Prosecutor says alleged Paris ringleader returned to scene of attacks
PARIS -- Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins says the suspected mastermind of the Paris attacks, Abdalhamid Abaaoud, is believed to have been planning a suicide attack on the French capital's La Defense business district on Nov. 18 or 19.
CBS News' Elaine Cobbe reports the prosecutor says evidence of the plan only came to light the day after the police assault.
Abaaoud was among three people who died during a police raid on an apartment in a northern Paris suburb in the days after the attacks. One of the three has still not been identified but is believed to have died when a suicide vest exploded.
The attacks killed 130 people and injured hundreds when gunmen and suicide bombers hit a packed concert hall, a cafe, a restaurant and attempted to strike at a soccer match. Molins said that after the attacks, Abaaoud returned to the site of the Bataclan concert hall while police were still there.
Just 10 days after the deadly terror attacks in Paris, the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a new intelligence warning to law enforcement agencies across the country
CBS News' senior investigative producer Pat Milton reports that a law enforcement source said that the Joint Intelligence Bulletin issued to law enforcement nationwide included details and analysis of the Paris attacks in order to make law enforcement aware of importance of reporting suspicious activity.
The source said the bulletin speculates that the attackers used pre-operation surveillance of carefully chosen venues, and that the attackers had a familiarity with the neighborhood and venues that would be crowded. The planning it is speculated took place outside of France, in Belgium so as to not come under the scrutiny of French police or intelligence.
The bulletin stated that there is no credible specific threats to the American homeland.
Belgian authorities have charged a fifth suspect with terror offenses relating to the Paris attacks.
The federal prosecutor's office on Tuesday also issued an international warrant for Mohamed Abrini, who is being tracked by both Belgian and French police.
Authorities are looking for Abrini because he was seen with fugitive Salah Abdeslam at a gasoline station in Ressons on the highway to Paris two days before the attacks. They said that Abrini was driving the Renault Clio that was used in the attacks in Paris on Nov. 13.
Belgian police said that Abrini was "armed and dangerous."
Meanwhile, French authorities on Tuesday questioned a top suspect linked to attackers who terrorized Paris, while Belgium's capital remained locked down under threat of a possible similar attack.
Jawad Bendaoud, the only person in France known to be facing potential terrorism charges directly linked to the Nov. 13 Paris attacks, was handed over Tuesday morning to an anti-terrorism judge in Paris, according to a judicial official. Bendaoud was detained last week for providing lodging to the suspected mastermind of the attacks in an apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis.
Police raided the apartment Nov. 18, and three people were killed -- including suspected attacks orchestrator Abaaoud, a female cousin and one other. Bendaoud acknowledged in a television interview giving shelter to two people from Belgium, but said he didn't know who they were or what they planned. Bendaoud, 29, told BFM television, "I didn't know they were terrorists. I was asked to do a favor. I did a favor, sir."
He must be either charged or released Tuesday.
French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told lawmakers on Tuesday that 124 people had been handed preliminary charges since a state of emergency was imposed hours after the attacks, following more than 1,230 searches in which 230 weapons were recovered. He didn't, however, specify what the charges were or if they were linked to the attacks.
In Belgium, four people have been handed terrorism charges since the Paris attacks, which have been traced to a network of people with ties to both France and Belgium.
Brussels remained at its highest alert level Tuesday, after Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel cited a "serious and imminent threat" to the city, which houses the headquarters of the European Union and NATO. Belgium's crisis center said the alert level would only change if a significant breakthrough warranted it.
Increased security measures in the wake of the massacre in Paris have virtually shut down the Belgian capital, with the subway system, many shops and schools remaining shut. Michel said that despite the continued high alert, schools would reopen on Wednesday.
Businesses in Brussels were starting to feel the pain, and while few question the government's need to protect the public from a potential attack, some shop owners said the shutdown was too extreme.
"It's not a very good decision," said Esther Willems, assistant manager at the Galler chocolate shop in the heart of Brussels' city center. "In the last two days, we have only had about 10-11 clients" compared with about 100 normally. Willems said she hoped things would improve Wednesday.
Many questions remain unanswered as investigators try to piece together what happened in Paris on the night of Nov. 13 and who might still be at large.
Only one fugitive has been publicly named: Abdeslam, who crossed into Belgium the morning after the attacks.
A street cleaner in a Paris suburb found an explosive vest Monday near the place where Abdeslam's cellphone was found, raising the possibility that he aborted his mission, either ditching a malfunctioning vest or fleeing in fear.
CBS News' Elizabeth Palmer reported that police were telling French media that the phone of Abdeslam, the young terror suspect who got away, was geo-located close to where the suicide vest was found.
CBS News' senior investigative producer Pat Milton reports that the discarded cellphone believed to have belonged to one of the attackers had encrypted applications on it. The cellphone also had links to maps of the music venue apparently to familiarize themselves with the layout and to help conduct pre-operational surveillance.
Authorities said the device, which did not have a detonator, was found in the southern Paris suburb of Montrouge. A police official said the vest contained bolts and the same type of explosive used in the Nov. 13 attacks.