u.s. officials not willing to speculate about who is behind this or what is going on. but obviously, cognizant of the
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appearance this is a terrorist attack. one thing to that this is a terrorist act. president obama spoke by phone with president hollande, or earlier today, not about the climate talks that will bring president obama to paris in a couple weeks. so far, u.s. officials being briefed, very aware of what is going on, but not as yet willing to speculate what is going on on the ground there. bloomberg reporter joining us on set, this is sort of in your wheelhouse, what leaders can do to support france? reporter: there will be ongoing conversations the tween the president and the leaders. we have seen support from u.k. prime minister david cameron and i'm sure the president will be calling president hollande
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