paul cruickshank has been working the phones, working his sources, our senior terrorism analyst. u know? >> well, they're struggling to get to grips with this at the moment. they're in crisis mode in paris. the president of the republic francois hollande was evacuated from the national football stadium. he was there for a soccer match between germany and france. we understand he's rushed to the interior ministry to meet with the interior minister. and they're trying to grapple with what is going on, which is an unfolding situation. reports of attacks in four locations and ongoing hostage siege in one of those locations. a report of either grenades or explosions outside the stade de france, obviously concern that there are gunmen on the loose right now in paris armed with heavy weapons. and if this is some kind of terrorist event as it certainly looks like at this point they'll be concerns that these people could have been people trained with isis who are skilled in killing people with these kind of weapons with these kind of explosives. around 250 people who fought in syria and ir

and now joining us with insights on all of us cnn analyst paul cruickshank just fresh from franz, and also the editor of the daily beast paul. so what pipeline did brus is sells have that shut that city down? will it yield anything that will open up the city? >> some point friday, ashleigh, information came into the belgian agency saying that there was an attack team plotting something against brussels just like they were plotting something against paris. indeed, the likelihood of two wave s waves to the terrorist plot in paris but they didn't have a good handle on this of are where it is going down and when, because otherwise they would not have issued this unprecedented lockdown. and they have this unprecedented security alerts in brussels and they have not rounded up any key suspects yet, and i think that they will sustain this alert until they feel that the dangers of the public safety has gone a away. the interior minister of belgian says it goes beyond one individual, and salah abdeslam, and you are looking at the larger logistical group behind the attacks in paris and in molenb

with me in paris, cnn terrorism analyst paul cruickshank. we also have with us cnn national security commentator, former congressman mike rogers and cnn counterterrorism analyst phil mudd. phil, let me start with you. you heard from deb all the plans in new york city, all the plans in washington, d.c. to try to protect as many soft targets as possible, but the bottom line there are more -- far more soft targets in the united states than there can ever be law enforcement officers. >> you cannot control this. despite the planning that went into event and scope of the operation with what we know to be eight attackers, eight terrorists, they went after targets that aren't iconic. that is targets you can't sit back and say we can secure those. i don't know how if you're in new york, washington, et cetera, you can sit back and say we can defend every cafe, every restaurant. it's simply not possible with the numbers we're dealing with here, jake. >> that's right. i visited four of those locations today and they're just, pardon the expression, run o

i want to go to terror analyst paul cruickshank in paris, and i know that you have been working the source, paul. there are those who have come forward claiming responsibility for this, and what are you hear heari hearing? >> that is right, ableyings, a claim of responsibility on a jihadi response portal coming from the al qaeda-aligned group in the region, and the u.s. government analysts are look into the claims at the moment, b but the the claim is that in was the responsibility of al qaeda in the islamic maghreb. and this is from a algerian who was responsible for an attack earlier in the year, and also at a hotel in march. he was targeted in an air strike in libya in june of this year, and his fate is uncertain, but his group, and al qaeda islamic maghreb is claiming responsibility for this, ashleigh. if it is indeed them, an attempt to compete with isis, because isis had this big propaganda victory in the recent weeks with the russian jet and also here in paris and a competition globally of the two organizations, a one upmanship, and this could well be al qaeda here in their response

let's get more from cnn terrorism analyst paul cruickshank. paul, let me ask you this.ve also learned is that man who we just pulled up on our screen, that he not only was complicit in this according to authorities, but traveled to syria just last year, was able to slip back into europe. authorities say this is a major concern, obviously. how does he get back in? >> that's absolutely right, poppy. and we've seen that with a majority of the people involved in this conspiracy that they traveled to syria at some point, that they linked up with isis at some point. they got training at some point. they had some experience of fighting at some point. so these are trained killers who are coming back to europe. and in fact, more than 1500 extremists who have spent time in syria and iraq have come back to europe, according to european counterterrorism officials. and they're trying in genius ways to get back. some of them on the radar screen. so they're exploiting the refugee processing system, using fake passports to pretend that they're refugees. some are just trying to slip thr

but our cnn terrorism analyst paul cruickshank has gotten new information.. we're also joined by jim sciutto here at the plaza republique. let's talk about what you just reported because you gave us a lot of new information. this is based on a conversation -- again, who was this conversation with, and if you could just bring us up to speed again. >> well, anderson, as i was saying, this comes from a senior belgian counterterrorism investigation, somebody at the heart of the investigation. the belgians and the french are working hand in hand on this investigation. and as i was saying, the key thing that led to this residence in saint-denis overnight was an intercepted communication, a wiretap, indicating that a relative of abdelhamid abaaoud, the suspected ringleader of this plot, was at that address in saint-denis. the french also separately had other strong information suggesting abaaoud was actually in paris. so they went in and launched this raid, french commandos, but they were met with fierce resistance by the people inside the building. such fierce res

i want to bring in paul cruickshank. paul, you have information about this raid, about how they went in and about what they're doing now to faind out if they got hi. >> that's right, john. speaking to a senior belgian counterterrorism official, he says that the key information that led to this raid in saint-denis was an intercepted communication, a wiretap, which indicated that a relative of abdelhamid abaaoud was at this safe house, suggesting that perhaps abdelhamid abaaoud himself was also there because the french had other strong indications that he was in paris. so they moved forward with this raid in the middle of the night. they went in with quite some force, the french commandos. but they were met with fierce resistance from the people inside. there was a female suicide bomber who blew herself up. and in order to try and neutralize the suspects inside the building, they had to use, as clarissa was saying, some really powerful munitions. the sorts of things you'd use in war, powerful grenades and munitions. and tha

i want to go to anderson and paul cruickshank in paris.hat are your associates telling you about brussels? >> there is significant concern about in brussels about the possibility that there is a terrorist plot in the works to hit brussels. i think that's why you have the maximum terror alert for the capital. there's been concern all week about this eighth attacker in paris, salah abdeslam he might be back in brussels in belgium. but i think this goes well beyond that. this is a larger scale concern now, there may be something being planned in brussels in the days ahead. and i don't think they have a very good handle on what it is and what direction it's coming from. otherwise i don't think they would basically tell everybody in brussels to stay home tomorrow. this is an unprecedented step, telling people not go to airports or train stations or public spaces where people gather. there is a high level of concern that something may be in the works. when you think of this terrorist attack in paris that took place on friday, it had a precedent.

want to bring in cnn terror analyst paul cruickshank. we understand a group has claimed responsibility. we haven't confirmed that. such keen interest what's going on there. obviously, france under attack by isis one week ago. now perhaps french interests, a hotel where a lot of french travelers stay, under attack as well. who might be involved? >> well, there's chatter at the moment on twitter from al qaeda supporters suggested that al mourabitoun, a jihadi grouped aligned with al qaeda, based in mali. this hasn't been authenticated. al mourabitoun is a one-eyed terrorist who launched the siege of a gas facility in southern algeria in 2013. been responsible for a lot of terrorism in mali, the wider region. also responsible for an attack in bamako in march when several gunmen went after a restaurant. it could well be his group. he was targeted by a u.s. strike in libya in june. the group's leader said he had not been killed in that strike. there was some hope he was dead. the french security services have a nickname for him, the uncatchab

paul cruickshank, our terrorism analyst, has also getting more information. paul, what are you learning? >> well, wolf, i mean, it certainly looks like a serious coordinated terrorist attack from everything that we've heard and seen so far. but french authorities have not yet publicly made that determination. but french security experts, french security analysts who've been working their sources, they all believe that what they're seeing at this point, seeing unfold is a coordinated terrorist attack tonight in paris. and if you look at the type of weapons that are being used, ak-47s, you're hearing unconfirmed reports potentially even of suicide bombings, all of that at this very early hour makes you think of islamist terrorism, makes you think of those awful days in paris in january, those 48 hours when 17 people were kill ed in the "charlie hebdo" satirical news magazine headquarters and also a kosher market. francois hollande, the president of france, has said there's an unprecedented terrorist threat to the france because so many french nationals have gone

. >> analyst paul cruickshank is with us for more. i am reading reports that one of the concerns of authorities right now that apartment may be booby trapped. a female suicide bomber killed herself there. they have to be very, very careful going in. >> isis has a track record of ied booby traps in place. it would appear they have been for some time, hala, one woman blew herself up at the beginning of the raid, we understand so they'll be very careful. there will be a treasure trophy of information. this is urgent information. because these paris attacks may not be over. i think all the indications are, given the weapons they have. given that one of them blew themselves up. is this was perhaps a second attack scene primed to launch an attack in the coming days or the coming hours. i think there will be huge concern about that. >> that it was even more than ambitious than we understood. so there could be others, you know, even a third attack team out there, there could be other. a part of the potential plans so ifts really a stunning de

cnn terror analyst, paul cruickshank.this is a stunning success of a terror operation, to take out the planner of these attacks days after they happened. >> very much so. and you remember all these last 72 hours, that name, that one name has really taken up all the oxygen as people were so keen to find this guy who they believe planned it. we've been speaking about him for a long, long time. we're not sure how big an operative in isis but he obviously had a big role in planning this. he's also known as a very vial, very vicious, very ugly personality, who grew up in a perfectly normal, normal neighborhood, normal childhood, went to a catholic school, then got into trouble -- >> belgium. >> yeah. did the whole same profile. got on the other side of the law, drugs, violence. prison, radicalization, you know, terrorism. i mean, it is the equation. not only that, european going over there, coming back, slipping under the radar and committing this kind of war and mayhem. to be very frank with you, we together on the air more t

join iing me now is paul cruickshank, cnn's terrorism analyst. paul, before we get to what's happening in france, what are you hearing about the threats to italy? >> i'm unclear where the intelligence comes from, but a high degree of concern about italy at the moment. there's this video that came out threatening washington, d.c. new york yesterday and entitled "paris then rome." they meant rome as being the united states. the roman empire against the muslims. maybe u.s. officials took that point literally to mean italy. clearly there's concern across europe at this point. >> so right now, authorities are investigating any links between the master mind who was killed yesterday morning in that raid and any other possible jihadis or terrorists as well as those tied to other foiled attacks. how is that process going right now? >> there are two concerns. one of the concerns is that the top members in this attack still at large. we have been talking about one guy that has traveled into belgium. they haven't got the bomb maker yet. belgiums say they have

i see paul cruickshank, barbara star is with me as well.e of the questions would be why. why target specifically a russian airliner? and if we're talking isis and we'll get into who and what affiliates would be in the sharm el-sheikh sinai peninsula, we know what's happened with regard to russian involvement in syria. and one would wonder because of that if we're talking isis, sort of the beginning of the answer of why. >> well, i think it may well be. you know, the russians had to have known the u.s. has told them publicly, you know, you are going to -- you are going to get crosswise of isis. the russian government has said publicly it was going after isis in syria, that it was going after terrorist organizations that also threatened russia and russia certainly does have valid terrorism concerns in its country and on its borders. but the view was that isis might decide certainly to take its own actions. so, as they look at these internal messages between isis, these claims of responsibility, and the other intelligence -- and i should say w

phil mud is mudd, paul cruickshank. paul, let me start with you. let's just tart with what drew is reporting. it is pretty shocking that you see an entire city shut down, no schools, no public transportation because they say there's an imminent threat of a paris-style attack and yet they say nothing about who they are looking for. do they not know? >> well, there could be reasons as to why they are not telling the public about that. there appear to be some specific information that came in on friday, that there was potentially another attack team out there. but clearly they don't know who necessarily is involved, what direction it's coming from, what the target is going to be. and so on and so forth. that they knew all of those things, they wouldn't have had to issue such an unprecedented alert. i mean, we saw that cell they broke up in eastern belgium in january. they didn't put out any alert because they were monitoring these people 24/7. they had a good handle on that plot. they clearly don't have a good handle on this one. in light of what happ

paul cruickshank is joining us right now, our terrorism analyst. first talk about what's going on in mali right now. a terror strike at the radison blue hotel on the capital of mali. give us your assessment whether or not this is directly connect ed to what's been going on in paris. >> wolf, it may be a reaction to what happened in paris because al qaeda is claiming responsibility for this attack in a claim posted on jihadi media portal. an al qaeda group claiming responsibility, it may be a response to isis hitting the global head lines over the last few weeks. al qaeda wants to get back in the headlines as well. there's a lot of e competition between these two groups globally for recruits. but one of the groups claiming responsibility is a group that's been founded by a one-eyed algerian terrorist who you'll recall orchestrated the hostage siege of a gas plant in algeria. when were killed when they went in. they are also responsible in march for an attack on a restaurant popular in the capital in mali. so plausible that they were involved and thi

christiane amanpour, cnn, paris. >> and back with me now, paul cruickshank and cedric layton. you've seen videos of abaaoud, that he's a sadist. >> he speaks in the camera and says, "i am joyed when i see the blood of infidels the westerners spilled." martyrism is what we all need to go after. the muslim who is are not coming to join us here, they are cowards, they are a disgrace, they all need to come and help us. they need to come back and they need to launch attacks against the west. so this is somebody with a deep animosity against anybody who doesn't share his barbarist world view. there's video of him driving the corpses of several deceased free syria army officers across the desert in syria and there's another video which frankly which is too horrific to even describe on air. >> it is horrific to hear this, colonel. and it's also frightening. it seems that -- complacency may not be the right word but they are sort of touching on the right feeling in europe amongst officials and intelligent authorities that these young men are off doing this but it won't come here or they

i want to bring in paul cruickshank, cnn's terrorism analyst.hat is the working theory on what he was doing, why he went there? >> well, john, one possible explanation, that he would go back would be to film the aftermath of this for propaganda. isis has been drilling down on its operatives the need to film the attacks and there was a plot thwarted in january in which abdelhamid abaaoud was the ringleader. when police went in, they found gopro cameras at that safe house in eastern belgium. they were planning to film those attacks back in january. so it's quite possible that he was trying to do the same here again for an isis propaganda video which they would put out to electrify the support base. >> paul, there's also a new suspect on the loose being searched for now. what do we know about this? >> this is mohamed abrimii who is believed to have driven to paris and rented the same car that was used to drop off the attackers at the stadium. and also, on sunday night in brussels, somebody -- when abdeslam came back to brussels and drove off with h

thank you very much, paul cruickshank.s paul is talking about that group and successfully recruiting in the military, ian lee is live at the sharm el-sheikh airport. officials are not letting any luggage be put into the cargo hold. that threat could still be present. >> reporter: that's right. and there's increased security here tonight at the airport. there's a checkpoint before you even get to the terminal which is behind me. then, inside there's layers of security. you're going to go through x-rays, metal detectors and probably even a patdown before you actually check in. that's because of isis in the sinai. probably the deadliest branch of the organization that most americans haven't heard about. as investigators comb through the debris and analyze the plane's data recorders trying to determine what led to the crash of russian metrojet 9268, isis is claiming responsibility for killing the 224 people on board. in a new audio message, reportedly from the sinai branch, the militant group says find your black boxes and ana

joining me is paul cruickshank, our terrorist expert, and we are have been talking about this this ideas the k competition between the two group, and is there any doubt about that? >> there is no doubt about it, pam. the spiraling war of words between al qaeda and isis, and they hate each oe this, and actual fighting among the two group groups in syria in the past few years on and off fighting, and competition in syria for recruits, and fierce competition as well in yemen, libya and afghanistan and pakistan and many other parts of the world including many mali where we saw that attack on the radisson hotel claimed by a al qaeda aligned groups, and al qaeda and the al qaeda maghreb, and also a group that is aligned by the libyan group. and one of the reasons that the local level in mali may is have launched the attack, is because they have a rivalry with a local group of isis which is part of of the group in that area. so we are seeing this rivalry playing out between the two for standing in the jihadi and the fight for recruits and prestige and it is leading to one upmanship when it com

joined now by cnn terrorism analyst paul cruickshank. let me start with the president today. president obama trying to reassure the nation. he said there's no specific or credible intelligence indicating a plot now against the u.s. but when you're dealing with isis, do you get specific and credible threats? or is isis something different than we've seen in the past? >> well, john, the worry is that you don't. because increasingly they're using online encryption apps to communicate. we saw that in the paris attacks, we've seen that in a number of other plots. this is the going dark phenomena that the fbi director has been warning about over the past several months. you may not get that advance warning. they've also been using all sorts of ingenius ways to communicate also including using video console games, the messaging and shoot them up games with other users to communicate, i've been told by senior european officials. and so it's really hard for the united states to keep track of all this. and they don't necessarily have the warning that they would want. >> paul, i want to

i want to bring back now paul cruickshank, republican congressman, ed royce, and bob baer. paul, these numbers are continuing to rise and as we have to emphasize, we don't know what the final situation will be here and as authorities in paris are emphasizing to us, they are not confident that this is over. >> they are not confident that this is over. and the coordination of it, it will happen in very quickly and i think all of that pointing towards this being an attack by an established terrorist group, by a group that would have planned this, would have trained the people involved at several places in the middle east where the training could take place but all eyes will be on syria and iraq which has emerged over the past few years as a major terrorist safe haven. i think if it is linked to syria in any way, there's going to be a lot of pressure on the international community, on all of our leaders to act, to rid this terrorist safe haven in syria and iraq now. president obama saying that isis has been contained in syria and iraq and of course -- >> this happened just hours

i want to talk with paul cruickshank. this is a fast developing story. but what do we know right now about this threat. did they find a bomb at all? >> well, if you look at all of language that's come in from german officials, they seem to be talking about intelligence coming in, some kind of intelligence led them to take these moves, evacuate the stadium. clearly with intelligence, it can be very, very specific, but they've got to run it down, it could come from all sorts of different sources. we don't know what type of source it might have come from. but given what happened in paris on friday, given this sort of intelligence that appears to have come in to them in some way, shape or form, they can't take any chances with the leader of germany, chancellor merkel present there. they're not going to take any chances in this sort of climate. so i think it remains to be seen what the evidence is, as the local police chief sort of talked about. we don't know what that is. clearly they want to run it down, make sure people are safe, given all of the terrible

paul cruickshank, do i have you with me?y, brooke, i'm here. >> what is most significant in your opinion about the discovery of the cell fon? >> well, it points to organization and attempt to try to synchronize what was going to go down. every little piece of evidence is very important clearly to investigators. it just helps them piece together how this thing was planned. >> you know, everything that we're reading possibly on one of these attackers, a fake passport, one faked his own death in syria. is it possible that this was something to throw investigators off the path or do you think this legitimately was left by someone who blew himself up? >> well, i'll tell you what we do know about this. that's that authorities think that this was probably planned in syria. probably planned by the senior isis leadership and subcontracted out potentially to senior french and belgium operatives on the ground in syria who want ed to launch an attack against paris, who then recruited and corralled a group of younger recruits on the grou

joining me now paul cruickshank, buck sexton, mia bloom, mike rogers. and lieutenant colonel rick francona. and i said buck sexton. how could an attack this big and complex come off really without enough warning to stop it? that goes first to you, buck. >> i think we will see there were warning signs and things that were missed. the french have capable intelligence and security services. they have some authorities that we in this country might think they have a tremendous amount of ability to do surveillance and things necessary to protect from this attack. but it's an open society and they have a large muslim population that terrorists are allowed to or able to hide among and engage in this kind of attack. i think they have spent a lot of time in france. if they were not born there spent years on the ground to get the weapons, the explosives that they have would require familiarity with being there. i don't think -- this isn't in any way tied to the flow of immigrants. i don't think you will find this is the case. this is a constant issue with terroris

thank you, paul cruickshank and senator leighton. and now, we will go back to baltimore where six officers are charged in the death of freddie gray. we have more on the potential jury pool, a nd we are going to go live to baltimore after a quick break. up to 4 lines with up to 6gb each. just $30 bucks a line, that's 6gb each plus unlimited video streaming with binge on™. stream netlfix, hbo now , hulu and more without using your data. and now unwrap the samsung galaxy s6 for $0 upfront and just $10 bucks a month. this year tear into the holidays with t-mobile. i built my business with passion. but i keep it growing by making every dollar count. that's why i have the spark cash card from capital one. i earn unlimited 2% cash back on everything i buy for my studio. ♪ and that unlimited 2% cash back from spark means thousands of dollars each year going back into my business... that's huge for my bottom line. what's in your wallet? >>> jury selection began today in the trial of baltimore police officer william porter who is the first of

we have seen 50 ice ssis-relate arrests so far this year. >> and so it is intriguing, paul cruickshank to hear the president saying to go on with your business because there are thousands of people head ed ed the airports and the bus station and the highways, and they want to hear those words, but at the same time they want to know that things are different now. yesterday, the report that there is ip creased radicalization of airport workers and transit workers in france, and why do we belief that there is nothing different here in the united states, and what with are we not seeing that the government is doing about it? >> that is right, ashleigh. there is concern that there could be radicalization at u.s. airport, a a nd in fact, a clea that worked at minneapolis/st. paul's airport and went to fight with isis and killed there in 2014. and drew griffin in the cnn investigations has been doing e excellent reporting on this, and have reported that when it comes to the ground staff, baggage hand handlers, and people with access to the tarmac and the plane, and very few airports do the peo

paul cruickshank. germany, a big headline, thank god it wasn't what they thought it might be what do you see in terms of how the intel came down and what picture it paints for the threat? >> it was very specific intelligence and they had no choice but to act on it given the events of last friday, given all the concern right now that there may be more attackers, at least two still at large. and so clearly, a lot of concern tonight, but they haven't found any explosive devices. the concern, the intelligence points into the idea -- this, by the way, came from the french, passed on to the germans, pointing to the idea that a radicalized individual living near hannover was going to drive a truck or large vehicle ladened with explosives to the stadium perimeter, the sensitive area around the stadium. of course, that would be the area before a big soccer match like this you would have tens of thousands of people streaming through or after the match coming out and that was the hope with the friday attack, that

let's bring in nic robertson, paul cruickshank, cnn terrorism analyst. this confusion speaking to the chaos and carnage inside this french apartment. the discovery of this third body raising the question who else was in this terrorist hideout. what are you hearing? >> it does. what the prosecutor said later the same day of the raid, he said there's a lot of destruction in there. the floors have collapsed in the building. it's going to take a lot of time to do the forensic analysis to figure out it was abdelhamid abaaoud. they have determined that. but in that chaos and carnage, they have worked out or have a better analysis of what happened. not only was the cousin of abdelhamid abaaoud not believed to be a female suicide bomber, but they discovered there were three bodies in there. this was something we were hearing that was a possibility, but it wasn't clear. they can say with certainty that it was two bodies. now they know it's a third body. it's a man. they are not announcing his identity yet at this time. but given the amount of time it took to iden

terrorism expert paul kr cruickshank is joining me.lot of british airplanes at this airport. >> you are absolutely right. a lot of british airplanes they could have targeted with an insider when they went off to the russians. i think the reason for that is they wanted to turbo charge their recruitment in the global jihadi movement. there's a huge amount of anger in the sunni muslim world against russia because of that bombing of the rebels taking on assad. and so they want to tap in to that anger and get more foreign fighters and they want to win in that competition with al qaeda worldwide. >> and so that the targeting of a russian plane would have enabled them to go ahead with recruiting and they didn't fear reprisal, the kind of reprisal they may get by attacking a british passenger plane. look, as you point out, the belief right now is that if this was a bomb, it was an inside bo job. someone working there could have boarded it on the plane. could that happen in the u.s., the inside operator? >> the short answer is yes but perhaps a

i have terrorism analyst paul cruickshank joining me from new york. ephon was one of the first people to arrive on the scene after the "charlie hebdo" killings earlier this year in january. but paul, i'd like to begin with you here. . when you just heard that from ivan according to to a french or paris affiliate saying bolts and tatp in this suicide vest, what does that tell you? >> well the, the big question is whether this suicide vest belongs to salah abdeslam, the eighth attacker who is on the run who it appears probably abort eed his attack for an unknown reason on friday night in paris and was picked up by friends driving through the night from belgium, picking him up from paris and bringing him back towards there. he had a thick jacket on and possibly had a suicide vest underneath. the new information suggests he jet sanned the suicide vest in paris itself. that night they were worried about the missing suicide vest. so they will be doing forensics on it, dna testing to see whether it actually did belong to him or not. but it seems very similar

i want to bring in paul cruickshank. ul, this additional group in belgium, these ten people, do we know if this is the reason why brussels was shut down? are they the cause of the serious and imminent threat? >> john, that's exactly the reason why they had this unprecedented security alert in brussels and it is believed that they are part of this broader isis network that was responsible for the paris attacks. but what we're seeing here, john, is the largest terrorist conspiracy in european history with almost a dozen people being involved now in the paris attack and another ten now threatening brussels and logistical support structure that might be three times greater than that and this is reflective of the fact i think that so many of these extremists have now come back to europe from syria. more than 1500 are now back in europe, john, and it's quite stunning how quickly isis has been able to put together such a complex attack, such a complex plot back in 2010 al qaeda was planning a mumbai style plot in various europea

i have terrorism analyst paul cruickshank, who is now in washington, but was here through it all as thisris. and first, paul, to you, i said this word earlier, the audacity, the brazenness that abdelhamid abaaoud would return after the bloodshed when reporters from cnn were reporting on this down the street, investigators were on the scene, why? >> brooke, it's an extraordinary revelation he returned to the scene of the crime that he went back to the 10th and 11th that he went back to the concert hall that night just a few hours after the attack. one possibility is that he returned there to film footage of the aftermath of the attack for propaganda purposes. there is a video, which was put isis that shows footage from the aftermath of the attack. we don't know whether that was the footage that abdelhamid abaaoud shot, but it's certainly possible because isis are drilling into their fighters the need to film these attacks, the aftermath of these attacks. they are saying it's almost as important as launching the attacks themselves. certainly possible he was going back to the scene of the c

paul cruickshank joining me at place de la republique and international reporter paul robertson.g victory for french intelligence, french police who were able to move in quickly on intelligence. to your point earlier, there is a larger network, which remains very much in place and very interested in continuing attacks. and there's still a manhunt out for the eighth terrorist, possibly a ninth. >> that's right. what i'm told by officials are there are about a half dozen belgian and french jihadis part of isis who have moved up the hierarchy of isis, who have been working together to plot attacks against france and europe. abdelhamid abaaoud was just one of them. but there are others as well who may have even more stature in the group than him. those include fabien clain who claimed responsibility for isis in the video that came out a few hours after the attack. the french believe that he's been working together with abaaoud to launch a string of terrorist plots against france. in fact, just a few minutes ago, the interior minister of france said of the half dozen terrorist plots t

joining us former ntsb managing director, our cnn aviation analyst peter goelz, paul cruickshank, ourpondent richard quest and former head of security for israel's el al airlines. paul, isis is taking responsibility, credit in their word, for this. they're doing so publicly. they won't say how they did it. why would they be coy? >> well, i think the reason they may be being coy if it is indeed them is that they've perhaps recruited an insider at sharm el sheikh airport to help them infiltrate this device on to the aircraft. and they didn't want to expose this mole or somebody they paid off at the airport. they were very, very coy indeed in their statement. an audiotape released today saying we're not going to tell you how we did this, it will be up to you to find out. eventually maybe we'll tell you, but we're not going to tell you for the moment. so they may be holding their cards very close for the reason they don't want to expose somebody working for them potentially at the airport. but obviously very, very early stages in this investigation. >> they may plan on doing it again so t

joining us now is our cnn terrorism expert paul cruickshank and fbi analyst phil mudd.hat do we need to do first and foremost, what would you say? >> i would say, first go to silicon valley and say here's your top secret clearance, here's what is happening with the encryption of this case. you guys need to figure out how to figure out how to get into people's e-mails. the second conversation i'd have with secretary perry, we have principles we want to apply in syria, we'd like a transition and we're going to have to sacrifice those in the effort to find stability. we're going to have to figure out a way to work with the russians to bring this place under control. >> because these encrypted communications, these apps these terrorists are using, the law enforcement in europe cannot monitor it? >> that's right. the people in california will say, look, we can't give you the information on what is happening on our websites, on e-mails, for example, because we don't control it anymore. it's encrypted. we have to have a conversation to get around that because in the intelligen

paul cruickshank says that isis is moving up the gears in terms of international attacks. what is your assessment of that? >> for a long time. isis was saying that international attacks were a bad idea. when al qaeda had september 11, had a few days of glory and then an invasion and lost its base. and obviously it seems to have changed its mind. they have turned their strategy around and now they seem to be focusing on that. and the reasons for that are unclear but they will be interesting to find out. >> speaking of strategy. what about the authorities, the investigations, how are they going to get the eight suspects they arrested last night to talk? >> so they'll have to try every means at their disposal. you know, they have obviously, a pretty wide intelligence network. there are just a lot of suspects out there. they're going to try to find out who those people know. they are going to ask them nicely and try to figure out what nfgts they can glean from their cell phone records and travel records and see what they can find out. we don't know who they are or who they kno

paul cruickshank reporting it was found near a trash can and there is potentially significant discoveryficant for two reasons. one is there has been a lot of concern about this missing suicide vest that they believe belonged to salah abdeslam and the fact that his cell phones traced to this address is highly suggestive of the idea that is indeed the missing suicide vest that he didn't end up using that night that will be somewhat reassuring to investigators but he could have access to other weapons, kalashnikovs, things like that. this suicide vest didn't blow up. from a forensic point of view, they will be able to extract a lot of information about the bomb maker, signature of the device. the bomb maker is considered to be still at large. so this will be a very valuable find indeed from the forensic point of view because this device didn't blow up. >> is it possible, tom, the suicide vest could have been sitting there in that garbage can for ten days? >> i think it's possible. they may have kept the trash removal companies out while they did forensics. we don't know. it would be a good

(paul cruickshank/ cnn terrorism analyst) "this would be the most significant terror attack since 911." telligence officicis tell cnn, an plive device may have been hidden inside luggage - and working at the helped get it past unlike the highly sophisticated explosives used by al qaeda -- authorities believe isis used a morere "conventional"device a source lling cnn it may have included a barometric pressure switch set to go off at a certain altitude. al qaeda has targeted us passenger & cargo planes at least 4 times since 9/11. the first was shoe- bomber richard reid in 2001 -- his attempt foiled by papaengers on boardrd a plot by britisis extremists to hide explosives inside war bottles -- was disrupted in 2006. on christmas day 2009 the underwear bomber failed to properly detonate plastic explosives or petn -- as his plane was landing in detroit. a year later petn explosives were discovered in two printer-toner- cartridges on n s & fedex planes. al qaeda in the arabian peninsula's master bomb builder ibrahim alsiri claimed credit for both- devices. sinai has increasingly become an

i want to bring in paul cruickshank, he's been working his sources has new information on how this awful attack in beirut was carried out. paul, what have you learned? >> wolf, this comes just in from lebanese security sources says one of the four suicide bombers was taken alive and has begun talking saying he was part of a four-man isis cell dispatched from syria to lebanon to carry out this attack saying he arrived in lebanon two days ago, that this cell comprised of two palestinian nationals, two lebanese nationals. the person they have in custody being a lebanese national from tripoli in the north of lebanon which has been a hotbed of islamic militancy. and the lebanese security services at this point believe that this was an isis cell dispatched to lebanon by the senior leadership of the group in syria to carry out this deadly attack. it could have been a lot worse. there was one other suicide bomber who was killed in the initial blast from the first two suicide bombings before he managed to detonate his suicide vest. so this could have been at least twice as bad. obviously a terrib

paul cruickshank, if i don't see you have a happy thanksgiving. >>> turning to politics now. brand new iowa poll numbers showing a shift in the 2016 gop race. ben carson tumbling from first place just last month to third dropping from 28 to 18%. you can see donald trump back on top getting five points in the past month. ted cruz getting a surge of support. he's gained 13 points and is now within the margin of error of first place. a reminder the iowa caucuses are less than ten weeks away. >>> planned parenthood is suing the state of texas. the organization trying to block texas from cutting off its medicaid funding. this follows planned parenthood filing similar suits against utah, alabama, arkansas and louisiana. texas plans to cut off medicaid funding for the nonprofit organization in two weeks citing the controversial claims of sale of fetal tissue for research. >> a security mishap at jfk airport in new york. 13 passengers who just arrived from cancun, mexico, somehow skipped customs and security without getting their bags or passports checked

joining us michael weiss, terrorism analyst paul cruickshank and tom. stand by for a moment.re information into "the situation room." we got to assess what is going on. more breaking news when we come back. i use what's already inside me to reach my goals. so i liked when my doctor told me i may reach my blood sugar and a1c goals by activating what's within me. with once-weekly trulicity. trulicity is not insulin. it helps activate my body to do what it's supposed to do release its own insulin. trulicity responds when my blood sugar rises. i take it once a week, and it works 24/7. it comes in an easy-to-use pen and i may even lose a little weight. trulicity is a once-weekly injectable prescription medicine to improve blood sugar in adults with type 2 diabetes. it should be used along with diet and exercise. trulicity is not recommended as the first medicine to treat diabetes and should not be used by people with severe stomach or intestinal problems, or people with type i diabetes or diabetic ketoacidosis. trulicity is not insulin and has not been studied with long-acting ins

paul cruickshank. we'll look at a former isis insider speaking out. he claims to have been a spy for the organization and sharing rare insight of the daily operations and spoke to michael weiss of the daily beast and remarkable interviews he did. he joins us ahead. if you don't think when you think aarp then you don't know "aarp." our drive to end hunger has donated 31 million meals and counting. find more real possibilities at aarp.org/possibilities why is philips sonicare the most loved electric toothbrush brand by americans and their dentists? because it leaves your mouth with a level of clean like you've never felt before. get healthier gums in 2 weeks innovation and you. philips sonicare >>> after years of brutal attacks and most recently the bombing of the russian plane in egypt and bombings in france, isis is a household name. much is unknown about the organization's day to day operations. one man claiming to be a former isis spy is revealing details, who the leaders are, sleeper cells, how isis chooses suicide bombers. the account is part of a

i want to go now to counterterrorism official phil mudd, mitch silver, and terrorism analyst paul cruickshank. a lot to talk about here. paul, in just 24 hours, paris and belgium banning some employees with tarmac and plane access because they say they could be muslim extremists or radicalized. now they are looking, all of a sudden they find r50, 60 people. how could they have missed this before? >> there are questions about this, erin, and the concern is that these people really want to bring down planes and insiders at the airport, people with access to the baggage, the tarmac, cleaning crews, those are the kind of people that can potentially get bombs on planes. and especially in the united states. there's just no systematic daily screening of airport workers in nearly every american airport. the only airports that do it are miami and orlando. that may well have to change. there are going to be a lot of calls for that to change every airport worker who has access to these sensitive workers should be screened. >> phil, there's that issue. then you have this issue. let's just take france. ch

david soucie, author of malaysian airlines flight 370 and a researcher and terrorism analyst paul cruickshank. and david first to you. officials are thinking that isis may have bombed this plane. does that support the fact evidence to support that? >> i think they do. although no one has come forward with anything factual or concrete evidence from the scene and said we found explosives or this or that. it's based mostly on chatter that they picked up which is fairly common. this chatter goes on a lot. there is a lot of people with a lot of ill intent but not a lot of capability. if this is indeed a bomb from there we have the intent with the capability and it's frightening. >> what forensic evidence do we need to confirm that a bomb brought this plane down? >> we have to see if the actual -- the device, the fuel from that device, the trigger from that device, or you can look at the metal in the plane itself to see if it's a sudden explosion all at one time or if it was torn and came over time. if the repair that they had done before had failed you would see this propagating over time. and you

jeremy on "nbc nightly news", again with me cnn international correspondent clarissa ward and paul cruickshank. it's neat to hear from that commando. it is hard to imagine what it was like for them and the hostages. >> the syrian war came to paris. we know several attackers who were there presumably went to syria, came back, learned how to sort of kill people essentially and they had firepower and suicide vests and negotiations but really just fake negotiations, fake demands because they wanted to extend the time so they could kill as many people as possible. >> it's interesting because i talked to law enforcement officials in the united states that said the same thing, one of the things they learned that, you know, it used to be people take hostagesnegotiations, thes people take hostages to extend the time to extend the media coverage or the time they can remain in the building and potentially kill people, that the whole notion of taking hostages and negotiating for hostages, that's pretty much done with them. >> there are no demands. these are acts of sheer violence. the same thing in beirut

clarissa, paul cruickshank and we'll be joined by neighbors that listened. brought us exclusive pictures and sound of the whole thing unfolding. [ gunshots ] whei just put in the namey, of my parents and my grandparents. and as soon as i did that, literally it was like you're getting 7, 9, 10, 15 leaves that are just popping up all over the place. yeah, it was amazing. just with a little bit of information, you can take leaps and bounds. it's an awesome experience. it begins from the the second we're born.er. because, healthier doesn't happen all by itself. it needs to be earned every day. using wellness to keep away illness. and believing a single life can be made better by millions of others. as a health services and innovation company optum powers modern healthcare by connecting every part of it. so while the world keeps searching for healthier we're here to make healthier happen. (vo) wit runs on optimism.un on? it's what sparks ideas. moves the world forward. invest with those who see the world as unstoppable. who have the curiosity to look beyond the e

let's bring in evan perez, our cnn terrorism analyst paul cruickshank.als have information on movements, help he had moving across borders, contacts he may have had? are you hearing? >> reporter: wolf, the search goes on. i've been in touch with officials in belgium and throughout europe on this. and they are putting all the resources they can to find this man. there is a lot of concern because there is a missing suicide vest. he's considered armed and dangerous and it's concern that he might want to go out in a blaze of glory. he doesn't have many options left. the entiere continent secure services immobile utilized against them. they actually stopped him, the french police that morning at 9:00 because he was driving back after the attacks into belgium, picked up by two of his friends but they didn't know at that point that he was one of the attackers, so they let him go and contacted belgium police who arrested the other two but by that time he slipped the net. hasn't been seen since and they really don't know where he is. he could be almost anywhere i

let's bring it our next two guests, our military analysts, retired colonel cedric leighton and paul cruickshank president to deliver, no credible specific threats but at the same time be prepared, watch what's going on. we're strengthening security precautions in major cities, airports, elsewhere out of an abundance of caution. >> wolf, that's exactly right. what you're dealing with is that a morph is piece of intelligence. you know something could happen, but you have nothing precise to say it is going to happen. that is why it becomes very critical for the president to say some things but he has no other information that he can actually share with the american public as so specific threats so he's left with giving a very nonspecific response. >> when isis puts out a slick propaganda video, paul, as they have over the last few days one saying we're going after times square, herald square in new york, another video saying we're going after the white house, the monuments in washington, d.c., why is that not considered a specific credible threat? because in the past they've actually delivered on

joining me to discuss this is cnn terrorism analyst paul cruickshank, also with me is melissa bell, international correspondent for france 24 who's covered mali extensively and joined us last week when the story of the french attacks were breaking. paul, first of all, do you believe that this is the work of an al qaeda affiliate? or is there just not enough information to go on yet? >> well, it's not 100% authentic but looking that way at this point as posted on a sahara jihadi media a claim from both this one al gerian terrorist, not clear if they killed him or not, a group claimed responsibility for attacks before in march attacking a restaurant popular with expats there. it's also the same group that carried out that hostage siege at the gas complex in southern algeria where there was a great loss of life in 2013. this may well be al qaeda sort of trying to compete with isis to a certain degree. there was a lot of anti-french sentiment in this claim of responsibility saying it was retaliation that international force in mali which is very much a french-led force and also calling for the releas