but weith isis/isil, can't just sit here and do what we have been doing so far. jim, hang on with us, because we do want to get to mark crumpton who will update us on all of the headlines as they keep trickling out. french president runs what a -- fridge the president francois hollande now requesting military reinforcements. mark: thank you. we would like to update our audience around the world and listeners on bloomberg radio. it is 6 p.m. in new york, midnight in paris. friday night, a night of violence in the parisian capital. a wave of attacks including shootings and bombings and hostage takings. we just heard from the president of the united states a few moments ago and he said "once again we have seen an outrageous attempt to terrorize innocent civilians." mr. obama continued "this is an

attack not just some paris. this is an attack not just on the people of france. this is an attack on humanity and the universal values we share." men with guns apparently entered this area,taurant in started firing. several people were killed. more people were killed at another location. .ome people were taken hostage as we saw on the video and as we told you earlier, as france and germany were playing a friendly , there were explosions outside the stadium. french president francois hollande was in attendance at that match. he was taken to safety and the interior ministry where he consulted with officials. spoke a few moments ago and the french president the he will take

extraordinary and unusual step of closing his nation's capital orders. this after dozens were killed and more wounded in a wave of violence in the french capital this evening. back over to you. scarlet: mark, thinking for the recap. i want to bring in malcolm, a veteran intelligence officer. mark pointed out earlier jihadi -- this took place in the last 24 hours or so. unlike there is a direct connection given that it takes time to plan attacks, if indeed these are coordinated. can you give us an idea of how long planning an attack like this could take? attack like this will take a lot of time. to get the weapon systems that ak-47s, andthere,

of course to plot the attack itself -- it had nothing to go with jihadi john. go criteria. joe: a lot of people are comparing this to the mumbai attack, both in terms of the extent and the coordination. do you think that is an accurate analogy and what could we apply to this attack? malcolm: i think it's a very good analogy to the mumbai attack. was a smalldo" version of that. they do a running gun. they start hitting all of their targets. if they saw a journalist in the street, they would shoot them. the point is to create areawide mayhem and they are doing a very, very good job of that. start mobilizing

forces to take back all of the street 10 paris. but in the meantime, these attacks could continue, depending on whether they have met their goals, as suicide attackers, or they plan on going back underground and coming back for a re-strike. scarlet: knowing president along hollanded -- president has closed borders, how must do you think that this is a lone wolf attack? there is no chance this is a lone wolf attack. this is a highly coordinated, highly complex plant. which requires combat veterans. this is isis moving the front line and the battlefront away from syria and moving it directly into france and declaring war on france. , this is going to be very interest in, especially once the french army starts hitting the streets to see precisely what more could happen. we have seen some were captured

in europe this week and may have been part of this planet other countries. we will have to see how the french handle it on here. joe: you heard moments ago president hollande closing the borders and france. is this the right course of action for him to be taking? absolutely. this is unprecedented. at this point, the only way they can guarantee anything is to shut down the border, make sure no one moves in and out. to get the weapon systems, the people that they have in here will take a level of smuggling you have not seen to date. with us, malcolm. also joining us on the phone, former white house counterterrorism adviser roger. -- whathat chord niter

coordinated attacks can francois hollande, president obama, angela merkel take to push back? roger: they have to let the events play out in paris and then step back and say, we already do a fantastic job of information sharing on counterterrorism. our relationships with the western europeans are top-notch. clearly something fell through the cracks, or more likely they knew that there was a heightened level of terrorist threat, but did not have specifics. so much will depend on who is responsible. from was purely organic french citizens, was at people who went to syria and then came part of the wave of immigration that came through as well? that will dictate and part of the response by france, western europe, and our role in support. support is a key thing here. the united states will support

the western europeans going forward. certainly we will review our own policies. their problem is much worse and different than ours and on a scale much greater. we will maintain our vigilance, but really, this is about how do you help the european steel with a threat? frankly what is striking about this attack, given what happened with "charlie hebdo" several months ago, the heightened alert, still a permissive environment for multistage, complex attack to take place. that is what is chilling about this. stepsoger, what specific would you expect to see across europe in the coming days? what you are seeing the french do right now is just trying to contain the situation. they do not know what is going to happen next. world,ack to the 9/11 our greatest fear was the next round of attacks.

we did not know what was going to happen next. that is certainly a concern. the level of coordination will be extremely high between french intelligence and security services and their counterparts. you are going to be seeing all of the different intelligence agencies working at a heightened level of cooperation, more than they typically do right now, because it is about making sure -- bringing this series of events to a closure, minimizing loss of life right now, ensuring there is not another attack in the planning or potential copycat or lone wolves who get , andated by this attack lastly, identifying who is responsible for it and either bringing those individuals to antice -- whether it was organized group like al qaeda in the arabian peninsula or several factions orisil somebody altogether different. we don't know right now. it would be irresponsible to assign blame at this point.

, as you. cressey mention, we cannot assign blame because we do not know who carried out this attack, but talk about the impact this will have on the french political landscape. there has been a rise of anti-immigrant sentiment in france. what will this mean going forward? really two things. first, the security concerns the french people are going to have. they have suffered two major terrorist attacks on their soil within a 12-month period. will have serious political ramifications for their leadership as well as what the population doesn't in response. secondary to that, the point you just raised, the immigration issue. if the people responsible for this are at all tied to any elements of the current phenomenon, than there is going to be a severe backlash. as malcolm mentioned earlier, the borders are nonexistent in

europe for a variety of reasons. some that are good and some that may not have been so good. that will certainly be called back and questioned, and people will start to decide, do we need to have this type of free movement of people between european states where it allows individuals to do, to plan, to operate in ways that you regarding theot united states. it is different. so, we will have to wait and see how that plays out. roger cressey, former white house counterterrorism adviser. please hang on. we want to bring back in malcolm. malcolm, i would like to get some sense of what you ought went into the planning, the scale, the details involved? we know ite to 9/11, with months, if not years and the planning.

how long did it take them to plan a coordinated attack like this? what did it involve? who funded it? can you give us a sense of the questions you would be asking and what you would presume would be the case? malcolm: sure. roger is right about one thing. it is early to assign blame. i have my suspicions based on operational experience. i personally think the attack clearly took place right after the "charlie hebdo" attack and whoever decided to deploy their landis this decided it was a high priority in terms confinerces and did not themselves to one or two to strike. i have run simulations. i simulated al qaeda for a while for the military and we run simulations where we do very five, 10tacks with people hitting five or six different venues at the same time. it's a question of the firepower

that you have. but we really cannot tell at this point -- my count is about 11 -- but until the french authorities come back and the hostage barricade situation at the theater is cleared up, we won't know exactly. malcolm, malcolm nance, a veteran intelligence officer. let's get to mark crumpton with the headlines. mark: thanks. we would like to update our audience around the world in our listeners on bloomberg radio on a day of terrifying violence in the city of paris. a wave of deadly violence forcing the french president to close the nation's capital or's and declare a state of emergency. 'sançois hollande extraordinary announcement after a series of shootings, bombings, and hostagetaking that began at 10:00 a.m. local time in paris. taken at the

theater and then at a soccer inch with president hollande attendance. at least teed up explosions outside of the stadium. the french president was taken to safety. 15, 20 minutes ago we heard from the president of the united states. he called the attacks "outrageous." attempt toy were an terrorize innocent civilians, and the president promising to do whatever it takes to bring the perpetrators to justice. we are joined on the phone by bloomberg's caroline connan. she joins us from paris. give us a sense of what it is like on the streets there, what is the police presence like? it isie hebdo --caroline: a huge situation of confusion. they --

apparently it was a false alarm. us briefly to lay down on the ground. which we did. it was apparently a false alarm. there was a café nearby. the café -- [indiscernible] taken to being treatment. there is a lot of confusion between those trying to help the victims and passersby and people trying to look at what is happening here. at the police here on the street saying, go home, go home. balcony to have another view of the street.

i could see really far down the boulevard several dozens of ambulances, firemen, policemen, and special forces here. caroline, you mentioned earlier special forces were at the theater. hostagebviously a situation. what can you tell us? any movement, people coming in, people coming out? we have seen injured people being taken to this café. i can see someone right now. is leg. in with wounds on the however i cannot confirm really what is happening, because i am with a line of vision at the moment. the last 10, 15 minutes, they have been taken out to the café on the corner. scarlet: i was just going to

say, caroline, in terms of the foreign-policy discussion taking place in france lately, here in the united states we pivoted to immigration from mexico. tell us what the state of the discussion is in paris when it comes to immigration and how that has contributed to rising tension in the city. caroline: it is hard at this stage to go to conclusions. i would not draw conclusions from the refugee crisis. there have been various questions from the government. some point, they decided to accept several thousand refugees. then they decided to close the borders. we cannot draw any clear link between obviously the three different shootings that have taken place tonight and the situation. --t is something that we are

they are probably talking about. we have maybe 20 minutes to go, , whererom the ministry the whole government will be for a crisis meeting. alix: i do want to point out headlines crossing. according to a french parisation, one of the blasts was indeed a suicide bomber and a french official saying there are more than 45 dead in this attack. this is the most deadly terrorist attack in modern french history. and unbelievable night. carolyn, do you get the sense on , do yound -- caroline get the sense on the ground three police have things under control? caroline: it's very hard to say. from what i can see, it seems like they are moving around on the street, making space for the victims they are bringing in.

obviously this is a very quick police andom the special forces in france. there is a state of emergency and unpredictable actions are being taken at the moment. hang on for alet: moment. we want to bring in u.s. congressman peter king for a moment. he is a member of the homeland security committee. congressman, you talked about how governor cuomo has responded, how the president has offered u.s. aid to france. is there a need to tighten net not tighten to -- the dragnet, but take preventative action in the event of a possible copycat terrorist attack here in the united states? guest: i can tell you from the

first moment this occurred, large police movements all sprung into action. one was to see if there was a chance of this coming to the united states. also checking out people in their communities. monitoring, going to their ofrces, analyzing every bit intelligence, going back over telephone calls, intelligence reports to see if they can read something into them. i can tell you, we are at a much higher level of alert. i do not mean that in a legal sense. there is much more intensity of police, fbi sharing of information. also, we are in contact with intelligence agencies overseas. the french, the british, the

germans. on right now.ing this is a full-court press at every level of government. joe: congressman king, what specific age should the united states give to paris -- aid should the united states get to paris and the rest of europe right now? representative king: we should give them whatever they want. i think what they want from us is intelligence. as much as we criticize the nsa, the surveillance we have, we will make all of that information available, certainly to the french. we will work hand in glove with the french. they have extremely effective intelligence agencies themselves. as far as the level -- we have the best surveillance as far as telecommunications. the nsa is the best at what it does. that is where we excel.

we also have embassies around the world and different units that we deal with around the world. we will be sharing that with the french. what the french are most concerned with right now would be a tax coming from other parts of the country, other parts of paris. alix: we are getting reports, congressman, from the ap, french officials are confirming two suicide attacks, one bombing. -- five paris metro lines are closed. when something like this happens, how do you start putting together the pieces to determine who did this and if there is more to come? theesentative king: all of relevant agencies in each country -- the fbi, cia, homeland security, all immediately coming together. they have an emergency type meetings. all of them analyzing all of the intelligence they can.

world.e going around the whether something is in syria, whether something is isis or al qaeda. is being looked at, being analyzed. , i canere in new york show you the nypd and the joint terrorism task force, they are going through every bit of information they can, talking to their sources, talking to sources overseas. has an accessory in paris. the the gendarmes, community over there, getting every bit of information they can. there is a full-court press going on. every major country and the world and between the countries themselves. scarlet: peter king, thank you for your time. member of is a congress and on the homeland security committee. let's go back to mark crumpton

for the latest headlines. can you give us the latest numbers first? mark: we would like to update our audience from around the world and listeners on bloomberg radio. this has been a heartbreaking day as the president of the united states called it, the situation in paris there, because of the of the wave of violence. we are receiving reports from french officials that at least 45 people have been killed now, an untold number injured, and people reportedly being held and what has been a horrific night in paris. the deadliest in modern french history. gunmen stormed a french restaurant killing at least 11. more people killed when gunmen stormed a french theater taking hostages. confirming twoal suicide attacks, one bombing near the paris stadium where a soccer match between france and germany was taking place. as we mentioned, the french president, francois hollande,

was in attendance, but he was not injured. he was taken to safety. the -- the french president said he was taking the extraordinary step of closing his country's borders. the number we have so far putting the death toll at least at 45, an untold number injured in this violence, this wave of violence that took place on friday night in paris. back to you. mark.thank you, we do want to update you on headlines crossing from the associated press. there is automatic gunfire being heard from outside the paris concert hall where attackers are holding hostages. there are reports of 100 hostages being held in this concert hall. theing us live in d.c., aspen institute director and a former cia military analyst. hear headlines

like this, what is your first thought? guest: my first thought is this is one of the scenarios officials in the united states and france are quite fearful of. not only is it quite coordinated, but it is is a series of soft targets around paris, the capital. we have seen there have been hostages held in the concert hall. there is now a reporting of another shooting reported by reuters at a mall. this is a coordinated attack. the timing of it, it suggests coordination and potential ties to some sort of terrorist organization or inspired by some terrorist organization. the always leave this is second major event, but we had the earlier shooting in paris with "charlie hebdo." why paris? why is it attracting so many events as opposed to other european capitals?

.ara: sure one particular hypothesis, without knowing specifics on the individuals, but there are a large number of foreign fighters leaving countries like france, syria.o iraq and ,urope does have a higher level hundreds of fighters flowing into syria, iraq, and coming back. i am not suggesting that is the case, but it does suggest the level of potential training and linked to groups in those countries. people andso be france are inspired by these other individuals in iraq and syria to carry out these attacks. it also should not be lost that today the united states neportedly struck jihadi john i syria and as possible, while not connected, that could have triggered or activated a cell. again, this is all speculative.

i am just throwing out hypotheses about why we might be seeing it right now. again, until we have more information, these are potential. , no conclusive evidence on who carried out this particular attack and no claim from isis. also joining us, sang won our global diplomacy and politics reporter. won: i think the situation is obviously developing, but there seems to be a consensus forming that these are very coordinated attacks. is it possible to make the argument this might have been an al qaeda attack versus an islamic attack, which i think many experts have spoken that they kind of preferred the more impromptu route, and they do not discriminate against how coordinated the attacks should be? point, think at this

-- tofrankly, it is too say. bloomberg just reported there is confirmation that some of these may have been suicide attacks. a methode attacks is traditionally used by different terrorist groups. it could also be a copycat affiliate group who are employing or mirroring techniques from overseas. i think it is too early to say. you are correct. al qaeda has carried out coordinated attacks of the sort. i think ruling out either group at this point would be premature. until we get more information on the individuals involved, it's possible that u.s. officials have this information. right now it does not seem like apprehended individuals have made it into the press. french president

has close the borders, it appears to be for the first time .ince world war ii my question to you -- is that effective? if there is a wave of terrorist action taking place, does that change anything? ona: i think a few things that. obviously, this has reached a level and killed a large number of people and this is something that france is not seen in modern times. the french president, being prudent, is taking many measures in the short term until they have more information. just as they are holding people in the stadium to prevent the outflow of people, he thinks that closing the border might create a seal perimeter around the country. to be quite frank, there's not enough information to really know where these individuals are at this point i &. they could be hiding in the city. some are involved in a live

hostage situation. the border situation is probably irrelevant to the city itself. because please stand by we want to check in with mark crumpton who will give us a mark: we would like to update her audience from around the world the latest information we are getting from paris. the wave of deadly violence as automatic gunfire was heard from outside the paris concert hall where attackers are holding hostages. some people were killed when gunmen stormed the concert hall. there was also an attack on a restaurant in paris. gunmen stormed in. the initial reports were the gunman had russian automatic made rifles and killed at least 15 people there. an untold number of people were wounded. there were also explosions, at least one of them a suicide bombing, outside the paris soccer stadium where the

national team was playing the german team in a friendly match. the president of france, francois hollande, was there but taken to safety. he addressed his nation later and said france was going to close its waters and said france was instituting a state of emergency. president barack obama spoke from the white house press briefing room earlier and gave his condolences to the people of france, saying france's oldest ally and we will stand shoulder to shoulder with them and provide whatever assistance they need it. again, we don't know at this time who is responsible for this wave of violence. there has been no claim of responsibility at this time. it does come on a day when the united states says it is reasonably certain it killed the man known as jihadi john, the man that officials say was seen in those graphic videos beheading western hostages in the name of islamic state.

again, the casualty count we are getting is 45 people are dead, an untold number injured and some are being held hostage at a concert hall. the latest we are getting is automatic gunfire was heard from outside the concert hall where the attackers are holding hostages. we will give you more information as soon as we get them. back to you. scarlet: thank you for giving us a recap. i'm joined by cory johnson, bloomberg media editor at large, as we continue our coverage. two suicide attacks, one bombing in paris, according to officials. paris imposing its first curfew since 1944. the french president declaring the borders closed. joining us live from washington cia militaryrmer analyst. what i wanted to ask you,

does this mean that the attack right now in paris, coordinated or not -- i know we're still trying to figure out who is responsible -- what does it mean for the effort to stop the threat of isis in syria. tara: we need to look at our fight against isis through a number of components. we took out what seemed to be a key figure. that is a symbolic victory. that is somebody that was instrumental in the execution videos and to the group, but there are still a lot of people being recruited to these efforts. even in light of successes like today in iraq and being able to example, sinjar, for territory and accounts of individuals is one component on the fight on terrorism. the other component is these loan will factors or potentially foreign fighters going overseas and returning to their country -- it is something we have not been able to rein in. this is another attack.

we have seen the charlie hebdo attacks. these are the types of attacks are the most difficult to prevent because they are on soft targets in western cities that are not barricaded like fortresses. it is something we are working on. it is not a criticism because they are very difficult to prevent, but is what the law enforcement community is focused on here and over in europe. cory: the afp is saying this was an attack on seven locations in that area. i wonder, this kind of coordinated attack, the targets are soft, yes, but this takes a lot of coordination. how does that happen given all of the ways the cia and the foreign intelligence agencies are trying to gather information to try to protect these people? how are they communicating? tara: it is too early to say specifically in this case, but

theoretically, i mean, while it is possible for, you know groups, to coordinate, it could be that the strike on jihadi john mobilized a cell which mobilized another cell. it is possible law enforcement does have signals of intelligence or intelligence about threat warnings, but they perhaps missed connecting the dots. intelligence is not a science. it is possible there are hundreds or thousands of potential warnings or individuals being monitored. it is finding the needle in the haystack and knowing the precise timing and location. it is too early to say, but i would not be surprised if some of these individuals -- it seems like there are more than one based on the locations -- i would not be surprised and hypothesized french officials do have some kind of information on these individuals. that has happened before. it is a matter of connecting the

dots on time and putting it all together. without more information, it is really difficult until we get more. scarlet: speaking of sharing intelligence, we have headlines of nypd detectives are assisting paris police, those that are in france are assisting paris police. the sharing of information and intelligence. you talked earlier about the soft targets. why wouldn't whoever is behind the attacks target military targets? tara: i think these groups are trying to target, pick their targets on a variety. of reasons we see this with terrorist groups around the world. they like to go after symbolic targets, whether it be the military representing the government, military bases, soft western targets in commercial areas because they are easier to attack. to be frank, going into a restaurant or cafe in the middle of paris at a random time is

more difficult than carrying out a militarygainst site or government building where there is probably enhanced security. allcannot possibly secure the soft targets in a major metropolitan area. it is not possible. they do have barricades and security in place and these are the easier ones to hit and more damage can be done before security can get to the scene. cory: we are hearing from the ap that automatic gunfire was heard outside of the concert hall where attackers were holding hostages. perhaps something is happening. i wonder, this brings to mind the attack in russia -- the theater situation that went on for two and a half days. what is the way of the military are able to learn from prior events? what is the methodology around that? tara: a few things. first of all, the french

officials on the ground are probably working with foreign intelligence, working together to coordinate. they are probably working with the united states officials to see if there is any additional intelligence. this is not a recent phenomenon. since 9/11, coordination of intelligence sharing between agencies both domestically and agencies between countries and our allies u k and france. i think that is something that has probably improve due to a series of these events. i would say also, for better or worse, the soft target issue and these types of attacks seem to carry out one of the main reasons these groups use these attacks. nature,e spectacular the media coverage these attacks get. right now, all eyes are turned to paris in this tragedy, but from the terrorist organization, this is how they mobilize and recruit. this is how they show they have

been gaining in either individuals being willing to carry out these attacks or financially or weapons. it is the same with the videos we see. the spectacular nature, the soft targets -- the hostage holding -- they have a media element to it as well for the group to project its power and project its message on the international stage in the 24/7 new cycle. cory: i want to bring back caroline who is on the phone right now. . caroline: apparently, a raid is taking place at the theater. confusion inn huge the past 10 to 15 minutes. they told us to hide behind a truck and told us to go under the truck which we did. now, it seems like the situation has calmed down. i don't know if that means the rate is over or the situation -- raid is over or the situation is

calming down. hundreds ofve seen firemen and emergency services gathered near the concert venue to take care of the victims. scarlet: caroline, stay with us because we want to go to mark crumpton who has been looking over all the headlines. mark, what can you tell us about the latest headlines? mark: we would like to update our audience from around the world and our audience on the radio, we are hearing reports police have stormed the theater where the gunmen have killed some people in attendance and said at least 100 people hostage, as cory johnson reported. automatic gunfire was heard from outside the theater, possibly indicating something was going on inside the theater where the hostages were being held. this was just a part of a deadly wave of violence to make paris on friday evening. it was about 10:00, 10:15

local time in paris. some targets included restaurants were dozens of people were killed. more people were killed at the theater and hostages were taken. we have reports of at least two explosions taking place outside of the soccer stadium where france and germany were playing a friendly match. we mentioned earlier the french president was taken from the stadium unharmed. he did meet with some of his security team at the interior ministry. when he addressed the french people and the nation earlier this evening, he said france was closing its borders and declaring a state of emergency. the president of the united states also spoke, addressing the u.s. and the world from the white house press briefing room. mr. obama saying the situation in paris was heartbreaking and said the u.s. was standing with the people of france as the people of france had stood with the united states in the past. he said france was our closest

ally and we would extend to them any help that they needed in solving this deadly wave of violence. so far, there has been no claim of responsibility for what happened today. basically, this city and the country are in lockdown. authorities closing the borders. some of the french military has also been mobilized in light of what has been the deadliest wave of violence in modern french history. scarlet, cory, back to you. scarlet: thank you. the headlines are staggering. paris metroyou all stations remain closed and three armed attackers are inside the paris theater. the fourth has been killed, according to local paris media. cory: tara, you were talking about the sharing of information. can you talk about how it relates to the difference between human intelligence and signal intelligence, given all

the issues around edward snowden and the difficulties the cia has had in syria. tara: when an attack like this happens, they lead up and post back to when analyst officials are going through materials, they are using a combination of all sources of intelligence which includes open-source intelligence, websites, blogs, human intelligence and signals intelligence like intercepted communications. in dealing with this situation in syria or iraq, especially syria, i suspect human intelligence is probably more difficult because we don't have a large number of individuals on the ground. most of the information we get out of a country like syria would be from signals intelligence. in these cases, it is possible that these individuals may have been being monitored. we'll know who they are. we don't know if they are foreign or french nationals, but i think in light of everything

that has gone on over the past few years, it will be interesting to see what types of intelligence had been collected on these individuals. if they were being monitored, why were they not connected and why with this happen? it is really too early to say without knowing more about the individuals. scarlet: we have other headlines here in the united states. no new counterterrorism measures are being planned. in paris are doing what they can to share information. what can you tell us of what the u.s. should be mindful of as we proceed into the weekend? tara: i'd imagine -- i have not heard anything yet in washington -- i heard reports there is enhanced security in new york. overmagining the pentagon what has unfolded, depending on what law enforcement here is

hearing, they might issue a heightened alert. they usually do this during large-scale attacks in high profile areas. sometimes they will increase security at big events, for example, if there was a marathon or something. i didn't hear anything down here in washington. there he have a pretty big security presence. those areas already have a significant presence. obviously, people should entertain heh heightening cautin and awareness. even if there are no other attacks coordinated with this, is not to say other individuals cannot be inspired. often you see a string of attacks happening and is not because they are connected, but it inspired or mobilized another attack that could be somewhat related for the same cause even though the individuals don't

know each other. cory: what would be going on at langley tonight? tara: i imagine analysts that are on isis, al qaeda calling back through intelligence reports. the president gets a daily brief every morning. onwill probably get briefed individuals in and out of france, and situations being developed or monitored. there are a lot of threats out there. it is not really without knowing about this particular one. it is too early to say whether or not -- there could have been general intelligence. if you remember -- a good example -- pre-9/11, there was a memo about al qaeda using planes sent to the president. it was not intelligence that was specific enough. it in and have a date or location. it was a warning which is now public.

it is possible there are different pieces like that, that officials have seen, but again without the precise time, specifics on the attack, it is difficult to thwart. it will be interesting to see the next 24 to 48 hours, i would suspect to hear individual names as they hopefully apprehend these suspects. perhaps they can identify them. scarlet: we are getting more color on what is going on in the concert hall according to local media. three armed attackers were inside the paris theater. a fourth was killed. an attacker shouted a lot of akhbar. we don't know whether the situation has been resolved. we don' know paris has imposed a curfew. some have it has been restored

on metro and train lines. the question is what happens to the european response. we know alexis tsipras of greece has expressed his deepest condolences. angela merkel said she is shaken up by the news. david cameron has tweeted out his condolences. what is the response of european leaders? some would argue they have been unable to respond to the migrant crisis and to the last round of attacks on france back in january when charlie hebdo was attacked. tara: absolutely. europe has been dealing with a significant issue with the refugees. then, linking these two, attacks and the refugee crisis, is a bit premature because there is no evidence anybody involved in these attacks have come into europe or france because of refugees. this may have been individuals who grew up in france and became radicalized. they may have been in iraq or

syria and got in. it does present europe with a situation that affect public opinion because now you have different countries taking different levels of action on the refugee crisis. an event like this, whether it should or shouldn't -- we can debate the merits of what the country should do -- it does put the public into a state where they are probably a bit more resistant towards letting in individuals from countries, like syria, where refugees are flowing from. that is not to suggest this had anything to do with the refugee flow. it is just it puts the public on edge. do need to deal with the refugee crisis. all the european countries after this are probably going to be making sure individuals in their own cities like london do not have ties to individuals carrying out these attacks. it is too early to say, but it is not definitive that the

groups or individuals are only linked to those in paris. over the next few days, all those connections need to be sorted out and looked into so officials can make sure something like this is not being planned in their capitals as well. scarlet: thank you for your valuable perspective. tara is a associate director of the aston institute and former military intelligence analyst for the cia. i want to bring in mark crumpton who has more details. mark: thank you. we would like to update our audience from around the world and listeners on bloomberg radio -- french authorities are urging the people of paris to stay indoors following the deadliest wave of violence in modern french history. gunmen and suicide bombers launched attacks in central paris around 10 p.m. local time. at this hour, a police raid is underway at a paris concert hall where scores of people are being held hostage.

some of the concertgoers were killed as were people in a restaurant that was stormed by gunmen. the french president was rushed from a soccer stadium when at least two bomb blasts occurred outside the stadium. he addressed his countrymen and said he was ordering france's borders closed and instituting a state of emergency. we have just received word the french police have taken charge of the theater. we are hearing at least three gunmen were still inside hostages. a fourth gunmen had been shot and killed by police earlier. the president of the united states expressed his condolences. barack obama speaking from the white house briefing room and said the united states stands with the people of france and will lend any and all assistance that was necessary to catch the perpetrators of this event. the president called it heartbreaking. scarlet, cory, back to you. scarlet: thank you. i want to bring in anne, a

lawyer who lives in paris. you are joining us by phone. can you tell us a little bit about where you were when the attacks began and what you have heard and seen? anne: i was with my brother where it happened. we started receiving calls and texts from friends saying a terrorist attack happened in paris. -- now we are hearing that are so many different locations, do you have a sense of how those locations are connected? anne: we have no idea actually. the news is pretty confused about where it happened. it is more eastern of paris, more north. we have no exact news of where it was and what happened exactly. scarlet: if you wanted to go outside, if you wanted to check up on family members or friends,

would you be able to get around the city safely? anne: no. it is impossible to get any cab, order any cab or private vehicle. some of the metro lines are closed at the moment. you have to take the other lines. i heard from friends they are locked in some bars in the 11th district. they cannot go outside. cory: some metro stations are open. 11th whereso the some of these attacks were concentrated, what would normally going on in a night like this? paint the picture. was the weather nice? friday, it is after work and people are out. what is it like? anne: this part of paris, there are a lot of ours and restaurants. usually people go out to dinner.

it is very popular in paris to meet in this area. it was crowded. it was not cold or raining today so a lot of people were there. scarlet: what kinds of people populate this district? what is the clientele? young people, international crowd, local parisians? anne: i guess it is more local andsians, may be between 18 30, something like that. it is more young people than tourist areas. scarlet: thank you so much for joining us, anne. giving us some on the ground coverage in terms of how she is able to move around and what she has heard and seen. cory: we are looking at a map right now that is showing the report of where the different places. bataclan andt, the

then outside the city limits with stade de france. apparently, there were some sort wasoordination or as tara saying, a suggestion there was spontaneous attacks once some of these attacks happened. we are joined right now on the phone with a former white house counterterrorism adviser roger cressy. what happens at the white house during a time like this? roger: the first point is the president needs fax. cts. his advisers are trying to get him ground truths. confirmed information is number one. the second is what can we provide to the french right now? the short answer is not much because as this plays out on the ground, really, french authorities are going to use their resources and assets. the one thing that is most

interesting is the hostage situation at the concert hall. if that continues for extended etc. --f time -- days, there might be other assets we could offer up. scarlet: let me update you on that because we have headlines from the french television that say police have taken charge of the paris theater. it would appear they stormed the theater. why would they do that? why would they not wait? what is the calculus? roger: if that report is true, that is extremely good news because the longer the hostage standoff happens and if there were militants or perpetrators inside, the likelihood of additional innocent civilians being killed was extremely high. and, while we don't know who is involved, it is safe to assume there will be a large body count. the hostages would have been seriously at risk for potential serious harm. if the french police went in and

did resolve and secured it, that is a key driver for them. cory: the embassy in paris is making every effort to account for the welfare of american citizens in the city. there will provide whatever support. exactly to your point. there is the issue of americans in paris. i wonder, as the white house would work, what can the embassy do and how do they do it? roger: the embassy becomes very important right now because they interact with the population, both in terms of french citizens trying to get visas as well as when u.s. citizens are in france. they are going to be looking to identify whoever they can on their own roster of americans who are either living, vacationing or otherwise in france. in short, everyone they know is

accounted for. we don't know the nationalities of those killed. we are now looking at 43 at the initial report. the numbers will probably go higher. i hope not but that happens. we will have to identify the nationalities there. then, next of kin. relatives want to get in touch. the embassy will be very is you with that. the ambassador and his senior leadership will work with the french government. the cia station and fbi will be providing round-the-clock support the french authorities as is requested. scarlet: we do have headlines crossing from local french television that dozens are dead in the paris theater siege. this comes after the police have taken charge of the paris theater. it appears they stormed the theater and found dozens dead. we don't know if that means the siege has ended.

as you he or these reports, at one point are french officials able to take a step back and say this wave has ended for now or will they be on guard for continuous attacks? roger: they will be on guard for an extended amount of time. the first stage is to bring this current round of events to a conclusion. secure the locations, tend to the wounded and make sure there are not any remaining elements of this cell or network or whatever it is at large. the second step will be to think about what potential future follow-up attacks could be in the works. the counterterrorism community, law-enforcement has to assume there are follow-up attacks. that is how they do their jobs in terms of prevention. you will see all elements of national security mobilized for that objective. then, once the situation stabilizes over several days, then you can see french authorities taking a step

back. whata policy perspective, do we do to respond to these attacks -- domestically, international support. if the assailants and perpetrators can be identified, if this is an organization, what kind of policy response does the french government want to undertake and who will support them? york it is 7:00 in new which means it is 1:00 a.m. in paris. mark crumpton will give us a recap of everything that has happened and what has been changing in the last hour. mark: we would like to update our audience from around the world and our listeners in bloomberg radio. french police are now in control of the concert hall where gunmen killed several people and took scores more hostage in what was one stage of what appears to be a coordinated wave of violence in central paris. gunmen stormed a restaurant killing over a dozen people. we also received