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CNN International: New Video Undermines Pentagon Narrative of Kabul Blast: U.S. Senate Passes $95 Billion in Aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan; Pro-Palestinian Protests Escalate at Major U.S. Universities. Aired 4-4:30a ET
Aired April 24, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: America sends a message to the entire world. We will not turn our back on you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Allowances matter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That deadline has been extended to 8 a.m.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will continue to occupy the West Lawn until our demands are met.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have a gag order, which to me is totally unconstitutional. I'm not allowed to talk, but people are allowed to talk about me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers joining us from around the world. I'm Anna Coren in today for Max Foster. It is Wednesday, April 24th.
We're covering several major stories today, including the U.S. Senate passage of the foreign aid bill and Donald Trump's hush money trial.
But we begin this hour with an exclusive CNN report on Afghanistan. As the Taliban's rapid takeover of the country in 2021 was in its final days and U.S. forces were scrambling to get out, a bomb ripped through crowds of Afghans seeking evacuation at Kabul's airport. 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members perished. The Pentagon has insisted that everyone was killed by the blast, but new video and eyewitness evidence obtained by CNN question that account. Well, CNN's chief international security correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh, has this investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you guys in the right center line? Let's go.
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These are fragments of a video not fully seen in public before that revealed brutal facts long denied by the U.S. military. Let's go back to the horrific dusk of August 26th, 2021. An ISIS bomb outside Kabul airport tears through a packed crowd. 170 Afghans and 13 American military are killed in the largest casualty event there in a decade, a moment of acute savagery at the end of America's longest war.
But it's been mired in dispute ever since. Two Pentagon investigations have insisted everyone was killed by the bomb and dismissed dozens of Afghans' accounts to CNN two years ago that Afghan civilians were shot in the chaotic aftermath.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No definitive proof that anyone was ever hit or killed by gunfire.
WALSH (voice-over): But this new video, which begins outside the airport's Abbey Gate entrance, reveals much more shooting after the blast than the Pentagon said. Combined with new accounts to CNN of Marines opening fire and gunshot injuries in Afghan civilians, it challenges the rigor and reliability of the two Pentagon investigations that declared no Afghan civilians were shot dead in the chaotic aftermath.
The bomb detonates. The footage then stops and picks up three seconds later.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You good? You good? Right here, right here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Hey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I got that on film, dude.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're breaking through. Is that all right, guys? Hey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out. We're doing security.
WALSH (voice-over): Many Marines here were young, some on their first deployment. The gunfire starts. They run for cover.
This long burst is about 17 shots, bringing us a total of 20. We're tallying shots fired and episodes of fire based on two forensic analyses on screen. You cannot see who is still firing here, and we never see Marines or anyone firing in this video.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, go, go.
WALSH (voice-over): Short, controlled bursts in isolation. A CS gas canister has exploded in the blast, its gas choking this Marine.
And in a moment, the total episodes of gunfire you've heard will start being more than the three the Pentagon has said happened.
[04:05:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, you good?
WALSH (voice-over): The gunfire continues. We leap forward 27 seconds. As Afghans, arms raised, run into the airport.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just smoke and dirt, bro.
WALSH (voice-over): One burst, now another.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that the fucking TB, bro?
WALSH (voice-over): They wonder if the Taliban, the TB, is shooting. Two Marines told us they saw the Taliban just after the blast, looking as shocked as they were.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh. Come here, come here, come here. You good?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm fine. Hey, where's (BLEEP). I need a (INAUDIBLE).
We're pushing them back there. Any casualties, we're pushing back.
WALSH (voice-over): More shots.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down. Hey, you good?
WALSH (voice-over): Multiple Marines we spoke to who were there said they felt they were under fire. But the Pentagon has insisted for two years no militant gunmen opened fire here. They've said the only shots fired here were two bursts by U.S. Marines and one from U.K. troops, once in a big burst from a nearby tower, all bursts near simultaneous.
So, according to their investigations, we must be hearing Marines, all the British, firing here. More controlled shots. Jump forwards another 39 seconds and more shots.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey.
WALSH (voice-over): They're still absorbing what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need a (BLEEP) ID, bro.
WALSH (voice-over): 15 seconds later, more shooting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mother (BLEEP). Hey, you guys good? Hey, hey, look at me, look at me.
Are you guys in the right center line? Let's go.
WALSH (voice-over): They head out into the chaos to help. You've just seen and heard at least 43 shots fired in at least 11 episodes of shooting. It matters, as it is just short of four minutes of sporadic fire, most of which the Pentagon has said for two years did not happen, and that shows their narrative of this horrific and disputed event is wrong.
This is how terrifying it was for Afghans outside minutes after the blast. So who was shooting and who were they firing at? For the first time, a Marine eyewitness has come forward and told CNN the first big burst of gunfire at the start of the GoPro video you just saw came from where U.S. Marines were standing near the blast site.
We're using a different voice to hide his identity as he fears reprisals for describing the gunfire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was multiple. There's no doubt about that. It wasn't onesies and twosies. It was a mass volume of gunfire.
WALSH: Down towards the Abbey Gate sniper tower from roughly an area not too far away from where the blast had gone off, that's where you heard the shooting emanate from?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It would have been around that area, yes.
WALSH: And there were U.S. Marines, right? This was likely emanating from Marines on the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
WALSH: You think they fired into the crowd?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I couldn't tell you for certain.
WALSH: But they wouldn't have fired into the air, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, they would not have fired into the air.
WALSH: Because you had a specific no-warning-shots order, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It wasn't a direct order, but it was a common understanding. No warning shots. These are kids. They're young. And they've only been taught what they've been taught. Some of these kids have been with the unit for quite literally two, three months prior to deployment.
WALSH: And when you see the investigations, plural, the conclusions they've made that say anybody who talks about gunfire or people being shot or being shot are just the product of traumatic brain injury, misremembering, how do you feel about that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a pathetic excuse. To say that every Marine, every soldier, every Navy corpsman on the deck has a traumatic brain injury and cannot remember gunfire is lunacy. It's outright disrespectful, and especially for it to come from somebody who wasn't there.
WALSH (voice-over): So what did the other Marines who were there have to say? Ten other Marines who didn't go on camera told us they heard gunfire. A couple even said they saw a gunman.
But two others stand out, who we were unable to reach ourselves. Romel Finley was injured, and in an interview with a former Marine turned barber, said he didn't see shooting and his recollections are fuzzy, bar one moment he remembers vividly. ROMEL FINLEY, BLAST SURVIVOR: As my squad leader's pulling me out, I remember -- as we're walking past -- he's, like, buddy-carrying me walking past, I see my platoon sergeant walk past us, saying, get back on that wall and shoot back at those mother (BLEEP).
[04:10:03]
So I'm like, oh, we're in a gunfight too.
WALSH (voice-over): Another survivor, Christian Sanchez, carried out here injured in his left arm, also told the barber he shot someone who he thought was shooting at him.
CHRISTIAN SANCHEZ, BLAST SURVIVOR: Like, all I hear is ringing and (BLEEP) flashes going on, and then I start hearing snaps. And I start realizing that's a (BLEEP) dude shooting at me. I just started shooting at the dude.
And while I was shooting, I remember, like, looking at the guy, and he's -- like, he's just there. And then he just -- he literally looks like he ate (BLEEP). Like, I'm looking at him, like, around him, I could see impact.
WALSH (voice-over): So what of the Afghans themselves, 170 of whom died? The Pentagon has insisted all injuries and deaths were from the bomb and its ball bearings. But CNN has wide-ranging evidence pointing to many Afghans being shot.
Two years ago, we heard 19 eyewitness accounts from Afghan survivors who saw people shot or were shot themselves, supported by 13 medical reports of bullet wounds.
Afghan medical staff also told us they counted dozens of dead from gunfire. Key was Sayeed Ahmadi, head doctor at the Kabul hospital treating most of the wounded, whose team assessed the injuries of the dead as they lay out in the parking lot that night.
WALSH: You still think back about that night, sometimes?
DR. SAYEED AHMADI, FORMER KABUL HOSPITAL DIRECTOR: Of course.
WALSH (voice-over): Back then, he was afraid to speak openly, but he now is safe with asylum in Finland and wanted to say on camera how he pulled bullets out of patients, how his team counted over 50 dead from gunfire and how his many years treating combat injuries meant he can diagnose a bullet wound.
AHMADI: Explosive injuries come with severe injuries. You know, there are lots of holes in the bodies, but the people who were shot, they had just one or two holes, exactly in the chest or in the head. 170 people were killed, totally.
But the register, what we had, maybe 145.
WALSH: And by your estimation, about half?
AHMADI: More than half were killed by a gunshot.
WALSH (voice-over): Yet the night would get darker still. Ahmadi started getting phone calls in the local language diary, threatening him and his staff to stop looking into who had been shot.
AHMADI: He told me, what are you doing, doctor? Do you love your life? Do you love your families?
This is not good. When you're collecting that data, it would make a dangerous situation for you. And you should stop that as soon as possible.
WALSH: So when you hear the American investigation say that you're just wrong, you don't know what you're talking about.
AHMADI: I wonder. I hope one day they ask me or they call me what you saw, like you come here and ask me, you came to Kabul and ask me about the situation. They never asked me.
WALSH (voice-over): Even though we described the video and our findings in great detail to the Pentagon, they said they would need to examine any new unseen video before they could assess it. They said their first investigation had thoroughly looked at allegations of outgoing fire from U.S. and coalition forces following the blast. They said their review, released earlier this month, focused not on gunfire but the bomber and events leading up to the blast, but found no new evidence of a complex attack and uncovered no new assertions of outgoing fire, having no materialistic impact on the original investigation.
Investigators have also not interviewed any Afghans for their reports, the Pentagon said, leaving the question of how hungry for the truth are they?
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Now turning to Ukraine. Well, urgently needed supplies of ammunition, artillery rounds, air defense systems and long-range missiles are expected to be airlifted to Ukraine within days. After the U.S. Congress finally approved a military aid package which had been stalled for months by Republican lawmakers.
Ukraine will receive nearly $61 billion from the $95 billion foreign aid bill, which was approved by the Senate just a few hours ago. The rest will go to Israel and Taiwan. President Joe Biden says he will sign the bill into law in the coming hours.
Ukraine has been losing territory to Russia since December when U.S. military assistance dried up. In a social media post, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude for the Senate's passage of the bill.
Israeli leaders also thanked the Senate.
[04:15:00]
After the vote, Senate Majority Leader Democrat Chuck Schumer spoke to reporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): After more than six months of hard work, many twists and turns in the road, America sends a message to the entire world. We will not turn our back on you. It's a testament for bipartisanship.
If you don't let the hard right pull you over, and they're not interested in getting anything done, they're just interested in negativity and destruction, you can get things done. And I hope our Republican colleagues have learned that lesson, and not to listen to the hard right, but to try and work and get things done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COREN: The passage of this funding bill through the Republican- controlled lower house to the Democrat-controlled Senate was a difficult and complicated process. CNN's Manu Raju is following the developments on Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now, a saga coming to an end that had divided the Republican Party for months. What to do about aid to Ukraine because of divisions within the ranks, because of the outspoken voices on the far right of the Republican conference, and because of the fact that the former president, Donald Trump, has been skeptical about more aid to Ukraine. This has changed how a lot of Republicans view whether or not the United States should have a more robust presence in the world or whether they should pull back from its support of foreign wars.
This debate between the so-called national security hawks and the isolationist wings of the Republican Party had played out for months and months and months. It had really stymied action on all of this.
Now, one person who has been in the forefront on pushing this aid has been Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell. He, of course, shepherded it through a $95 billion aid package along with Democratic leaders a couple months ago, two months ago. In fact, that plan included aid to Ukraine, Taiwan, and to Israel.
Then it essentially went nowhere in the Republican-led House for more than two months until Speaker Mike Johnson decided to make a move and tried to move on a similar plan with some modifications, with some changes and send that back to the Senate on Saturday. Ultimately leading to the Senate's final action early this week.
Now, McConnell, as he was discussing all of this, pinned the blame on the former Fox News host Tucker Carlson for stoking that anti-Ukraine sentiment within the GOP. SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): I think gamification of Ukraine began with Tucker Carlson. And in my opinion ended up where he should have been all along, which was interviewing Vladimir Putin.
And so, he had an enormous audience which convinced a lot of rank and file Republicans that maybe this is a mistake.
RAJU: Now, this all comes as Mike Johnson making that decision to move ahead on aid to Ukraine and only angering folks on the right who had been concerned about some of his deal-making already, whether it was to keep the government open, whether it was to reauthorize a foreign intelligence surveillance law, as well as to actually move ahead on authorizing national security programs as he did under the National Defense Authorization Act late last year.
All of these actions over the last six months since becoming Speaker have prompted this rebellion on the far right, including led right now by Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has called for his ouster and threatened to call for such a vote.
But there's a belief that Johnson being able to survive such a vote if it were to actually come to a head on the House floor, because potentially Democrats could come to his defense and also the former president himself, Donald Trump, defending the actions of Mike Johnson in an interview earlier in the week.
So a lot of questions about Johnson's future, but at the moment there is a belief and there's a relief among supporters of Ukraine aid on Capitol Hill that after months of battling, finally this chapter is done for now.
Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: We're covering the international reaction to the Senate vote with Clare Sebastian in London and our Kristie Lu Stout here in Hong Kong. Clare let's begin with you. Ukraine has been growing ever more desperate for this aid and we heard from President Zelenskyy on social media. Tell us the reaction coming out of Ukraine.
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Anna, I think there is a sense that this is potentially a turning point in this war. A key presidential advisor, Mykhailo Podolyak, tweeted, you know, this shows that Congress and the president have made, finally made, he said, a collective decision regarding the future of this war, to paraphrase slightly, that Russia must lose.
For President Zelenskyy, this has been, obviously, we've seen a lot of fulsome praise for the U.S., for their leadership role in this, and that continues today. But you also see him really trying to keep up this sense of urgency, that speed is of the essence.
[04:20:00]
Take a look at some of his comments on X regarding the passage through the Senate.
He said: This vote reinforces America's role as a beacon of democracy and the leader of the free world. I equally appreciate, he says, President Biden's support and look forward to the bill being signed soon, and the next military aid package matching the resoluteness that I always see in our negotiations.
So you see that push there for urgency and for speed. As for that next military aid package, well, multiple sources are telling CNN that it could be worth around a billion dollars.
That is bigger than we've seen in the most recent aid packages, though not the biggest that we've seen over the course of this war. We expect that it will include the most urgent elements, which are, of course, munitions, artillery ammunition for the front line, munitions for air defenses, as Ukraine's cities continue to get targeted with missiles and drones.
There is also several sources telling CNN that it is likely that long- range ATACMS missiles will be included with a range of some 300 kilometers. The U.S. has yet to cross that Rubicon in terms of range. They have supplied shorter-range ATACMS last year, but that would be a major deal for Ukraine as it continues to try to strike behind enemy lines to degrade Russian weapons before they reach the front line.
On the flip side, though, Russia is promising to do the same. The defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, is saying on Tuesday that, given this new aid package, they will now step up efforts to hit western weapons storages and logistics centers in Ukraine -- Anna.
COREN: Clare Sebastian in London. Many thanks.
Well, included in that aid package is legislation that could result in a ban on TikTok in the U.S. unless its Chinese parent company sells the social media app.
Our Kristie Lu Stout joins us now with more. And, Kristie, what are the options for TikTok's parent company ByteDance and how is Beijing responding?
OK, we seem to be having some technical difficulties. My apologies, Kristie.
Still to come, Columbia University's midnight deadline for pro- Palestinian protesters to disperse has come and gone. What school officials are now saying about the protest camp.
And major developments in Donald Trump's hush money trial. As a key witness returns to the stand and the defense gets a stern warning from the judge.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COREN: At least five people, including a seven-year-old girl, are dead after attempting to cross the English Channel on an overcrowded boat. French authorities say the boat's engine stopped. [04:25:00]
Rescuers saved more than 40 people, but nearly 60 stayed on board, determined to make it to the U.K.
This comes after the British Parliament passed a bill allowing the government to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda. Critics say it's inhumane, but the bill's supporters view it as a deterrent for migrants.
British Home Secretary James Cleverley posted online, quote: These tragedies have to stop. I will not accept a status quo which costs so many lives. This Government is doing everything we can to end this trade, stop the boats and ultimately break the business model of the evil people smuggling gangs, so they no longer put lives at risk.
Well, Columbia University says negotiations with student protesters over dismantling pro-Palestinian encampments at the school have been extended for the next 48 hours. They say they are making important progress with representatives of the protest group.
Earlier, the school had set a midnight deadline to get the issue resolved. A spokesperson for the New York Police Department tells CNN they have not been requested by the university to respond to campus.
Meanwhile, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to visit the school today to meet with Jewish students and address -- I beg your pardon -- what he calls a troubling rise in anti-Semitism at U.S. colleges.
This all comes as the pro-Palestinian protest movement has spread to other campuses, including universities in Minnesota and Michigan.
Well, CNN's Isabel Rosales has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Growing protests as students from Columbia University bowing to occupy school grounds until the university meets their demands.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are calling for divestment from Israel.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So that Columbia is not funding the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
ROSALES (voice-over): This, as calls for the resignation of the school's president, Manoush Shafiq, continue to get louder. Shafiq under fire from both inside and outside the university and could face a censure vote from the university senate as early as tomorrow.
PROTESTERS: Shame on you!
ROSALES (voice-over): Shafiq and other university officials are facing internal criticism that NYPD arrests and student suspensions allegedly violated tenets of academic freedom and free expression on campus. From Boston to Berkeley, there is a spotlight on how colleges are
managing student outrage. Harvard Yard closed for a second day in a row.
While at MIT, a pro-Palestinian encampment stands firm in solidarity with other protesting students.
PROTESTERS: Students united will never be defeated!
ROSALES (voice-over): The growing unrest on college campuses causing concern and chaos as schools prepare for graduation in the coming weeks.
PROTESTERS: We're supporting genocide!
ROSALES (voice-over): Many students saying they fear for their safety.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's scary, it's terrifying, they have a sign that says long live the intifada.
ROSALES (voice-over): While others say they are --
KHYMANI JAMES, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY STUDENT: Vehemently, vehemently opposing all forms of oppression.
ROSALES (voice-over): And they will not back down.
QUINN PERLAN, MIT STUDENT, JEWS FOR CEASEFIRE: Until MIT agrees to stop building the weapons that are used in this mass killing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want the genocide to stop.
ROSALES: And just outside Emerson College, there is a growing number of signs and tents. Organizers here have food and water. They are ready to stay here for however long it takes until the college meets their demands.
Over at MIT, also over 20 tents on display there in front of the chapel. A group Jews for Ceasefire, an organizer telling me that if they are asked to bring down the encampment, those tents, they will not do so.
MIT telling CNN that they will consider the next steps in regards to those tents.
Isabel Rosales, CNN, Boston.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COREN: Well, still ahead, protests during Passover. Demonstrators fill the streets of Tel Aviv, demanding freedom for the remaining hostages held in Gaza.
And from a courtroom trial to the campaign trail. U.S. President Joe Biden attacks Donald Trump on abortion rights in Florida. Stay with us. [04:30:00]
