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Indonesian Officials Say They May Have Found Doomed Lion Air Jet Fuselage. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired November 01, 2018 - 02:00   ET

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


[02:00:00]

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ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news: divers believe they have recorded a flight data recorder from the Lion Air jet that crashed into Indonesian seas with 189 people on board.

Turkish officials reveal gruesome new details about the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi whose remains are still missing.

And Donald Trump posts a racially charged campaign ad that critics are describing as fearmongering by the U.S. president.

Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church at the CNN NEWSROOM in Atlanta.

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CHURCH: More now on that breaking news out of Indonesia. Search and rescue officials have found one of the flight recorders of Lion Air Flight 610. That's according to Indonesia's transport minister.

Earlier a diver in the Indonesian navy said he had retrieved one of the most.

So let's turn to our Ivan Watson, who joins us live on the line from Jakarta with more.

Ivan, what additional information do you have about the retrieval of this black box?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now we have confirmation from Indonesia's transport minister that one of these black boxes has been recovered. We believe it is on its way back to the mainland right now aboard a ship. He said he's not sure whether it is the data recorder or the cockpit voice recorder.

He went on to say that the Indonesian authorities are going to reach out to international institutions to help with the safety regulations. Basically this will, hopefully, with the retrieval of this device, will hopefully yield some additional answers as to why this brand new Boeing Max 8, that was built in 2018, while it plummeted out of the sky minutes after takeoff on Monday with 189 passengers and crew onboard.

CHURCH: Ivan, it took a while for Indonesian officials to give that confirmation. As you pointed out, we have that now. One of the other pieces of the puzzle is the flight that -- that this doomed Lion Air Flight 610 took the day before, from Bali to Jakarta.

What information are you learning about that?

WATSON: Well, that took off -- we've spoken with three passengers who were on board that flight who said it was delayed more than two hours and that during takeoff, in the first minute, there was a sudden plummet. The plane plunged and scared passengers so much that they were screaming aboard the plane for a few very frightening moments.

That has been corroborated by data revealed by flight radar 24, which tracks commercial flights around the world, which shows that there was a loss of altitude of close to a thousand feet in a matter of just 30 seconds before the plane righted itself and then appeared to fly normally to its final destination.

Lion Air has confirmed that something went wrong but then it was repaired that night. But the authorities here in Indonesia say they've interviewed the pilot of that flight, aboard the same aircraft, who confirmed to them that one of the instruments aboard the plane had malfunctioned.

They're looking further into whether or not there could be a link between whatever went wrong on Sunday night and whatever then went wrong on Monday morning in those final minutes before the plane crashed.

Could there have been a repeat of whatever instrument malfunction that led to Monday's crash?

When we look at the same flight data on Monday's flight, we see that there was a sharp plunge in altitude in the first minutes when the plane took off and then that the altitude and velocity of the plane were highly erratic, where aviation experts, judging by what they've looked at, they think that it looks like the cockpit crew were literally battling to keep the plane aloft until it crashed.

Now the Indonesian authorities here have gone a step further. They announced they relieved, essentially fired a number of board of directors, members of the board of directors from Lion Air --

[02:05:00]

WATSON: -- the low budget airline that operated this plane as well as several managers in charge of fleet maintenance and engineering.

CHURCH: Interesting development there. Ivan Watson, bringing us that additional information, that confirmation from Indonesian officials, that they have indeed found one of the black boxes for the doomed Lion Air flight 610. We'll continue to follow that story.

Many thanks to you, Ivan Watson on the line from Jakarta. Earlier our aviation analyst, Mary Schiavo, also a former inspector general of the U.S. Transportation Department, I asked her what is going to happen next?

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MARY SCHIAVO, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: What's going to happen next, of course, is whichever one that they have, is they have some work to be done before they can even confirm that it is a black box that still has its data.

It should, because it's a new plane. It has a very new black box that has 1,000 to 3,000 parameters of flight data recorder, the cockpit voice recorder, both are the latest technology. And it could clearly survive any underwater situations. They can survive underwater for months and sometimes, years.

So, I have no doubt that they will be readable and they will get good data off of them. The, you know, the problem -- not problem, but the thing that takes time is interpreting the data.

While they have an indication of what happened from the cockpit voice recorder, hearing the voices of the pilots as to what was going on and what they were fighting. Remember, they had time to tell, to ask air traffic control for permission to turn back but they didn't have time thereafter, to make a mayday call, a call to make when you are in fear of losing your aircraft, when you have to alert someone that you are in dire situation. They had no time for that.

Yet, we know from flight data -- from flight radar, they seemed that they were fighting to hold control of that aircraft, probably for eight minutes. So, they were very busy in that cockpit and the cockpit voice recorder will, obviously, hold the verbal record of what was occurring and other sounds, as well.

CHURCH: Mary, how long do you think it will be before they get some information that can indicate what the cause of this crash was?

SCHIAVO: Well, it depends on -- in some cases, it depends on the quality of their recorder labs. You know, people think that the black box is just -- you know, there's one black box. There isn't. There are really very many variations of the black box. And if they have the current -- a current state-of-the-art facility, they can download the data and interpret it right here.

But by coincidence, I'm in Dubai, at the International Society of the Air Safety Investigators, the people from around the world who investigate aircrafts. There's a great divergence on the ability and skills of different people around the world to read and interpret it.

But, there's also a cooperation convention that Indonesians can call on, literally, any air crash investigative body from around the world and they will respond.

So, they have the world waiting to help them. But it usually takes for the cockpit voice recorder, a day or two, to get it down. They have to do a transcript. They do not release the actual recordings. They'll only release transcript out of --out of concern for the families of the pilots.

And then for the flight data recorder, they'll have the data. But it can take a couple of weeks to get a good idea of what was going on with that many parameters on a new Boeing, like I said, with 1,000 to 3,000 separate lines of information of, literally, everything going on, in the plane, mechanically.

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CHURCH: Gruesome new details have emerged about exactly when and how Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was killed. Istanbul's chief prosecutor said Khashoggi was strangled immediately upon entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh has the disturbing details.

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JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is the first official statement from Turkey on their investigation into the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. The statement coming from the chief prosecutor for Istanbul who has been overseeing the criminal investigation.

According to the statement they say, on October the 2nd Jamal Khashoggi entered the building behind me, the Saudi Consulate here in Istanbul and that he was immediately strangled to death, his body dismembered and destroyed, unclear what they mean by destroyed.

They say it was a premeditated act, something that we have heard from Turkish officials before even Saudi Arabia after its changing narrative coming out a few days ago and also saying that it was premeditated murder.

Now there are still some key questions that remain unanswered that Turkey is seeking the answers to and that is where is the body --

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KARADSHEH: -- of Jamal Khashoggi and who issued the orders to the hit squad that killed Jamal Khashoggi.

Now they were hoping to get these answers from the Saudi chief prosecutor who is here for a visit. He met with Istanbul chief prosecutor but it doesn't seem like that visit went as Turkey would have liked it to.

They say that, according to one senior Turkish official we spoke to, he says it seemed the Saudi side was more interested in finding out what evidence Turkey had than real genuine cooperation in this case.

And one key thing Turkey really wants is the extradition they say and they're continuing to call for the extradition of the 18 individuals who are arrested in Saudi Arabia for their links to the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. They want them extradited to face justice here in Turkey, something

that's been dismissed by the Saudi foreign minister saying that they are Saudi nationals and that they will be facing justice in Saudi Arabia.

But according to the statement from the chief prosecutor here in Istanbul, he says the Saudis have invited the Turkish prosecutor to Saudi Arabia asking him to bring along the evidence that Turkey has and that they can have a joint interrogation of those suspects -- Jomana Karadsheh, CNN, Istanbul.

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CHURCH: There's no question that Jamal Khashoggi's killing has tarnished Saudi Arabia's image. Now U.S. officials believe they are in a unique position where they can leverage the Saudis' weakness to finally push for an end to Yemen's brutal civil war. President Trump was asked Wednesday if he felt betrayed by the Saudis and this was his response.

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TRUMP: I hope it works out. We have facts and things we've been looking at. They haven't betrayed me. Maybe they betrayed themselves. We'll see.

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CHURCH: Top officials are demanding a cease-fire by all sides in the Yemen war in the next 30 days. But a Houthi leader in Yemen find that call disingenuous. He says the Americans are the ones backing the Saudis in this conflict and if they want the war to stop, it is up to them.

Saudi Arabia's coalition has been fighting the Houthi rebels backed by Iran for almost four years now, ever since the Houthis overthrew the government. In that time, thousands have been killed, more than 2 million people are displaced and millions more are on the brink of starvation.

Earlier I spoke with Geert Cappelaere, the regional director at UNICEF Middle East and North Africa. He discussed the dire humanitarian crisis facing the people there in Yemen.

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GEERT CAPPELAERE, UNICEF: I can only speak for the millions of Yemeni children and Yemen children who are in a situation that no single mother, no single father wants to find their children.

Yemen today is probably one of the worst places to be a child. One child in every 10 minutes, a child under the age of 5 dies from -- why it could have been prevented today is to a big extent because of this brutal war on children that has been raging throughout the country for years. A war compounded with a further deteriorating economic crisis and that war, therefore, needs to stop. All parties need to start putting the interest of the millions of children at the center and not any other interests.

CHURCH: And at this point, we know that the United States is eager to do just that, to bring an end to this war in Yemen. And it appears, by looking at what is happening now, that they intend to use leverage from the death of Jamal Khashoggi.

Do you think that they may be successful in doing that at this point, in basically pushing Saudi Arabia to move toward an end to this war?

CAPPELAERE: Yes, it's incredibly sad, the dire situation in which millions of Yemeni children find themselves. It's now the time for the parties to stop this brutal war. It is really -- it would be sad that there would be the need for more regions for the parties to come together and look for a peaceful solution.

It is simply unacceptable in today's world that --

[02:15:00]

CAPPELAERE: -- millions of Yemeni children are suffering severe malnutrition (ph) , that millions of Yemeni children are prevented from going to school, millions of Yemeni children are not able to access vital health services.

We don't need to ask them, why is that not enough for this brutal war to stop?

CHURCH: Let's hope that efforts to move Saudi Arabia in that direction to end the war in Yemen are successful. Geert Cappelaere, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

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CHURCH: Slowly but surely, North and South Korea are standing down in what has long been considered one of the most dangerous borders on Earth. They have already removed all weapons and ammunition from the joint security area, the spot where soldiers from both sides have long stood face-to-face, guns at the ready.

The next step, a no-fly zone over the demilitarized zone. That takes effect on Thursday. So let's turn now to CNN's Paula Hancocks and she joins us live from Seoul, South Korea.

Good to see you again, Paula.

Where is all of this going?

Is it one step closer to the signing of a formal peace declaration between the two Koreas or just an easing of tensions?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rosemary, this is effectively the implementation that the leaders had already agreed to. President Moon Jae-in and Kim Jong-un met in Pyongyang last month and agreed on this military pact.

As part of that, what happened today is this no-fly zone goes into effect. It is extending a no-fly zone across the DMZ that existed already but it goes up to 40 kilometers, from the military demarcation line in some parts of the DMZ.

It also says all hostile acts between North and South Korea will cease from today. No more life fire training within five kilometers of the MDL, no fuel training by either one of the militaries.

They also said that they're going to put covers on the barrels of the artillery on the coastlines. Now there are -- there is a certain amount of artillery that is pointing in both directions from both militaries, given the tensions over recent decades.

But they're putting that to one side and closing gun posts in the areas as well. What it is doing is -- it is what the leaders said they wanted last month. They want to make sure that tensions can't spike again. They want to make sure there can't be a miscalculation along the DMZ between the North and South Korean soldiers.

It is in keeping with what we saw just recently, the joint security area, where North and South Korean soldiers faced off against each other for decades, they will no longer be armed. They'll no longer have any ammunition in that area.

So it is really the next step to make sure tensions don't spike -- Rosemary.

CHURCH: How does the United States feel about these moves to ease tensions on the Korean border?

HANCOCKS: Certainly, publicly, the line is that the U.S. and South Korea agree with what is happening. They're on the same page.

We got one indication of -- a rare indication that all was not well with the agreement between the foreign ministers of both countries, foreign minister here spoke to the U.S. secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, on the telephone about the no-fly zone, that there had been "discontent," but that has been played down since.

Certainly there is a sense that North and South Korea want this to happen quickly. They want to move far quicker than Washington. One example is they both want to declare the end of the war, this declaration they want to sign. They've both said they want to do it by the end of the year.

Washington is dragging its heels and not wanting to give such a big concession without real proof of denuclearization.

CHURCH: Many thanks to our Paula Hancocks, bringing us that live report from Seoul, South Korea.

A new report claims sexual abuse is so rampant in North Korea it has become an accepted part of ordinary life. Human Rights Watch said it spent two years interviewing dozens of women who fled North Korea after 2011, when Kim Jong-un took power.

They say women are subjected to sexual violence by government officials, prison guards, police officers, prosecutors, soldiers, even supervisors of markets and there are virtually no consequences.

As one woman said, we're at mercy of men. The abuse is so common, men don't think it is wrong and women have come to accept it. Human Rights Watch says North Korea has laws against it but the government barely acknowledges the problem exists and turns a blind eye to it all.

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CHURCH: A top U.S. Democrat is calling President Trump's new immigration ad an example of the president at his worst. When we return, a closer look at the controversy and how the president is crafting his message. Back in a moment.

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CHURCH: President Trump sending mixed signals in the final days before the midterms. He's been calling for unity across the United States but he's also sending messages of fear and division.

Just hours ago, he posted this political ad on his Twitter account. It highlights a Hispanic man bragging about killing police officers during a courtroom appearance. That ad said Democrats want to allow more people like him into the country. Take a look.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

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CHURCH: That ad part of the president's overall strategy to focus on immigration in the final days before the U.S. midterms. It is an issue that is riling up his base but upsetting his political opponents.

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TOM PEREZ, DNC CHAIRMAN: This is distracting, divisive Donald at his worst. This is fearmongering. They have to distract. They have to fearmonger. And his dog whistle of all dog whistles is immigration. This has been Donald Trump's playbook for so long.

And you know what, when they go low, we go vote.

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CHURCH: Meantime, Trump wrapped up a campaign rally in Florida just a few hours ago, where he continued to push his divisive immigration message. He reminded supporters he wants to sign an executive order that would remove the right to citizenship for children of noncitizens born in the United States.

Earlier I spoke to CNN political analyst Michael Shear about Trump's campaign strategy and he explains why the president is so focused on immigration.

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MICHAEL SHEAR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It is very true this is a political gambit by this White House and president. He understands or he believes in any event that a really hard line on immigration and stoking the fear among people about others coming from the outside and threatening their way of life, he thinks that's a good political issue ahead of the election.

He wants to do everything that he can to stoke those fears. And the birthright citizenship piece is a way to do that, to basically say what you should be afraid of is people who are coming here and having babies and staying here and affecting your way of life.

But I think it is important that people not lose sight of the fact that this is a president that wants to fundamentally change the way this country deals with people outside of its borders.

It really -- this is a president and a group of people around the president that want to shut down immigration to the greatest extent possible, not just illegal immigration but also to reduce the number of legal immigrants that are coming to the United States.

So while I think it is mostly a political ploy, I don't think he thinks he could really do this, despite what he says. The legal -- weight of legal opinion is just vastly on the other side. But don't underestimate the fact that he may actually try it, because this is a president that has wanted to radically alter immigration policy in the United States, regardless of the political impact.

So I think -- I think you got to look at it in both ways.

CHURCH: Right. So let's look at the exact wording of the 14th Amendment of the United States Constitution. Here's what it says in part.

"All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof are citizens of the United States."

Legal experts say it is very clear, when you look at that wording, that all people born in the United States are citizens of the United States. Then the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, agrees.

But president Trump and his legal advisors argue that a person in the U.S. illegally is not subject to the jurisdiction of the U.S. Therefore, the 14th Amendment --

[00:25:00] CHURCH: -- does not apply to them or protect them in any way.

Is that legal argument likely to gain any traction at all?

SHEAR: Well, I think you can never say never because ultimately that's what the Supreme Court does. It tests legal theories like that. Until the Supreme Court has specifically ruled on that in a very fundamental way, you can't say 100 percent that it can't happen.

That said, the vast majority of the legal scholars on the Left, on the Right, everybody out there that has looked at this, not just in the last couple of days since the president brought it up, but for years and decades have come to the conclusion that that phrase, the "subject to the jurisdiction" phrase really was only meant to apply to a very small group of people, the children of diplomats who are living here in the United States from other countries.

That's the kind of thing that was meant to carve out a very small exception for, not for anybody who is coming here and living here, temporarily or on a visa of some kind. I think, you know, I'm not a lawyer. But when you talk to a legal community, they think the president does not have a leg to stand on.

CHURCH: While this plays out, Trump is also focusing on the caravan of migrants still weeks away from the United States. Mr. Trump now says he will send up to 15,000 troops to the U.S.-Mexico border to deal with people he calls invaders.

What are the politics behind Mr. Trump's use of the word "invaders" and "invasion" and what cost will it be to the U.S. to send these troops to the border weeks before these migrants even arrive?

SHEAR: I think from the cost aspect, there's definitely some cost to moving the resources of the United States military from one place to another. Obviously you're already paying them. You own the equipment. It's not an overwhelming cost probably.

I think the bigger cost is the political one, which is that he is -- as I said before, stoking these fears and appealing to a very narrow segment of the American population. Most of the people in the country are not probably swayed very much by the idea that the president uses this really inflammatory language, "invasion;" he has in the past used -- described people coming across the southern border as "vomit."

He uses this very intense language. But it is designed to appeal to his core supporters and to make sure his core supporters are riled up and come to the voting booth. That's really what he's trying to do, not to broaden a message for the entire country.

So it's a very niche political attempt to use an issue, to scare a certain segment of the population.

CHURCH: Well the midterms are less than a week away. We will see what impact all of these issues have on the outcome. Michael Shear, thank you so much for joining us. We appreciate it.

SHEAR: Absolutely.

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CHURCH: There may be a breakthrough as investigators try to figure out why Lion Air Flight 610 plunged into the sea. The latest on what they recovered. Back in a moment.

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[02:31:38] ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome back, everyone. I'm Rosemary Church. I want to update you know on the main stories we've been following this hour, confirmation now from Indonesia that one of the flight recorders from Lion Air Flight 610 has been retrieved. The recorder could help explain what caused the plane to crash Monday killing all 189 people on board. Istanbul's chief prosecutor says Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi was strangled immediately after entering the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.

It's still not known as what happened to his body. The statement from the prosecutor's office says it was dismembered and destroyed as part of a premeditated plan. Peru's opposition leader has been ordered back to jail while she's investigated for allegedly taking illegal campaign contributions. Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of the country's former president is accused of using her conservative party to launder money for a Brazilian construction firm.

She denies the claims saying she is a victim of political persecution. I want to return now to our top story. Indonesia's transport minister says one of the flight recorders from doomed Lion Air Flight 610 has now been recovered. And now, investigators of course will try to extract what caused an almost new passenger jet to fall out of the sky killing all 189 people on board. Let's turn to our Ivan Watson. He joins us now live from Jakarta.

So Ivan, what more are you learning about the retrieval of this black box and what it might reveal.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, they pulled it off the bottom of the Java Sea, the depth of around 30, 35 meters. It has since been handed over to the National Transportation Safety Board. According to the transport minister, that's the safety committee rather which is overseeing the investigation of the crash of Lion Air Flight 610 on Monday morning. Now, the head of that safety committee has told CNN that most likely the black box that was retrieved is the flight data recorder.

So there are two black boxes typically, the cockpit voice recorder which would pick up the sound of the crew in the cockpit. There's a microphone there. Literally, their voices and the radio transmissions and then there's the flight data recorder which picks up scores of different kind of data points about the plane, its speed, about the movement of different panels on the wings, the engines, and things like that. So for some reason, he suspects that it's most likely that device that has been found and he predicts that the reading and the analysis will be done here in Indonesia. It will take some two to three weeks to extract the data he says and

then it could take two to three months to analyze this. He also said briefly in passing on the phone before of course this man is very busy that, "Some parts of the main body have been found." And that is potentially a new development because up until now the salvage operation which involves scores of ships and aircraft have -- debris that's been floating -- Java Sea, debris that we see collected here behind me here for example seat cushions and personal belongings like shoes and backpacks of some of the 189 passengers and crew and small panels from the plan as well.

[02:35:21] So again, it does seem like significant progress has been in the last 12 hours. Though, the head of the investigation telling us effectively that once that black box has recovered than then it could take weeks to extract information from it, Rosemary --

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CHURCH: It is a very long time. But at least they have moved forward. There is progress made and we are a little closer to some answers here for the sake of the family members of those onboard. Our Ivan Watson joining us live from the scene there. Many thanks. Well, coming up, a movie that documents one of the most tragic battles in Afghanistan and rare commentary from those who were on the frontline.

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DAN RODRIGUEZ, UNITED STATES ARMY VETERAN: When you think of the Vietnam air films in the World War II-era films, you do have them after the war has already been done. But, you know, we live in a generation of the here now. Let's show the world how horrific it is.

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CHURCH: A visit to the set of a film that captures the horror of one of the most difficult battles in the war.

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CHURCH: When you're reminded this week of the dangers that exist every day in America's longest and too often forgotten war. An Afghan army helicopter crashed killing all 25 people on board and a suicide bombing outside Kabul's largest prison killed at least seven people. It said to hold numerous Taliban prisoners. Well, it's certainly a country plague by violence and one battle in particular is being revisited. In 2009, U.S. soldiers clashed with hundreds of Taliban fighters in a remote part of Afghanistan.

The attack produced two U.S. Medal of Honor winners and now a movie. Our Nick Paton Walsh who was on that base during some of the fighting went on set to check it out.

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NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This battle maybe a movie but the real fight that's about is still going on. Afghanistan, America's longest war ongoing. But in Hollywood, already a cinematic history lesson about its biggest mistakes there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

WALSH: This is a recreation of remote Combat Outpost Keating.

[02:40:00] Here, U.S. overreach and mismanagement that frankly insane idea of putting an outpost in a valley surrounded by stiff Taliban infested hills like this that to a Taliban siege, eight American dead, two Medals of Honor, and now, an epic lesson taught to young American cadets.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We already have two KIAs and both our machine guns are down.

WALSH: Scott Eastwood plays one Keating's heroes Clint Romesha. He was awarded the Medal of Honor.

SCOTT EASTWOOD, AMERICAN ACTOR: It's a lot of responsibility and then just try to make sure everything is right.

WALSH: On the real Keating, the huge Taliban assault they've been fearing for months came six days before the base was meant to be dismantled. It don't have enough helicopters to get them out faster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)

WALSH: The movie is based on a book about the assault in the areas before it by CNN's Jake Tapper.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: This battle happened in October 2009. Surely average American still has no idea how many troops we have in Afghanistan, why are they there, what they're accomplishing, what they're doing.

WALSH: I was the last journalist on Keating before the final attack and it is jarring nine years later. Fake Taliban firing fake guns (INAUDIBLE) the real thing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH: When we were here, it was the Afghan army with NATO advisers who bring a lot of the patrolling in the valley outside of the base and on the back there they made a mistake of coming back the way they gone out and that let the Taliban to attack.

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WALSH: One moment, it's an idyllic morning. The next, it's -- there's a rush cover. We don't know where to run or which killed the shots are coming from. The base is now under (INAUDIBLE) heavy attack. It appears (INAUDIBLE) going for about 30 minutes or so. The movie will have to use CGI to recreate these hills and some of it died fighter appeared in our report then like Andrew (INAUDIBLE) who lead the defense and survived.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the question of why I'm here. You don't ask that question, right?

WALSH: And Joshua Hart last seen on camera here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You don't have (INAUDIBLE) trouble for asking questions.

WALSH: He died 52 days later in the attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fergie, what's up dude?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Camping.

WALSH: Unusually, some survivors will appear in the movie. One Keating veteran Dan Rodriguez actually plays himself.

RODRIGUEZ: When you think of the Vietnam air films in the World War II-era films, you do have them after the war has already been done. But, you know, we live in a generation of the here now. Let's show the world how horrific it is yet still leave our people over there at the same time.

WALSH: Ty Carter also awarded the Medal of Honor for selflessly running across Keating five times in a barrage of battle to help others. He's playing another soldier in the movie. And Carter himself is played by Caleb Landry Jones and (INAUDIBLE) after this emotional interview, we learned Landry Jones' brother is a marine veteran. He lost both legs in Iraq. War still shadows both their days it seems.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got so uncomfortable when I first came on the cop or on set and I think that's a good feeling. It's going to make me stronger eventually.

CALEB LANDRY JONES, ACTOR: We're halfway done. There's a lot more to do. It feels like we've shot a week even though it's really been four.

WALSH: (INAUDIBLE)

JONES: I don't know. If I'll understand how to answer that question, maybe two years from now or something like that.

WALSH: What draw you -- what drew you to the role initially?

JONES: Ty, my older brother. When I received the script, my older is visiting for Thanksgiving and I asked him to read it, he read it, and he said, you're doing this? And I got to meet Ty. And now, we're here. But --

WALSH: It looks like this has been hard work, right, (INAUDIBLE)

JONES: Yes. But we're not even -- I mean we're halfway done.

WALSH: Planned to release the movie on the 10th anniversary of the battle next October. But one thing is certain, the real war will still be raging. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN near Sofia, Bulgaria. (END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And thank you so much for being with us this hour. I'm Rosemary Church. Remember to connect with me anytime on Twitter. "WORLD SPORT" is coming up next.

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