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Mideast Cease-Fire Holding After 14 Hours; U.S. General Killed In Afghanistan; Palestinian Health Ministry: 1,900 Killed In Gaza; Doctors Overwhelmed By Ebola Patients

Aired August 05, 2014 - 15:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: A number of leaders from Western Africa not in Washington for obvious reasons. A lot going on at back home.

Coming up in a few minutes, we'll talk to Dan Rather of "The Evening News." Dan Rather has covered stories for decades. Just curious to ask him, he's covered a number of presidents.

With all of the hot spots raging around the world, between what's happening in West Africa, Syria, Iraq, Ukraine, Russia, Middle East, we'll ask him how he thinks the president is doing and you can continue watching the president, just go to cnn.com.

Let's go back to the Middle East specifically. As we were watching the latest cease-fire, the cease-fire at least for now seems to be holding. Israeli tanks have motored out of the Gaza strip and more than 14 hours since this truce began, Israel and Hamas.

Both are sending signals they are finished fighting, at least for now, talks to try to cement a longer term truce are to begin in Egypt once Israeli negotiators arrive. A Palestinian team is there and waiting. The mediators are Egyptians.

After abandoning their homes in search of safety, Gazans are returning, many on these buggies being pulled by donkeys. Some places are still standing, some not at all. After a month the Israeli air strikes, others have next to nothing.

Jake Tapper is live in Jerusalem. Jake, I want to ask you about Gaza in just a moment but, first, to these talks in Cairo, in Egypt, John Kerry, is not there. He is back in Washington. Why is he not in Egypt? Is he being iced out?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD": The Egyptians, the General CC and the head of Egyptian intelligence has taken on the leadership role in coordinating the cease-fire, working with the Palestinian ambassador to Egypt, is my understanding.

And as opposed to three weeks ago when the Egyptians basically made the same cease-fire proposal. This time, they got all of the different Palestinian groups, Fatah, Hamas, Jihad, the popular liberation for the Jihadist front. I know I just botched that name and so the role of the United States right now seems limited.

It seems almost as if it's better if the U.S. is not there. Although, of course, the U.S. working closely with General CC, who is considered a very strong ally of the United States, even when he was head of the military under the Mubarak regime.

BALDWIN: We're showing pictures of Gaza, these children and women going home to what remains post shelling and a lot of them need food, supplies. Are they able to get what they need after the month-long air strike raid?

TAPPER: Well, the United Nations workers who on the ground there say they are doing everything they can to bring in as many humanitarian supplies as possible. Look, this is Gaza, the 1.8 million residents of Gaza were already in a humanitarian crisis before the Israeli air strikes and ground campaign began.

And now obviously, as you point out, with so many of them having lost their homes, so much destruction, the power plant being shot, there are even worse problems right now. So this is going to be not only something to be talked about at the peace talks.

Assuming the cease-fire turns into peace talks about what next, but there's going to be an immediate crisis right now. There is an immediate crisis when it comes to humanitarian relief for the people of Gaza.

BALDWIN: Jake Tapper, we'll most definitely be watching you and your special live reporting from Jerusalem covering this conflict in the cease-fire that so far appears to be holding. We'll watch it live here on CNN.

I mentioned that I have Dan Rather waiting in the wings with me. He'll join me and talk with me about what is happening around the world and how the media has been covering these stories. We'll talk Afghanistan. We'll talk Middle East. The man knows thing or two. I don't know how many presidents you have covered. We'll have that conversation. Coming up on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: And as we reported at the top of the hour, breaking news out of Afghanistan today. Another trust-shattering attack. A gunman, an assailant believed to be an Afghan soldier opening fire at a training facility in Kabul killing an American general.

And we also learned that as many as 15 other troops were injured. This happening at this facility outside of the capital city of the place that's been described as the Afghan West Point training the future leaders of Afghanistan. All of this just a backdrop of this shooting as the U.S. continues to draw down its forces with the hope that Afghanistan's troops will step up.

So to talk a lot more about this and some other things, we'll keep you around for a little while, Mr. Rather, Dan Rather, the legendary news man. Dan Rather, he is the managing editor and anchor of "Dan Rather Presents." So always an honor and a pleasure to have you on.

DAN RATHER, AXG TV's "DAN RATHER PRESENTS": Thanks for having me here.

BALDWIN: Let's just begin with the fact that we were talking during the commercial break, you have been to Afghanistan 16 times, most recently last year. You said you know some of the generals over there.

They have yet to name this particular general, but to hear that it was a U.S. general shot and killed in what is being called this green on blue attack, it's huge.

RATHER: First of all, obviously our sympathies are with the families involved with -- to lose a general is a big thing. But to the honor of the U.S. military, we have fighting generals and admirals that put themselves in harm's way. This general obviously did not think he was in the maximum harm's way in Afghanistan because he was in the so- called West Point of Afghanistan.

I think first of all, we need some more facts about what happened. Secondly, we need to see this in the context and perspective of Afghanistan. It's terrible to lose any U.S. fighting man or woman in Afghanistan, but we haven't lost a general, I don't think, since the Vietnam War.

BALDWIN: Since Vietnam.

RATHER: And the last general and admiral, both were lost in helicopter accidents. So this is a case, he was shot. But in Afghanistan, we, the people of the United States and our military on behalf of us, we are trying to work a withdrawal out of Afghanistan and at the same time, fight the war.

That's a very difficult thing whether you're a specialist one or a general. And we're asking a lot of our military people. That's number one. Number two, we have had some success in training in Afghan military, but the Taliban and those who don't want to succeed, understandably succeeding.

So what they want to do is to raise questions, both in the minds of the Americans and of those Afghans who are anti-Taliban, of whether they can support a government with the Afghan military. It's complex.

And what I regret is, we haven't had a debate in this country over what we want to do, if anything, going forward in Afghanistan. Do we stay? Do we go completely? Do we leave 10,000 troops, do we leave 15,000 troops? Nobody wants to talk about it.

BALDWIN: It sounds like the president so far is saying we're leaving 10,000 troops next year and ultimately getting out by 2016. We learned that the Taliban is not claiming responsibility, but they are proud of their support of this Afghan soldier for committing such a heinous act.

Given the fact that this was like the Afghan West Point tells me, A, these people must have had to have been vetted to be on this facility and, two, talking to a correspondent on the ground in Kabul saying, yes, it is secure. So knowing those two things, what happened? RATHER: Let's not kid ourselves. There's no such thing as security anywhere in Afghanistan for any American.

BALDWIN: Good point.

RATHER: And for that matter, for any Afghan who is allied with Americans.

BALDWIN: Did you ever feel secure at a facility like this?

RATHER: No, you don't. It's a dangerous neighborhood. The whole country is. Number two, about vetting, as someone suggested to you earlier on this program, vetting in this country in the United States is one thing. They have computers, computer files.

In Afghanistan, vetting is really -- the word doesn't mean what it means elsewhere. There's no way to vet completely by our description of vetting. These people are in the military, in the police, so forth. Look, as long as we have a military presence in Afghanistan, these kinds of things are go to happen.

It's a price of war. As long as we stay there, there are going to be these kinds of incidents. What we can hope and pray is that there are fewer of them than more of them.

BALDWIN: To your point, Dan Rather, there needs to be a conversation about the future of Afghanistan. What conversation do we need to be having?

RATHER: What are our goals in Afghanistan? We've been there 12, 13 years. Do we want to continue to try to keep the peace in Afghanistan and build something approaching a democratic government or have we had enough to say, we've done all we can do. That's the basic thing.

Going forward past 2016, do we intend to have any presence in Afghanistan? Do we think we should have any presence in Afghanistan? If so, for what purpose? This is the debate we have had amongst ourselves. We've stayed in Korea well over half a century.

We've built a democratic government. We set out to do the same in Afghanistan. Are we willing to pay the price? Do we have the determination? Can we afford it? All of those are questions that we need to be considering very seriously.

BALDWIN: There are a lot of questions. We've talked Afghanistan, I'd love to keep you here, having covered 12 presidents. We'll talk to you about how you think Obama as faired with foreign policy, specifically the Middle East. John Kerry is not part of these negotiations between Hamas and Israel.

We'll talk about the Middle East, what is raging right now, and how you think the president has done. Dan Rather on the other side of the break.

RATHER: Thank you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: And we're back live here at CNN with the legendary news man, Dan Rather, of "Dan Rather Presents." Just so I'm precise, and please correct me, it was 2011 when you were most recently in Israel.

RATHER: That's true.

BALDWIN: You were reporting on the West Bank and how the U.S. was funding Palestinian security forces. Tell me more about what you saw, what you found?

RATHER: Well, the United States with Israel support was funding security forces on the West Bank and it was having an effect. Things at that time -- this is 2011, it hasn't been that long ago.

BALDWIN: Right.

RATHER: And I've been to Israel many times over the last half century and this is one of the better times in terms of what was going on between Israel and the residents of the West Bank. Never good, but this is one of the better times. But it seems a long time ago now with what's happening today and you have this cease-fire, humanitarian cease-fire for the moment.

BALDWIN: Right.

RATHER: The question is, if it lasts, if it lasts and that's a very big if, I'm an optimist, but it's hard to be optimistic about anything in the Middle East.

BALDWIN: After you've covered everything that you have.

RATHER: But if it lasts, those working behind the scenes besides Egypt, the key countries are Turkey and Qatar, who are both influential with the United States. I hope that this holds. I doubt that it can but let's keep our fingers crossed that it holds.

BALDWIN: We'll see this same movie play out in two more years.

RATHER: I think we have to see this in perspective, that it's a cliche to say so but it's true, that Israel can only lose once. Arabs opposing them and others can lose many times. Therefore, the key to peace is to have an agreement that Israel has a right to survive.

Hamas does not agree with that and in the main and on the whole backed by the Iranians, they want to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. All these things that is well known, but it makes it, but let's be optimistic. For the moment, there's a cease-fire in place. Let's hope it holds and real progress can be made.

BALDWIN: What about just the media coverage? A lot of people have been very critical of western media, CNN included. You've been too sympathetic to Gaza, ergo Hamas. You've been watching. What's your take?

RATHER: Well, as one who's suffered that kind of criticism over the years, sometimes it's justified. It goes with the territory when you're in news. I think it's unfair to CNN and other places. It's a classic case of those who have a special agenda or have a side in the fight, if you will, always want to blame the messenger.

What CNN and other media outlets, newspapers, radio and television, we're the messengers. They don't like the message. They don't like the fact that war is savage. And in war, yes, civilians usually suffer the most and yes, women and children and old people, wherever the war is, whatever it is, whatever century it's been in, that's the brutal thing about war.

But I have no patience because we're reporters, we're journalists. We do the best we can. We understand that we're going to take criticism no matter what you report.

BALDWIN: Someone who is familiar with criticism, any president currently President Barack Obama, my goodness, when you hear criticism even from within media, within Israel of Obama or Kerry, that's one story but here he is. You have covered 12 presidents. Counted them quickly during commercial break.

I'm wondering when you -- having covered 12 presidents, the role of the president of the United States, the role of the United States in helping broker peace or what have you in different parts of the world and there are many hot spots rights now flaring up, do you think -- how has the role of the U.S. evolved or how has maybe how has the role of the world changed?

RATHER: The biggest change in the world over the last 50 years plus is we came out of World War II as the supreme power in the world. We could have taken any territory we chose. We chose not to take territory, but we were the world's ranking power. Now today --

BALDWIN: Times have changed.

RATHER: Now today, you have others, China is an economic superpower. They're not yet a military superpower, but they want to become so. The world is much more diffuse in terms of power. We as a people in the United States are having difficulty coming to grips with that whether we have a Republican president or a Democratic president.

The rest of the world is having to come to grips with that. There was a time when you say let's call the USA. They'll solve this problem. There's no way we can solve China and Japan's difficulties with the South China Sea, not to mention other countries in Asia, the problem with nuclear armed North Korea, go down the list, Syria.

BALDWIN: It's a long list.

RATHER: Ukraine, Middle East. No president, Republican, Democrat or mug wamp can be expected to solve these problems at once. With President Obama, I think he understands but we need to understand when you speak of the power of the presidency, which you hear on cable television everywhere about, well, President Obama's not using the power of the presidency. The basic power of the American presidency is the power to persuade, to persuade your own people, to follow your leadership and to follow those persuade those overseas to follow. Now, the power of the presidency has been declining through at least our last two presidencies with President George W. Bush and -- has been declining there's no magic wand that President Obama can wave to solve that.

It's important to at least understand that is the power. The power to persuade. If he can increase that power, we increase our influence around the world. If he doesn't, our influence continues to decline.

BALDWIN: Dan Rather, thank you so much.

RATHER: Thank you so much.

BALDWIN: Truly a pleasure and honor. Please come back. Appreciate you. We are getting word of a situation in Times Square, two tour buses crashing. Several people are injured. We're making the phone calls. The latest on what's happening in New York's Times Square coming up next here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: All right, breaking news, take a look at two aerial pictures on the left, Times Square, New York's Times Square, as we have just learned about two double-decker buses, tourism buses in Times Square colliding. FDNY reporting seven people injured here right around TKTS booth where you can go buy tickets for Broadway shows.

The extent of injuries unknown. We're making phone calls here at CNN. Stay with us as we get an update for you on a pretty scary situation in New York's Times Square.

Finally, let's talk about what's happening in Africa. The two Ebola patients who were doing work in West Africa, they have now arrived in the United States to get the very best treatment possible available to them. But back in Africa, the outbreak is overwhelming for doctors and nurses and medical professionals.

Remember the virus can have a mortality rate up to 90 percent and this outbreak has hit developing country with some of the world's weakest health systems. CNN's David McKenzie is the only journalist at the biggest "Doctors Without Borders" facility in Sierra Leone where they are treating these Ebola patients -- David.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brooke. Certainly while the headlines have been grabbed in the U.S., this is the center of the story from a human perspective thousands of people could be infected with the Ebola virus in three countries, now possibly four including, of course, here at this point where I'm standing.

We went inside that hospital. We talked with doctors and saw the extraordinary precautions they take to cover themselves up. Not an inch can be available. Possibly to get any liquids on them that could infect them with the virus. Scores already of health professionals have died just in Sierra Leone trying to stamp this out. The word here is that it's out of control. The steps they're trying to take to stop the virus aren't enough to stop the spread and they are desperately seeking help, not doctors, not nurses, but technical professionals who can be help go into the communities and try and get a sense of where those sick patients are and to close the down, but it could take months -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: David McKenzie live in Sierra Leone, thank you very much for joining me. That is it for me. I'm Brooke Baldwin live in New York. We're going to toss things to Jerusalem and Israel. A special "LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.