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Jihadi John Identity Revealed; Rebuilding of Gaza Slow; Three al Jazeera Journalists Released After Being Arrested On Fly Drones in Paris; Nigerian, Chadian Special Forces Train To Fight Boko Haram; Swedish Journalist Joakim Medin Recounts Being Detained By Assad Regime

Aired February 26, 2015 - 11:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

BECKY ANDERSON, HOST: Tonight, the man behind the mask. Sources finally put a real name to the suspected ISIS killer known as Jihadi John.

We'll examine the evidence and consider what might have driven a young man said to be a middle class Londoner to become the hidden face of the

world's most notorious terror networks.

Also this hour...

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ARWA DAMON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Both Chad and Nigeria are at war with an extremist group intent on establishing its own Islamic

State in Africa.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: The fight against terror on another front as Boko Haram starts to align itself with ISIS. We meet the troops tasked with

preventing a marriage made in hell.

And six months after the cease-fire, let's get you back inside Gaza this hour.

ANNOUNCER: Live from CNN Abu Dhabi, this is Connect the World with Becky Anderson.

ANDERSON: A very good evening. And it's just after 8:00 in the UAE. We are now hearing from U.S. officials about the identity of the ISIS

militant who appears in several gruesome beheading videos. Four officials now tell CNN U.S. intelligence agents believe Jihadi John is Mohamed

Emwazi, a Kuwaiti-born Londoner.

Well, a research director for Muslim-led human rights advocacy group CAGE says he was contacted by Emwazi about alleged, quote, "harassment" by

UK security services.

Well, in a news conference in the last hour. That director spoke about the Emwazi he knew and says he can't be 100 percent sure that he is

Jihadi John.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ASIM QURESHI, RESEARCH DIRECTOR, CAGE: He was such a beautiful young man, really. You know, it's hard to imagine the trajectory, but it's not a

trajectory that's unfamiliar with us -- for us. When are we going to finally learn that when we treat people as if they're outsiders they will

inevitably feel like outsiders and they will look for belonging elsewhere?

Our entire national security strategy for the last 13 years as only increased alienation, has only increased people feeling like they don't

belong. Why? Because of the narrative of injustice has taken root.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON: Quite some allegation there. CNN's Atika Shubert has been following this story from London.

She joins me now from a West London neighborhood where Emwazi is reportedly from.

What have you learned since you've been there?

ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we do believe that this is the neighborhood where Mohamed Emwazi lived for most of his

life, we think. But he hasn't been here for several years. And his family doesn't seem to be opening the door.

We did speak to several neighbors, one of whom identified him saying, yes, that he knew Mohamed Emwazi, but knew him as a very young and polite

man, that he would sometimes see around the neighborhood, although he hasn't seen him for quite some time.

Now we also have this background recently from CAGE where you heard that description of him as a beautiful young man. They say this is

somebody who was -- who felt harassed by security services and was working within the system to try and address the issues, but seemed to be failing

at every turn.

Take a listen to what CAGE had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QURESHI: He tried with everything. He tried his best in order to do those things, so he could change his situation from what, from within the

system. But one thing that we at CAGE constantly go on about, which is if you've got a problem don't just act in a crazy way, let's use the processes

that we've been given here in order to affect change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHUBERT: Now specifically, what they were referring to is that in 2009, apparently, he tried to travel to Tanzania, but he was stopped at the

airport in Tanzania and turned back.

Now he approached CAGE, because he said he was harassed by security officials, including, he said, MI5. And this continued to go on, he said,

for a number of years until he finally left possibly in late 2012 or 2013.

His family, according to CAGE, was then notified by security services that their son had in fact gone to Syria.

Now what we're hearing from CAGE is only one piece of the puzzle. We don't know what else may have motivated him, in fact, to go join a group

like ISIS in Syria.

ANDERSON: Atika, we're going to leave it there for the time being. But thank you for that.

There are many moving parts to this story. And this hour, we'll be coming back to it.

CNN's Nic Robertson is outside Scotland Yard. We're going to get an update from him later this hour.

We'll also trace the trail back to Mohamed Emwazi's reported birthplace, which is Kuwait here in the GCC and look at its purported links

to rebel funding in Syria.

And we'll take a closer look at ISIS funding now that private donations from sympathizers abroad are playing less of a role.

So stay with us for all of that.

There are growing fears that the militant group Boko Haram, which is waging terror in Nigeria and nearby countries is trying to model itself on

ISIS. Arwa Damon has more on what is an international effort to stop any alliance.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAMON: Nighttime in the Sahel (ph) and Nigerian navy special forces gather around a campfire, the drop in temperature a much needed break from

the stifling heat and intense training.

For the Nigerian troops and their Chadian counterparts, this annual exercise, Flintlock, is a change to train alongside American and British

elite forces and now is more important than ever.

COL GEORGE THIEBES, U.S. SPECIAL FORCES COMMANDER: No one can do it alone.

DAMON: Colonel George Thebes (ph) is a special forces commander for West Africa.

THIEBES: Very few of us have the resources, the experience and everything to bring together to bring successful in that realm. And that's

why we do stress a regional and bringing it together.

DAMON: Both Chad and Nigeria are at war with an extremist group intent on establishing its own Islamic state in Africa. Boko Haram already

has ties to al Qaeda in the Islamic Magreb, logistics and training, but also an increasingly appears that Boko Haram is trying to model itself

after ISIS, declaring its support, but not yet its allegiance. And the U.S. wants to prevent those murky ties from further solidifying.

THIEBES: Obviously a fear that they would all coalesce and kind of get -- right now if they're separate, if divide and conquer would be an

easier approach to do that. So that's why again focus on a regional approach to help isolate it and to prevent that from happening.

DAMON: It's a scenario that would potentially create even more widespread brutality than has already been witnessed in recent years,

preventing that means focusing on the regional approach, building relationships here is key.

THIEBES: The threat can be essentially taking care of at a smaller level and obviously it benefits it all, or why would we want a threat

coming in to the United States if we could have taken care of it outside the United States.

DAMON: Arwa Damon, CNN, in Jomina (ph).

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Right, still to come tonight, a war ended, but the devastation continues.

We're going to take a look at the struggle that people in Gaza are facing six months after what was a cease-fire there. That is in about 25

minutes from now.

First, though, how did a Kuwaiti-born Londoner become the public face of ISIS propaganda. We sift through the stories that have been breaking

all day after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: Well, his hooded image is the public face of ISIS for many. Jihadi John, as he became known, as been umasked. Four U.S. sources tell

CNN U.S. intelligence agencies believe his real name is Mohamed Emwazi.

Well, Reuters citing the Washington Post reports he grew up in a middle class family in London and studied computer programming at

Westminster University. A rights activist who was in contact with him says Emwazi alleged that British intelligence tried to recruit him several times

after 2009 and harassed him when he refused.

Well, he is thought to have left for Syria some time in 2012 where he later appeared, as you will be well aware, in several videos beheading

American and British hostages.

British police and the foreign office have refused to confirm or deny these reports. Well, this has been roiling all day. So let's examine this

idea that governments are alleged to play a counterproductive role when it comes to prevent extremism, instead driving people to radicalization

through intimidation, that's certainly what's out there today.

I'm joined by Shiraz Maher who is a senior fellow at the International Center for the Study of Radicalization in London.

Are these allegations familiar to you, that originally surfaced in a newspaper report leaking Emwazi's name today, that it was the actions of

security services that drove a young Muslim man into traveling to Syria to join ISIS.

SHIRAZ MAHER, KING'S COLLEGE: I've heard the allegations today. I have to say it is remarkable spin, as far as I'm concerned, coming out from

people who I'm not sure what the aim is here. Are they trying to really have us believe that this man has no culpability, that he has no

responsibility, that he is not a salient, intelligent individual who was capable of making his own choices and that this should somehow excuse what

he has chosen to do with his life? It's shocking to me that this is the way it's being portrayed right now.

ANDERSON: The words such as harassment, detention at airports, you know, suggestion by the rights group CAGE today that he was effectively

driven as the director of research there was suggesting into the hands of ISIS because of the way that he was treated as a young Muslim man.

Whilst you dispute those allegations and dismiss them, have you in the past heard allegations that people have been heavy-handed, let's say?

MAHER: These allegations have of course come out from time to time. They -- CAGE has put a lot of these cases out in the past. It's certainly

not unprecedented for some people to have had on occasion a difficult encounters with the police or with the security service either this country

or abroad.

But, as I say, these are intelligent individuals who are capable of making their own choices. The idea that this just somehow displace

responsibility is -- you know, is unthinkable.

ANDERSON: So how does the information that we are learning today about the radicalization of this young man play into the sort of analysis

and research that you have gained over the years of studying radicalization?

MAHER: Well, he fits the pattern of people we are seeing going from this country out to Syria. In that sense, he is middle class. He is well

educated. He comes from a family background that is not impoverished, but one that is fairly comfortable. And so in that sense that is precisely

what we've seen across the United Kingdom as a whole. People who go from this country to participate in the Syrian conflict are coming from these

types of backgrounds. And so he's very much a typical British foreign fighter in that sense.

ANDERSON: Now this has been going on what for three, four, could be five, six or seven years. I mean, certainly since 2001 we've been talking

about radicalization in the UK and in other places.

So we've asked this question before, but given that this story is roiling again today, just how many people are we talking -- how many other

Jihadi Johns are there out there? And what's being done? Because there's a lot of talk, a lot of rhetoric, a lot of soul searching, but what's being

done to prevent more of them going forward?

MAHER: Well, in answer to the first part of your question. We believe and we estimate about 600 people have gone from the United Kingdom to Syria

to participate in this conflict since it started, that's accumulative figure.

In terms of what can be done, there are a number of things that have been done. Of course, there's counter messaging being done by the

government. There is legislative approaches, which is to strip people of their passports in order to physically prevent them from having the travel

document that would enable them to leave the country. And there is the channel program, which seeks to intervene quite sort of far upstream to get

people off the path of violent extremism if it's felt that's where they may be heading.

But there is also a very important role for civil society, and that's of course for Muslims of society and for civil society as a whole to engage

in dismissing the counter narrative of Islamic State, in rebutting its propaganda, which seeks to recruit people with seductive and slick videos,

and a pushing back against some of that. And this idea that it's a noble or glorious or legitimate thing to go and fight in Syria.

ANDERSON: What about the role of security services? Are they as informed? Is their behavior? Is there behavior. Is there the way that

they are treating people at borders, for example, sufficiently informed and engaged? Do you think that you -- we're not going to see these sort of

allegations going forward?

MAHER: They have an incredibly difficult job to do. You can see even with the recent case of the three schoolgirls who have gone from London to

join Islamic State just a few days ago that people are saying, well, why didn't they do enough? And perversely people were actually arguing for

increased power and enhanced powers at the border, at the airports, at the ports where you might leave this country.

So, as a society, we need to have that discussion. How much power do we want to give over to the security service, to the police, to enable them

to be more efficient.

And that's a tradeoff we need to make as a society and a public discussion that needs to be had around some of these issues.

But look it is a very, very difficult thing to be able to identify everyone who is about to go off to Syria to intervene, to disrupt the

travel and so on.

So, it's never going to be a precise thing.

ANDERSON: So you wouldn't, very briefly, accuse the security services in the UK of missing a trick on this one, allowing somebody to slip

through their net who may, it seems, have been on their radar?

MAHER: Well, look, people went -- it's alleged that he went in 2012 or 2013. The people who went at that phase, no one really knew about them.

That's when the foreign fighters sort of phenomenon was really starting across Europe, across the western world. No one had really (inaudible) on

to the fact that this was happening. And no one could foresee the scale or the intensity of what has followed.

Since then, of course, there has been a lot of pushback and a lot of measures put in place in order to stop this. But is is something that

everyone came to late.

ANDERSON: With that, we're going to leave it there. We thank you very much indeed for joining us today.

Well, Emwazi's birthplace, Kuwait, has been among the Gulf state funneling support to rebels in Syria. The tiny, but wealthy state became a

hub for the channeling of private funds, it has to be said, to rebels due in part to relatively loose banking rules there in the past.

Government policy was and remains against funding the rebels. But it was the only state in the region not to criminalize so-called terror

funding in 2011.

And private Kuwaiti donors there bankrolled various brigades in Syria, in many cases openly drumming up funds and other help.

Well, why did Kuwait see a swell of support for the rebels in the early days of the war?

Journalist Elizabeth Dickenson told me why the Syrian conflict had such a strong impact and continues to do so in Kuwait.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELIZABETH DICKENSON, JOURNALIST: When the conflict in Syria started there was really a personal and visceral reaction in Kuwait. And that had

to do with the deep and historical relationship between the two countries. There are about 120,000 Syrians living in Kuwait. And prior to the

conflict, Kuwait is the largest foreign investor in Syria, which means there were a lot of business ties, a lot of personal ties.

So when the conflict happened, when the violence started, really people felt that this was their conflict also. They really felt it very

personally.

What this manifested most clearly in was charity work. So Kuwait has a long history of philanthropy throughout the region. And during this

time, you saw really everyday Kuwaitis giving a large portion of their -- you know, of their philanthropic donations to the Syrian cause. In most

cases, that was charity work. In some cases, however, that did go to armed groups. And we saw the proliferation of rebel financing in Kuwait. Kuwait

really became sort of the hub for Syrian rebel financing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Well, private donors from across the Gulf still play a part in funding ISIS in Syria and now in Iraq, but the group has many sources of

funding from black market oil sales, as you'll be well aware, to stolen antiquities.

Senior international correspondent Nima Elbagir on that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Oil, organ trafficking, trading in antiquities, all alleged to be sources of ISIS

funding, but how much is ISIS myth-making?

They are believed to be the best resourced terror organization in the world, but after months of coalition airstrikes how are ISIS' revenue

streams really holding up?

Oil was their main source of funding in the summer of 2014 ISIS made between 2 and 3 million dollars a day through the sales of smuggled oil.

The major refineries have been high value targets for coalition strikes and activists on the ground tell us ISIS is increasingly reliant on

primitive refineries that are smaller and easier for them to run like this in el Akrishi (ph) east of Raqqa.

Sources inside Iraq say their revenue from selling smuggled oil is down to between 250,000 and half a million dollars.

As the air strikes began late September, ISIS began diversifying into selling off Syria's priceless cultural heritage.

AMR AL-AZM, ARCHEOLOGY EXPERT: The spring and summer of 2014 ISIS involvement in looted antiquities was simply to tax the activities of

existing sort of existing looters. People who were on the ground essentially looting these sites, they would just come along and take a

share of the profits. But by the end of the summer and into the fall and winter of 2014, they were actually doing it for themselves.

If you are going to be investing your own money into something, then there must be a sizeable return for you otherwise you wouldn't be doing it.

ELBAGIR: The U.S. treasury says foreign donations continue to be an important, if comparatively smaller, revenue source. Used to ferry foreign

fighters and fund their expenses to bring them in from the Middle East and North Africa into Iraq and Syria. Much of those foreign donations are

alleged to flow from the Gulf States.

In essence, ISIS acts like a mafia, confiscating the land of accused Iraqi government collaborators charging protection money, ransoming

hostages estimated at 20 million in 2014. Bank robbery slashing bank seizure estimated 500 million dollars, setting up arbitrary checkpoints all these generate revenue.

The claims of organ trafficking though have yet to be substantiated.

Revenue from taxes. These can be as high as 20 percent Mosul residents told us.

The Raqqa activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently say they even tax for the provision of basic services like water and electricity.

They gouge the population in the areas under their control; all this is reliant on the crucial routes between Raqqa and Mosul and a clear route

from Iraq through turkey to out to international markets. This is believed to be via the Hubur border gate.

But while ISIS maybe better funded than any terror group before it. It's also the first terror group to attempt to operate both as a fighting

force and a civilian administration with 6 million people living in a territory the size of neighboring Jordan.

In addition to the tens of thousands of fighters it has to clothe and feed, its outlays are substantial and the loss of that oil revenue has to

hurt.

Nima Elbagir, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Well, live from Abu Dhabi, this is Connect the World with me Becky Anderson. It is 23 minutes past 8:00 on a Thursday evening here.

Now he was captured and held for six days in Syria. Now a free man. I speak to a Swedish journalist on what it's like to be a captive under the

Syrian regime. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: This is Connect the World live from Abu Dhabi. I'm Becky Anderson. Welcome back.

Syria has become one of the most dangerous places for journalists. Many are being killed or captured by different groups of fighting there.

One of those is Swedish journalist Joakim Medin. He says he was held by Assad regime forces recently for six days and only released this week. He

was working as a freenlancer when he was arrested after passing a checkpoint in the town of Quamishli (ph).

This is what he told me when we spoke earlier.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOAKIM MEDIN, JOURNALIST: I was arrested, I think it was with my translator, but we walking down a street in downtwn Quamishli (ph). Well,

we were taking to the local prison of the regime in Quamishli (ph) and I was kept in a separate cell, isolated more than other prisoners for four

days. My translator was kept with about 27 suspected ISIS supporters.

After four days we were flown secretly to Damascus. We were imprisoned by the Syrian intelligence, by a branch of the Syrian intelligence and

interrogated for the remainder of the week.

ANDERSON: How were you treated?

MEDIN: Personally, I wasn't treated that bad actually, because of the fact that I'm a western journalist, I think. My translator was treated a

bit more (inaudible), somewhat aggressive again him.

ANDERSON: So you are interrogated by Syrian intelligence. What did they want to know?

MEDIN: Initially, how I came to Syria illegally and why I'm here. And originally I explained that I'm hear to report about many things here.

And I was forced to come here illegally because there's no way to come here to any (inaudible) point or border crossing controlled by the regime.

Then they wanted to know whether I came here with the assistance of the Turkish and/or Israeli government.

ANDERSON: Who helped organize your release?

MEDIN: The Kurdish forces and the administration of (inaudible) in northeast Syria. They immediately put a lot of political pressure on the

regime to have us released the very same day we were arrested.

In a few days, though, this turned out not be affected at all. So, after about five days (inaudible) Kurdish forces here arrested two high

ranking officers of the Syrian army and also blocked the highway for several days between Quamishli (ph) and (inaudible), another major city

where the regime has presence.

And they were eventually explained that they were going to attack the airport, still controlled by the regime here in Quamishli (ph) unless we

were set free.

ANDERSON: Do you believe that there was a prisoner swap between you and regime forces?

MEDIN: Indeed, that's (inaudible). We were swapped for these guys, yeah.

ANDERSON: Was it always clear to you that you'd been taken by regime forces rather than ISIS, which is what was being reported on Twitter.

MEDIN: At least in Quamishli (ph) for sure, because I knew there was a regime prison and a regime (inaudible). Then when I asked -- when I

arrived in Damascus, they refused to tell me who they were and where we were in Damacus, or if we were actually in Damacus.

At one point they actually tried to joke with me how some people in beards were actually ISIS fighters. So they tried to scare me in this way.

But I mean, I managed to figure out that I was with the regime after a few hours.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON: Joakim Medin speaking to me after his release from Damascus.

Well, the latest world news headlines are just ahead. Plus, an update from London on the identity of the ISIS could have known only until now at

least of Jihadi John, that after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON: You're watching Connect the World with me Becky Anderson. It's just after half past 8:00 in the UAE. These are the headlines for

you.

U.S. officials tell CNN that U.S. intelligence agencies believe that the ISIS militant known as Jihadi John is a Kuwaiti-born Londoner named

Mohamed Emwazi. So-called Jihadi John has appeared in several gruesome ISIS beheading videos, as I'm sure you are well aware.

In the United States, three men have been arrested accused in a plot to travel overseas to join ISIS. Two of the suspects appeared in a New

York court room on Wednesday. A third man is allegedly involved in financing the trip was arrested in Florida.

In Afghanistan at least 168 people have been killed in avalanches with authorities fearing that the number will rise. Rescue personnel are yet to

reach the worst affected areas. Heavy snowstorms, of course. The avalanche is in the mountainous Tangiers region of the country.

And let's get an update now on this Jihadi John story. Senior international correspondent Nic Robertson is following developments in

London. He joins us now live.

Nic, UK intelligence officials refusing to either confirm or deny the real name of this brutal murderer. U.S. sources confirming the information

to CNN and insisting that while it seems he was on British radars, he wasn't on any particular list in the United States.

How significant is what we have learned over the past few hours since all of this broke?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's certainly going to form part of a narrative about how some people come to be

radicalized. The organization CAGE from which -- from whom we have heard who said that Mohamed Emwazi, who has been named as Jihadi John, was on

their records complaining to them about the way that he was treated by British security officials, had come under the suspicion of British

intelligence services.

For reasons that we are not aware of yet, the CAGE organization was able to explain this period between 2009 and 2013 in his life where

according to them he became frustrated with the way that he was being treated, that he was being treated as somebody with suspicious connections

to terrorist organizations and that, they're saying, led to him going to Iraq and Syria. They can't explain how he came to become so radical that

he would get involved with cutting people's heads off.

So, I think from that perspective, that's going to inform part of the narrative about him.

But really perhaps some of the key details we are yet to learn. The police here, the metropolitan police, who are in charge of counter-

terrorism in London, say that they are not going to speculate on his name, that life is at risk here, that this is -- their investigation into Jihadi

John is part of an ongoing terrorism investigation. They don't want to compromise that. The foreign office here has also said that they won't be

speculating about who Jihadi John might be.

The impression that's being created is that -- that while he remains at-large, that he is a potential threat to others. That is part of the --

would potentially be part of the investigation. There may be efforts at this time we don't know about to save other people, possible hostages.

But a very important part of the information, the police here will very likely have, that certainly the intelligence service will have, will

be why did he come under their radar to be arrested and detained as he was -- as CAGE says he was in Tanzania in 2009 when he went there, questioned

about possibly going to Somalia to join al Qaeda affiliates there.

So it's that very important period pre-2009 that I think is perhaps going to be the most interesting to learn. How did he come to be under

their radar in the first place, Becky.

ANDERSON: Nic Robertson on the story for you.

Well, the Israel-Palestinian conflict is often quoted as the powder for what is conflict across the Middle East. It's been six months since

the war in Gaza came to an end after a cease-fire was announced between the Israeli military and Palestinian militants. But the conflict left vast

devastation behind.

The most recent conflict, of course. More than 2,000 Palestinians and 71 Israelis were killed, about 110,000 people have lost their homes. And

the infrastructure damage left almost half a million people without access to municipal water.

Well, the Palestinian Authority said it would cost $4 billion to rebuild Gaza. And many donor states pledge millions of dollars. But six

months on, there is little to show for it.

For more, I'm joined by Pernile (ph) Ironside in Gaza. She's the chief of UNICEF's Gaza field office and joining us now -- Pernille. I'm

sorry, I mispronounced your name.

Why has so little been achieved after what is a significant amount of time?

PERNILLE IRONSIDE, CHIEF, UNICEF GAZA FIELD OFFICE: Well, you have to put it in perspective, because the needs are just astonishing in Gaza. And

in that sense with the resources that have come in to Gaza actually quite a lot has been achieved. We've managed to reach 80,000 children with psycho-

social support, that's UNICEF and our partners in the broader community working in this area.

There are 230,000 children that are now in public schools, but it's true they have continuing huge shelter needs. There's four infants,

children who aren't staying warm enough during these cold winter nights in the rains, 90 -- almost 100 families were flooded again last weekend. Four

infants died of complications related to hypothermia in January, another three were devastatingly injured in unexploded ordinances about 10 days

ago.

Everywhere children are, they're reminded of these very grave risks associated with the war.

ANDERSON: As we are speaking, we are running footage, which shows just how depressing it is still on the ground in Gaza and not least so much

need for construction.

Oxfam today suggesting that it is an Israeli blockade restricting imports of construction materials that's been in place for some time that

is preventing the rebuilding of homes, schools and hospitals and that Gaza could take more than a century to complete if this blockade continues. Do

you -- is that an argument that you support?

IRONSIDE: Well, it -- Gaza is a tragedy, but what I see when I meet children here nearly every day in Gaza is that they have a tremendous

amount of hopes and dreams and really so much potential. But they're living in a situation where none of those dreams can be realized no matter

how hard they apply themselves at the moment.

And what we, as broad we, need to ensure is that those children in Gaza do not lose hope. That's not good for children in Palestine, nor is

it good for children in -- or families in Israel either.

We must find a lasting solution to the situation here, otherwise many of these young kids are going to simply choose paths that drive them over

the edge and not in a positive way.

ANDERSON: We'll come back to you on this story, but it's one that we will continue to monitor. The pictures, as I say, depressing to see,

although some of the kids in the school rooms at least good to see them back in those school rooms with smiles on their faces.

But this is not a story we'll forget about. We will continue on this. And we'll speak again. Thank you.

Three al Jazeera journalists arrested in Paris on suspicion of operating drones in a park have now been released. al Jazeera says its

crew was doing a story about the mysterious drones that have been sighted in recent days over famous landmarks in the city.

Let's get the latest from our business correspondent Samuel Burke who is there. What more do we know?

SAMUEL BURKE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Becky, one of those three jailed journalists -- arrested journalists, I should say, actually was in custody

overnight and has been released now. And even though the authorities don't think they have any type of connection to the mysterious drones that have

been flying over Paris, they're on a heightened sensitive state, a heightened state of security here after seeing these drones overs me of the

most important landmarks in this city.

So they've let this journalist go, but actually French authorities say they're going to summon him to court next week and actually going to move

forward with prosecution in all likelihood.

Al Jazeera tells us that they were using these drones as part of their filming the story about this whole mystery.

Now, Becky, at the same time we've learned that the French authorities have reached out to the American Secret Service to get their help in this

investigation. Keep in mind that they're still working on the fallout from that case of the drone that reached the White House.

Now the manufacturer of that drone DJI says they're working to update the software inside that drone so I can no longer fly over downtown

Washington, D.C.

So analysts imagine that the Americans are likely telling the French right now that they need to work these drone manufacturers so that their

software can be updated so they can't return to the skies of Paris, Becky.

ANDERSON: Samuel is in Paris for you this evening. And that is it for the show. Thank you, Samuel.

I'm Becky Anderson. That was Connect the World. Thank you for watching from the team here in Abu Dhabi, it is a very good evening.

END