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Taliban Pledge Blanket Amnesty, No Violence Against Women; Afghans and Others Remains Stranded at Kabul Airport; Crew of Packed C-17 Flight Made Quick Decision to Take Off; U.K. Parliament Debating Afghanistan Crisis; Afghan Women Fear Loss of Rights Under Militants Rule; 2010 Film "Restrepo" Chronicles U.S. Platoon in Afghanistan. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired August 18, 2021 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back everyone. Well, in their first news conference since taking control in Afghanistan, the Taliban made promises intended to ease widespread concerns, including a blanket amnesty for all Afghans and pledges that there will be no violence or discrimination against women. But their promises are already being met with skepticism. The U.S. says it will wait and see if the Taliban keep their word.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAKE SULLIVAN, U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR: Like I said all along, this is not about trust. This is about verify. And we'll see what the Taliban end up doing in the days and weeks ahead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: The uncertainty and fear over what lies ahead has many waiting at the Kabul airport in hopes of leaving the country. On Tuesday, U.S. military flights evacuated more than 1,000 people including hundreds of non-U.S. citizens. The U.S. expects the number of flights out of Kabul to pick up in the days ahead.
And I spoke just a short time ago with retired General Wesley Clark about the situation at the Kabul airport and why this evacuation plan wasn't put in motion a lot earlier.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEN. WESLEY CLARK (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, I think there's good reasons why it wasn't conducted earlier, because once you've started this, you would have triggered the very thing that happened. And it would have been our blame for having started this.
Now, will they all get out? First of all, it is not just Americans. There are other nationalities there and there are Afghans who work with those nationalities also, not just the ones who work with the Americans. So, this really is an international effort to pull out the people who consider themselves and are considered to be most at risk by the Taliban. And so, there are many, many thousands trying to get in, they've to be
identified, checked in some way. They've got to have visas to go somewhere and they have to have airplane tickets, commercial or they've got to be on somebody's list to get a military flight.
CHURCH: And the Biden administration have set themselves a deadline for the end of August. Can it be done?
CLARK: It's possible mechanically that you could get the aircraft there. And if you can pull out 9,000 a day, and you've got another 10, 12 days, you bring out over 100,000. That seems like that's all. I'm getting calls from people as you probably are too, and other people before going out every which way they're driving to Uzbekistan. They're trying to get out to Pakistan. They're going over the border. They're paying bribes. There is a real sense of foreboding about this.
No matter what the Taliban say, no one expects to last. This is like a 90 percent-10 percent. 90 percent they will go back to sharia law. They'll seek revenge. They'll replace the people who've worked so hard in the government. They'll put their own people in, and they'll deal sharia justice.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH (on camera): General Wesley Clark there.
Well, scenes of desperation and panic outside the airport gates are a stark contrast to the situation inside Kabul's airport right now where thousands of U.S. troops have secured the area creating an almost surreal sense of calm. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is there.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Around Kabul airport, lives spared or spoiled.
[04:35:00]
At one gate I was caught in the crush, shots in the air. Afghan soldiers let us in through a hole in the fence. Inside, a few lucky Afghans still with steps to go. And sleepless U.S. marines, some not born before 9/11 whose first glimpse of Afghanistan here was the same as so many before them. Except this time, they were truly encircled by calm Taliban just outside and they were leaving.
20 years of trying was everywhere. Vehicles that may be left behind. And then the Afghans who won't be, we're blurring their faces to protect them, lucky enough to get on a flight, but not as huge a number as those who swamped the airfield the days before.
WALSH: It is absolutely breathtaking to see the scale of the operation underway here in the volume of people relieved to be inside, but still, the chaos to get through.
WALSH (voice-over): Flights picked up as evening fell, urgency, but a strange disconnect to the chaos that was swirling around the airport. People inside the airport simply did not know what was happening outside. And inside, they were headed in one direction.
At airport security the country's new rulers were giving their first press conference on a TV, but surely shown all four of the U.S. presidents who've been at war here. They sit and wait to be called to a new life in the land of plenty where they will land with only what they can carry.
Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kabul, Afghanistan.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: The U.S. Air Force is investigating the discovery of human remains found in the wheel well of the C-17 aircraft that took off from Kabul. Dozens of Afghans desperately clung to the outside of the plane on Monday in an attempt to escape the region, some later falling from the plane in midair. Crews found the remains after landing in Qatar. The C-17 is currently impounded pending an inspection.
Well, one of the images that's driving home the reality in Afghanistan is this one, 640 people packed on to an American C-17 -- a different flight from the one we just mentioned -- with the situation at Kabul's airport so unstable, the crew of this plane made the quick decision to take off. And when you hear the air draft traffic controller side of the conversation, obtained by Defense One, you see there was no time to count just how many were on board. They just knew a lot of people needed help.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CONTROLLER: OK, how many people do you think are on your jet? 800 people on your jet? Holy f**, holy cow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
Tara Copp is the senior Pentagon reporter for Defense One, and she broke the story of that packed flight.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TARA COPP, SENIOR PENTAGON REPORTER, DEFENSE ONE: Their back door was partly open and a crowd of Afghans started to crowd the airplane and load themselves on, pull themselves up, and then pull others up. And this small crew had to make a quick decision. Did they follow the regs and did they push back and tell the Afghans don't board the plane, they made a decision as a crew to load up as many people as they could and take off as quickly as they could.
So, it's a very, very different situation. These aircraft as you mentioned normally can carry about 300 when there is a seat or bench configuration. And what they did here, is they made everyone sit on the floor in a floor loading configuration. The only other time that I've seen this happen was in 2013 in a typhoon rescue. But even then, it was more orderly where there were cargo straps across so everyone could hold on to the cargo straps. This was just everyone taking every available space they could. And then once they had their full load, they took off and just -- what
I've learned since my initial story came out is the crew decided to just kind of sort it out in the air. That aircraft, the destination was Qatar. And that country did not anticipate that many evacuees landing either. So, it was a surprise on both ends and it was a complete judgment call by this crew to help save those lives.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: U.S. Central Command says the security environment in Kabul made the crew's quick decision necessary.
And still to come, women and girls across Afghanistan are fearing for their future as the Taliban take control. Why activists say the Taliban's promises to uphold women's rights can't be trusted.
[04:40:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: We're taking a look now at live pictures from the U.K. Parliament, you can see there British Prime Minister Boris Johnson speaking. MPs are debating how to handle the crisis in Afghanistan. Let's have a quick listen there.
BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: ... for two decades. Happy to give way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Minister, can I just take him back to his remarks in the House of July 8th when he referred to the assessment that he'd made. There has clearly been a catastrophic failure of our intelligence or our assessment of the intelligence because of the speed that this has caught us unawares. Can the Prime Minister set out for the House how we may assure ourselves ...
CHURCH: The United Kingdom says that it will welcome as many as 20,000 Afghans into the country in the coming years under a new resettlement program with priority being given to women, girls and religious minorities. Of course, as you hear there, they are talking more about the intelligence at this stage. But this debate will continue of course.
Well, fear is setting in for women across Afghanistan as many face an uncertain future under Taliban control. Many women are worried two decades of progress could be wiped away. But Taliban officials are trying to reassure them that their rights will remain intact despite the group's history of harsh oppression.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ZABIHULLAH MUJAHID, TALIBAN SPOKESMAN: There will be no violence against women, no discrimination against women. Of course, within the framework of the Islamic law our sisters and mothers which have been set in the sharia law, which is our value, which woman is an important tenant of our society.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: But many are deeply skeptical of the Taliban's claims. Malala Yousufzai has faced their brutality first time.
[04:45:00]
The Nobel Peace Prize laureate from Pakistan was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman back in 2012 after she campaigned for girls rights to education. She says she fears for the women and girls left behind writing this the "New York Times," she says this: Afghan girls and young women are once again where I have been, in despair over the thought that they might never be allowed to see a classroom or hold a book again.
Some members of the Taliban say they will not deny women and girls education or the right to work but given the Taliban's history of violently suppressing women's rights, Afghan women's fears are real.
Well, for some, those fears are turning into reality. CNN's Clarissa Ward is in Kabul with a look at how some women are bracing for life under Taliban rule.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: At the central Kabul market, stores were open and people were back on the streets, or at least some people. It was impossible not to notice that women here seem to have largely melted away.
One store was doing better business than usual. For more than a decade, Mohammed has been selling burqas, the head to toe covering once imposed by the Taliban. Business was good but now even better, he tells us. More sales.
WARD: Why do you think you are selling more Burkas right now?
WARD (voice-over): Because the Taliban took over, and all the women are afraid, he says. So that's why they're all coming in and buying Burkas.
WARD: Do you feel abandoned?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, exactly.
WARD (voice-over): In an apartment downtown, we saw that fear firsthand. Until last week, Facila (ph) was working for the U.N. That's not her real name and she asked we not show her face. She's petrified that the Taliban will link her to western organizations and says she hasn't gone outside since they arrived in Kabul.
WARD: You look very frightened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly, too much stress. This is not easy for a person to work a lot with international organizations, having more than ten years of experience of working with international and now no one of them help me. Just sending emails to different organization that I work with, but now, no response.
WARD: Are you angry?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I'm not angry. But as a person that who worked with them, now I need their supports. It is not fair.
WARD: You look very emotional as well.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, because I'm thinking about my future, my daughters. What will happen to them if they kill me, two daughters without mother?
WARD (voice-over): The Taliban says they have learned from history and that women's rights will be protected. But many fearful Afghan women remain to be persuaded.
WARD: We're on our way now to the home of a prominent female Afghan politician. She's told me that there are Taliban fighters outside her front door, so she's asked that I go in alone.
WARD (voice-over): Fawzia Koofi was one of the Afghan government negotiators during peace talks with the Taliban and has dealt with the group a lot. She says that promising change is not enough.
FAWZIA KOOFI, AFGHAN POLITICIAN: You have to really prove it in the provinces across Afghanistan. They have to show it by example. It's very easy to issue statements, but people need to see that in practice.
WARD (voice-over): Koofi has ever reason not to trust. Last year, she was shocked by unknown gunman. The Taliban denied they were behind the attack.
WARD: You have children.
KOOFI: I have two daughters.
WARD: And are they here?
KOOFI: They are in Kabul.
WARD: And are you concerned for them or --
KOOFI: I'm concerned for my daughters and all the girls of Afghanistan. I don't want history to repeat itself on them very brutally.
WARD (voice-over): 20 years of progress for women in Afghanistan now hangs by a thread.
Clarissa Ward, CNN, Kabul.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHURCH: And at times journalists and filmmakers get front row seats to the brutal experiences troops face on the front lines. Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, we will hear what one filmmaker of the Afghanistan war thinks about how it all ended up.
[04:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Many who have served in the U.S. military are voicing their frustration about how things have fallen apart in Afghanistan. One veteran told CNN, quote, all the friends I lost in Afghanistan, what were their deaths for.
Some journalists and filmmakers were able to record their experiences. "Restrepo" a 2010 documentary chronicles a year with one battalion in an isolated outpost in Afghanistan. Here is a clip of that film and a warning, you may find this disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a good idea of hiding --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Keep going. Keep going.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Who is that?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shawn (INAUDIBLE).
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: Just chilling. And CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke to one of the filmmakers behind "Restrepo", .
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[04:55:00]
SEBASTIAN JUNGER, JOURNALIST AND FILMMAKER: I think some are like, you know, it's gone on long enough, no one else would die over there. The Afghans aren't appreciating us, you know, whatever type of leave. There's a lot of that, right. But then there's a lot of what was it all for.
I think there are some tentative answers about what it was all for. But it's many of them -- those answers, I'm not sure well, emotionally satisfied people that have, you know, suffered in combat.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Were you surprise it, the speed with which things, things fell apart?
JUNGER: No, I mean, I was there in 1996 when the Taliban took over initially and you know, I was in Jalalabad, and I was staying at the one hotel in town, the Spinghar and, you know, the Taliban delegation was across the breakfast room, sort of glaring at me suspiciously and they were negotiating the handover of Jalalabad. There wasn't any fighting and it happened very quickly. And so, you know, the Taliban didn't fight their way across Afghanistan, except for a few locations like it was all negotiated. And this -- the Afghan soldiers who weren't supplied with ammunition or even food or salaries, because all that stuff was getting stolen by commanders. You know, they were told by the Taliban, look, if you give up, we won't kill you. And so of course, they did. Like, it totally makes sense.
So no, it didn't surprise me at all. And once, you know, once they were outside Kabul the right, you know, there was rioting and looting and the Taliban went into keep order. You know, if people say they took Kabul, it wasn't being defended, like they didn't really take it in that sense.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
Filmmaker and journalist Sebastian Junger speaking to CNN earlier.
And thank you so much for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Be sure to connect with me on Twitter @rosemaryCNN. "EARLY START" is next. You're watching CNN. Have a great day.
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