Transcripts For MSNBCW The Place For Politics 2016 20160326

MSNBCW The Place For Politics 2016 March 26, 2016

Najim laachraoui, one of the suicide bombers, was also involved in making explosives for the paris attacks. Tied to both by dna. And prosecutors identified him as an accomplice to Salah Abdeslam, the top suspect in the paris attacks. Abdeslam has stopped cooperating with police. Multiple raids in belgium, france, germany, led to ten arrests uncoveringed a varngsed plans for another attack. Police activity isnt calming fears here. I feel like nervous actually because although police force and the military being on the streets is not that reassuring. Yeah, strange. Especially in the metro. Meanwhile, airport officials announcing this morning that passenger flights at the Brussels Airport will not resume before tuesday. And today preparations are under way in brussels for a, quote, march against fear to be held tomorrow. French president hollande saying the Terror Network responsible for these attacks will be eradicated. Despite the looming threat over europe. And president obama this morning offering support to belgium in the global war on terror. We will succeed. The terrorists will fail. They want us to abandon our values and our way of life. We will not. They want us to give in to their vision of the future. We will defeat them with ours. Because we know that the future belongs not to those who seek only to destroy but to those who have the courage to build. Were going to start now with this new reporting this morning. There have been raids. There have been additional arrests here. And the isis claims new attack, the suicide bombing at a soccer stadium south of baghdad. Let me bring in nbcs bill neely. Bill, let me start by asking you about what we know about where we are in terms of these arrests, who is under arrest, how many, what are their ties to this plot . Good morning, chris. Yes, its a complex story with a lot of names but its just broken within the last hour. Belgian federal prosecutors have now charged three men with terrorist offenses. Theyve given their names as abu bukkara around faisal c. Its normal to give the first name but the first letter of the surname. Now, several interesting things about these men. Three men were picked up in a call on thursday night directly outside the federal prosecutors office. It may be although we havent got that confirmed these are the three men. Its one of those names thats significant. Faisal c because within the last 48 hours gellian media have been saying that through Police Forces the man wanted for the airport bombing, the man in the white jacket and the hat who was pictured on the right of that photograph captured by cctv, the man who wheeled in a bomb in a suitcase and then escaped and has been on the run. The belgian media quoting Police Forces named him as faisal cheffou. If the names matchup and they are unusual names. Faisal chef few, if that is the faycal c, that police just charged, it means that this Belgian Police and authorities have captured and charged the third airport bomber. I hastily say that nbc news has not confirmed this. But we are in a sense putting two names together. And it would be a hugely Significant Development if that was true because this man who was pictured along with the other two men who of course blew themselves up is a huely was called a highly dangerous terrorist suspect. Certainly three people this morning have been charged here. Police still questioning a number of others including three men arrested yesterday. One of whom where are shot in the leg. They are thought to be part of an entirely different plot linked to a man arrested in paris. This extraordinary Jihadi Network is being hunted down, but as both the french president and belgian Prime Minister warned yesterday, although they may be making arrests, this is still a very, very dangerous time. Chris . Bill neely, thank you very much. And with me here also following the latest developments is nbcs keir simmons. What weve been hearing, keir, is the concern is we dont know how big this network is. Its bigger than they originally thought. Do we know how many are still at large or who are police still looking for . Good question. Every time people are arrested and, oh, theres somebody else a prehented they seem to issue a warrant for another suspect. Lets go through what bill is saying there. Breaking news now. Ive got the charges here. Faycal c is charge with participation and about tive is of terrorist group, terrorist assassinations. The other two oh. That would indicate direct implications in this attack. Exactly what i was going to suggest. Exactly. The other do, are both charged only with participation in activities of a terrorist group. So just to go back. Faycal cs is terrorist assassinations. Thats why i think people are concluding and still going through the belgian federal prosecutors release. I think thats why people are concluding he is considered to be a very important person they have praep hended. Essentially what we might call in the United States just a murder charge. Exactly. Potentially. Clearly the two systems dont relate to each other. People are still trying to make sense of what this charge means. Another guy who we saw in dramatic pictures filmed of him lying on the ground having been shot in the leg, armed officers come in. Appear to try to get in a little girl and bring her to safety away from him. Then they send in an explosive bombdetecting robot. Finally when they clearly are satisfied that he is not a suicide bomber they go in and arrest him. That guy were told theyve extended his detention for 24 hours. So we wait of see what happens with him. Clearly still questioning him. How much of what is going on behind the scenes are we seeing . Are police putting out a lot of information about activity to calm fear or is this more a case of, well, theyre at a intrastation. People see something. It gets on social media and the media comes . Well, its really very, very tricky. When youre talking about a live operation. They have to judge very delegate issues. Let me give you an example. Najim laachraoui. Bombmaker. Bombmaker, and suicide bomber at the airport, now prior to that attack here in brussels, they had issued a warrant for his arrest. Very shortly before the attack. And now people talk a lot about another man who was arrested, Salah Abdeslam, but he is his arrest, they fear, may have prompted the attack but at the same time the war lant out for the arrest of Najim Laachraoui could have been another factor, too. So when they are putting out arrest warrants they will be thinking about what effect that will have and at the same time trying to judge whether they really do need the publics help to find somebody. Keir simmons, thank you very much. I know youre going to go back and take a look. Again, this information just coming out. Were just getting this released from the Belgian Prosecutors Office. Wantd to bring in former agent with the canadian Security Intelligence service, author of undercover jihadi. Thank you so much for being with us. If this is indeed what is socalled man in white, if this is someone who directly was implicated in this plot or Police Believe he is, how significant is what were hearing just now from the Belgian Prosecutors Office . I think its very significant. In fact, im surprised were not hearing more about what these guys were doing in the car outside the federal prosecutors office. Remember, there are other arrests also being made. Of course once abdeslam was arrested im sure he was giving up information on the others. A few days before the attacks the french picked up three people who were in the advanced stages of the plot. More people connected to that plot were arrested. Theyre connected to the individual who was shot with an explosive ladened backpack or suitcase. A little bit of hostage situation that happened there. Its very significant. And you know, theyre catching quite a few significant remembers of the network but of course many more still remain at large. Well, thats the question, the more who remain at large. And is there a concern that the further we get away from the event itself, the harder it is to track them down . In other words, does the trail go cold or the fact that they may be taking others in to custody who were a part of this mean that there could be some interrogations that could lead them to the broader cell . Yeah, thats exactly how it happens. You grab one guy, you grab two guys. Interrogate them, interview them, get more information on other individuals. And then set up the process whereby youre going to get those guys. So its very likely they already have people in pind mind and theyve targeted people for raids and arrests but they have to be very careful and make sure their plan is properly in place before they execute that raid. If you could stand by, i also want to bring in brussels base reporter for politico. We talked about this yesterday. There was a lot of criticism about signs that were missed. Then yesterday the belgian prosecutor gave information out. Other officials were interrogated by parliamentary officials. What do we know about the signs missed . There were a lot of apologies and excuses yesterday. They said, you know, our services have been completely overwhelmed. But the facts are that the belgians were wash warned by th officials that he was a former terrorist and alert and be aware of that. Instead of taking the blame for that they blamed it on a Liaison Officer in turkey. Part of the belgian government. And on top of that there was an arrest last week of one of salah abdesl abdeslams relatives which could have been a clue of where he was staying but the chief of police who did the arrest forgot to pass on the information. On top of that, people have been very critical about how quickly the belgians were able to shut down the metro after the airport attack. They were about seven minutes too late and its just people are really starting to look at what went wrong in the crisis and all were getting from the belgians are blames, blame og these and apologies. One of the things that happened yesterday at this parliamentary questioning was the suggestion that they had stopped questioning Salah Abdeslam because he had been shot in the leg, obviously he was being tended to by doctors. But in the meantime they lost critical days and critical hours up until the attack in brussels. Exactly. They had him for hour four days. According to our sources they didnt get anything about a future attack. Started from the beginning in paris. They werent able to thwart anything. They were saying that he was visib visibly tired and felt they couldnt push him any farther. They had one of europes most wanted men in your grips and you cant get any information about them . And the belgians are blaming the french, our sources say, for leaking out that Salah Abdeslam plan to kill himself in the stadium. And they believe that because that information got out, the other people in his cell decided to act more quickly because they feared he would continue speaking. Since then abdeslam was haass not spoke at all. Hs demanding his trial be in france. Let me ask you about this, because this is one of the critical components here, learning yesterday from this questioning of belgian officials that they had essentially stopped questioning salah abdesl abdeslam, the other signs they have admitted that they missed. Is this 134g that can be fixed in the context of where we are right now, these ongoing raids and the search for what is apparently more members of a very deadly cell, what do you make of all this . You know, its of course we want to get the information as soon as we can and i have no doubt that investigators want to do that. But when a guy has been shot hes receiving medical aid, you cant legally press him that much. I could see it. I sat in a Court Prosecution five hearings over four years. And i could very easily see a defense letter saying, hey, this guy was completely exhausted. Maybe dell lir use. Receiving medical treatment for a bullet wound and he said this and he said that and it will become an excuse for legal teams to say, well, the information that he then did give is no longer viable. Also there are institutional challenges with the Belgian Security services. Their system was not set up to carry this amount of weight. Yet another warning from turkey saying, hey, this guy is a traveler, hes gone over. It just adds to their stack of needles through which theyve got to find that one more needle. Just one last point, you know, one thing i think with media, releasing information to the media, we learned even in the raids that captured abdeslam, phones taken, sim cards taken, this is the kind of stuff that tell other guys out there that were getting closer and closer and very likely did help in them deciding to expedite their attacks. On one hand, the classic article r a argument, public needs to know but also security. Thank you so much for coming in. Meantime, the state department has confirmed that two americans did die in these attacks but theres still no word on their identity. Nbcs Gabe Gutierrez joins me now. Gabe, what do we know thats new about the american citizens but also about the citizens who were living in the United States who were killed here . Well, hi there, chris. Amid that breaking news of those new charges Just Announced this makeshift memorial behind me continues to grow and so does the long road to recovery of these survivors of these horrible attacks. And now as you mentioned, there are several americans including three mormon missionaries who weve been hearing about and learning about their stories. 19yearold mason wells estimated he was less than 50 feet from one of the blasts at the airport. He has second and third degree burns. He is speaking out for the first time. This morning we also spoke to the family members of 20yearold joe empey, his family member, his parents, they just saw him for the first time yesterday. They flew here to brussels. For them all this tragedy is just sinking in. Its almost gotten progressively worse as it sinks in. You know. Immediately was, oh, hes great, you know, talking to him on the phone he sounded at peace and it wasnt that big of a deal. So were thinking, oh, this is great, you know. Hes got a few injuries. And but now as it starts to sink in every once in a while and youll sit and think about it and think just how tragic it could have been and how tragic it was for so many people. Were really lucky. When i actually got on the web and saw that people had lost their lives and my heart was broken for everyone involved, just made me grateful that he was still alive. And that was all that mattered at that time. Another one of those missionaries, 66yearold richard norby, he has been in a medically induced coma for the last several days. His wife telling me this morning doctors plan to start bringing him out of that coma starting today. One more last point, chris, he wife also telling many we that she was actually almost almost went to the airport and would have made that trip to the airport if there had been more room in the van. So clearly just its an example of just how just i dont know. These families are just so overcome with grief at this point and really just some incredible stories that theyre telling. Chris . Yeah, understandably so, that grief. Gabe gutierrez, thank you so much. Were going to have much more from here in brussels in just a bit, including questions about whether the European Union needs to rethink Border Security in the wake of this weeks attacks. But next were going the turn to politics and a busy saturday in the race for the democratic nomination. Well get you up to speed on the contests that will be decided today and what impact theyll have on the race for president. Well be right back. engine winding up pilot talking to tower on radio once you get out here. Theres just one direction. Forward. One time now. And theres just one sound. You and us. Together. Telling the world. Were coming for you. Dont let dust and allergies get and lifes beautiful moments. With flonase allergy relief, they wont. 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All Holding Democratic caucuses tod today. And the republican race has gotten more personal this week with National Enquirer report that ted cruz had several extra marital affairs, a story cruz has not only denied, he also called the claims garbage and blamed Trumps Campaign for spreading this story. Nbcs Hallie Jackson is live in milwaukee with the latest developments. What are you hearing this morning, hallie . So, chris, we saw ted cruz come out in front of cameras to very forcefully denounce this story and denounce donald trump, too. Cruz not just distancing himself if trump were to become the republican nominee but taking his toughest tone yet. Donald has real problem. Reporter arguing its tabloid trash, a furious ted cruz is firing back at the National Enquirer, denying its story claiming he had Extramarital Affairs. Let me be clear, this National Enquirer story is garbage. It is co

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