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American Morning
Interview of Edward Girardet, "National Geographic" Journalist
Aired November 16, 2001 - 09:48 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Before September 11th, Afghanistan was a distant, mysterious land to most Americans, but our Billy Bush is back with someone who knows it very well.
BILLY BUSH, CNN GUEST HOST: That's right. Sitting next to me, journalist Edward Girardet. Did I do well?
EDWARD GIRARDET, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC JOURNALIST: Yep. Absolutely.
BUSH: He's been reporting on Afghanistan for 20 years and he has met most of the major players, including Osama bin Laden. I definitely want to get that. But, we also want to that talk about your latest piece, which is an issue in "National Geographic" in December. And it's loaded with incredible pictures. Can you tell us about some of them as we take a look at them, and about what you -- what you saw.
GIRARDET: Well, basically it was meant to be a trip, looking back over 23 years of war in Afghanistan, impact. I went there in August and September, actually to the northern part of Afghanistan.
And actually encountered these two individuals who assassinated Ahmed Shah Massoud a few days later. They were two Arab, supposed journalists, and they were living in the room in guest house right next to me. And I talked to them every day and we -- we tried to -- find out what was going on and then, of course, they assassinated him two days later.
BUSH: That's incredible. You were just spending time with these journalists and all of a sudden, they're the ones --
GIRARDET: Yeah. Exactly.
BUSH: What am I looking at right here? What is this? This photograph?
GIRARDET: I -- I cannot -- This is -- I don't know what the photograph it is. Which one that is.
BUSH: On the screen, a little village it looks like here.
GIRARDET: It looks like a village. I'm not quite --
BUSH: Are you telling me it's not yours.
GIRARDET: This is not my photograph. No, no, it is not my photograph. No, no, not my photograph.
BUSH: All right, well, you know what, I'm going right to Osama bin Laden --
GIRARDET: OK. Right.
BUSH: -- because this is a fascinating conversation we had. And I'm dying to know about Osama bin -- Oh, wait a minute. We're going to look at this pic -- here's another one. Tell me what this is. --
GIRARDET: Well -- it's gone. No, this is type of terrain you find in Afghanistan, as you can see. Probably in the north. Very rugged. Very dry. And a lot of the journalists who worked in Afghanistan during the 1980s and the Soviet period had to walk these areas by foot. You know, trips of 3,4,6 weeks. And, this is the sort of terrain you come across. In the front, there, you see some tents of Kuchis, nomads. And, again, here, the type of terrain you can see the ruggedness.
BUSH: Now, what is that, is that a body of water in there?
GIRARDET: I am not quite sure what this is. Yes. It looks like a body of water. It's a lake. It's probably one of the salt areas. That -- I'm not sure where that is.
BUSH: Well, it's a fascinating issue. You haven't seen it, yet, so --
GIRARDET: No, I haven't seen it --
BUSH: Well, clearly, you haven't seen any of the pictures either. But, you met Osama bin Laden and you met him during the Soviet withdrawal in Afghanistan.
GIRARDET: Yeah.
BUSH: Tell me about that meeting, because it's a fabulous encounter.
GIRARDET: It was actually the -- I was preparing a piece on the date of the Soviet withdrawal in February of 1989. And I was taken to the front line areas outside Jalalabad, where there's been a lot of fighting right now, and I came across the group of about 60 Arabs in the front line trenches. One of them came up to me -- a very tall Arab and demanded to know who I was, what I was doing there, and I was, of course, with some Afghan guerrillas. And I turned to him, and I said, "I'm a guest in this country, just as you are." Which he didn't take too nicely.
And then he said, "this is a jihad, or holy war, you are nothing but a kafir, a nonbeliever, an infidel, and you've got nothing to do here." And I said, "well, actually I've been coming here as a journalist since the beginning of war. As have a lot of the aid workers, including French women doctors," I had to put that in, and I said, "where were you?" So, we had a very long debate over about 45 minutes arguing back and forth. And really much to the amusement of the of Afghans I was with who never really liked the Arabs that much.
BUSH: We're going to pick it up. We're going to pick up that "National Greo -- Geographic" issue, December issue. It's just out today.
ZAHN: I've always been addicted to "National Geographic." I look forward to your next issue. Thank you.
GIRARDET: Thank you. Absolutely.
ZAHN: Appreciate it.
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