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White House: U.S. Evacuated 3,000 People from Kabul Thursday; Desperate Afghans Threw Babies at U.S. Troops; U.S. Diplomats Warned of Catastrophe in Afghanistan; NATO Foreign Ministers to Hold Emergency Meeting; Taliban Look Other Way as China Targets Muslim Uyghurs; U.S. Governors Say They'll Welcome Afghan Refugees; . Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired August 20, 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]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: The U.S. is ramping its efforts to get people out of Afghanistan. The White House says 3,000 were evacuated from the Kabul airport on Thursday alone, that figure includes American citizens, vulnerable Afghans and those applying for special immigrant visas. 14,000 people have been flown out of Afghanistan since the end of July, and 9,000 since Saturday. The U.S. military says it has been in constant communication with the Taliban over airport security and President Biden is scheduled to speak about the evacuation efforts in the coming hours.

Our chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward has been reporting all week on the tremendous, frightening and chaotic scenes in the Afghan capital. And she gave my colleague Michael Holmes this update from the Kabul Airport just minutes ago. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We are actually on the airfield where some of the very lucky ones will soon be leaving Afghanistan on one of these military carriers. It's very noisy, so my apologies if you can't hear me very well.

But our journey took us roughly 7 hours. The vast majority of people we've spoken to know though, it's been one or two days to try to get in. And I have to tell you, that initial stop to get in the first gate is unlike anything I've ever experienced. Pushing, crushing, people screaming, we were all holding on to each other's hands desperately trying to get in a small door. We were lucky because we were American citizens. But so many others are not.

Having said that, we have seen many Afghans inside at various checkpoints moving through the very slow system that is in place to try to evacuate people. Some of them standing out in the blazing hot sun for eight hours, screaming babies. At one stage we saw a newborn baby brought through on a military vehicle at high speed because the baby had dehydrated and had heat stroke.

And one soldier told me that yesterday people were actually throwing babies at these U.S. soldiers because they were so desperate to get their children out to a better future. One of these men actually caught one of the babies and later found the family and returned the child to the family.

But Michael, if that doesn't speak to unimaginable desperation, then I just don't know what does. One of the soldiers here said that they have evacuated 13,000 people since last Friday, the largest airlift evacuation in U.S. history according to him.

[04:35:00]

But my god, there is still a lot of work to do, a lot more people to save. The crowds outside the airport do not get any smaller, they seem to get bigger if anything every day -- Michael.

MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR: An extraordinary situation. Just I mean, it's heartbreaking too, the people who aren't going to be able to get out. If you had 30 seconds to wrap this up, what impressions as you leave?

WARD: My impressions is that we're witnessing an astounding moment in history. There is a lot of pain. There is a lot desperation. There is a lot of heartache and rage and bitterness and a lot of people counting on America right now do the right thing by its allies and get these people out safely before it is too late.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: One group of American diplomats told the U.S. Secretary of State weeks ago that catastrophe exactly what we're seeing now could happen in Afghanistan. CNN's Kylie Atwood has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: U.S. diplomats in Kabul wrote Secretary of State Antony Blinken a memo in mid-July urging the State Department to take more action to both process and evacuate those Afghans who had worked alongside U.S. troops and U.S. diplomats particularly given what they were seeing unfolding on the ground.

Taliban gains happening and what they predicted to be an Afghan government fall by the time they pulled out their military in August. They wanted to take action to mitigate against a case scenario where there was a complete amount of chaos which is frankly, exactly what we are seeing unfold right now.

Now deputy national security adviser, Jon Finer, spoke with Wolf Blitzer and said that this cable did predict that there was going to be the fall of the Afghan government by the time of the U.S. withdrawal, but that it didn't predict that it would happen as quickly as it did, just like the rest of the U.S. government. He also said that there were certain things that they suggested in this memo that the department actually implemented quickly thereafter.

Now I'm also told, however, there are parts of it that weren't implemented quickly enough and that is frustrating to the diplomats watching it unfold right now.

Now Ned price, the State Department's spokesperson, said that the Secretary of State Tony Blinken reviews all the sent memos. So, theoretically he would have this one, and he reviewed all of the responses to these memos. And that they value the dissent memo channel.

But the fact that there was even a dissent memo is noteworthy in and of itself. It demonstrates that these diplomats were so frustrated that their voices weren't being heard that they had to make their voice heard to the Secretary of State in the form of dissent.

And we should also note that this comes as the president, President Biden himself, has not taken any responsibility for how this all unfolded. Even when asked in that ABC interview if there were problems in the process and planning leading up to the U.S. troop withdrawal, he basically said, no, this chaos was inevitable. These diplomats are saying however there was more that could be done to prevent against the situation we're seeing unfold right now.

Kylie Atwood, CNN, the State Department.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Defense Department says it's in direct communication with the Taliban. Admiral Peter Vasely, the top American commander in Kabul, him is leading the effort to ensure securities at the airport.

Meanwhile a former top Trump security official spoke with CNN earlier about the agreement governing America's withdrawal and she suggested the U.S. should have pulled out of the deal her own administration negotiated. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LISA CURTIS, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL SENIOR DIRECTOR FOR SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA: There were several people who thought the agreement should have been tougher, that we should have extracted more concessions from the Taliban and not pulled the rug out from under the Ghani government the way it was done. But unfortunately, those voices didn't carry the day in the end. But I also want to say this, the Biden administration had an opportunity to withdraw from the agreement. They could have re-evaluated it, renegotiated it, taken a different path on Afghanistan. But the Biden administration chose to stick with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: NATO has blamed the Afghan leadership for the tragedy the country is experiencing today. And in a few hour, foreign ministers will meet to discuss the allegiances next steps. We'll have more ahead.

And China has been building an alliance with the Taliban in recent months. We'll take a look at what we know about their relationship, next. Stay with us.

[04:40:00]

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BRUNHUBER: An emergency meeting of NATO foreign ministers is set to begin a few hours from now with the fate of Afghan refugees at the top of the agenda. Melissa Bell is following developments from Paris. Melissa, so the NATO foreign ministers meeting virtually here. What's on the table? What options do they actually have here?

MELISSA BELL, CNN PARIS CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that Antony Blinken spoke last night to the Secretary-General of NATO and that the idea is to talk now about what happens next in Afghanistan and how best to deal both with repatriation efforts. But also, with long term stability and efforts to get the situation under control and peacefully so.

But of course, underpinning the meeting is going to be a great deal of frustration, Kim, on the part of Europeans about the manner in which the United States withdrew from Afghanistan. Bear in mind that it was the first time back in 2001 that Article 5 of NATO was invoked. Was used to bring in all of these countries alongside the United States, that is the idea that when one NATO member is under attack, it is an attack on all and therefore they act together.

They went in together, the fact that the withdrawal should have been decided in the way that many Europeans feel was unilateral on the part of the United States and that has led to so much of the chaos that we've seen the last few days, has led to a great deal of frustration and patience here in Europe. That hasn't just begun this week, it goes back many months back into the Trump administration.

You remember in 2019, Emmanuel Macron has described NATO as brain dead after the unilateral American withdraw from Syria. Ever since we've seen this debate in Europe led really by the French president to say look, the world has changed and it doesn't really matter who is in the White House, what we need to do is organize to have our own strategic independence, be less dependent on the United States after all our objectives may not align, our strategies may not align, and it is time to think again about beefing up European security outside of NATO with either own strategic objectives.

And I think what we've seen these last few days has really added to that case.

[04:45:00]

And you're going to hear from Europeans around the table I think when they get there virtually ask the question of what really NATO is for that the stage and what it can be counted on to do even now as it looks ahead to the specific question of what needs to happen in Afghanistan and how -- Kim.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Thanks so much, Melissa Bell live from Paris. And it is not just the U.S. and its allies who are concerned by the

Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan. China is keeping a close eye on how events are unfolding on its far western border. But as CNN's David Culver reports, Beijing is likely to take a very different approach from the West.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just weeks before the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, China made a very public display of growing closer to the group's leadership. Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, meeting the Taliban delegation in northern China in July, giving legitimacy and perhaps confidence the militant group long regarded with fear and suspicion by the rest of the world.

As many global powers now rush to escape Afghanistan, China claims it remains one of the few countries to retain its embassy in the capital. But China's support for the Taliban comes with strings attached, China's help with reconstruction in exchange for the Taliban assuring regional stability.

HUA CHUNYING, CHINESE FOREIGN MINISTRY SPOKESPERSON (through translation): They will never allow any forces to use Afghan territory to endanger China.

CULVER (voice-over): A deal brokered between awkward allies, a militant group representing hardline Islam and a Chinese government accused of cultural genocide against and mass detainment of its Muslim minorities at home. But China's relationship with a Taliban goes back a long way.

SEAN ROBERTS, AUTHOR, "THE WAR ON THE UYGHURS": It established relations with the Taliban already in 1999 at the encouragement of Pakistan, which is one of China's closest allies.

CULVER: The relationship was seen as pragmatism to manage a potential threat as China shares a small border with Afghanistan through the Wakhan Corridor, and China's multi-billion-dollar belt in road investments in neighboring Pakistan are at stake.

HENRY STOREY, POLITICAL RISK ANALYST: I think they are very wary to get involved militarily. And so, at this stage, I think trying to cultivate the top rungs of the Taliban promised lots of foreign aid and investments that is really the least-worst option at the moment.

CULVER (voice-over): The Taliban, for its part has not spoken out publicly against China's crackdown on its Uyghur Muslim population in Xinjiang, a silence replicated by many other Muslim majority countries such as Iran and Saudi Arabia. The Chinese government defends its Xinjiang policy and says it's trying to stamp out terrorism after several attacks, which it blamed on a group called the East Turkistan Islamic Movement, or ETIM, a tiny fringe group that began to dissolve when its leader was killed by the Pakistani military in 2003.

Sean Roberts, author of, "The War on the Uyghurs" says the Chinese government used George W. Bush's war on terror to justify its harsh policies targeting the ethnic Muslim minorities.

ROBERTS: I think that shielded China from a lot of criticism for some of the draconian policies it carried out against Uyghurs.

CULVER (voice-over): But other groups who could use the plight of the Uyghur cause to recruit Jihadist, a concern for Asia superpower as it tries to navigate the new political reality on its doorstep.

David Culver, CNN, Beijing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: All right, coming up, we've all seen those pictures of Afghans climbing on planes and begging soldiers to choose them, but not every Afghan who wants to go can leave. It all depends on which countries are willing to take them in. We'll have reaction to the unfolding refugee crisis, next. Stay with us.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: The Biden administration is scrambling to process applications for vulnerable Afghans especially those who helped U.S. during the war. Republican and Democratic leaders say they are eager to welcome evacuees although there is fearmongering from some on the far right. Here is Brian Todd.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Some Afghan evacuees who have been granted so-called special immigrant visas or SIV's arriving in the United States and some governors have stepped up to say they're welcome in their States.

GOV. TONY EVERS (D-WI): We have open arms here in Wisconsin.

TODD: Governor Tony Evers is a Democrat. At least nine Republican governors also say their States will welcome Afghan refugees. So far, the U.S. government has relocated around 2,000 Afghan visa applicants to the United States during the current crisis but could potentially bring in up to 30,000. Some have landed at Dulles Airport near Washington. Others are being housed temporarily at Fort Lee, Virginia. Pentagon officials say military bases in Texas and Wisconsin may also house some. But in the long-term --

KRISH O'MARA VIGNARAJAH, LUTHERAN IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE SERVICE: For some, they may have a family tie. For others, they may want to go where other Afghans have gone before. So as a result, we see particular concentrations in Texas, California, the D.C. metro area, including Maryland and Virginia and then Pennsylvania.

TODD (voice-over): But there's now push back from some conservative political figures on the plan to bring Afghan evacuees to America. Stephen Miller, former top adviser to President Trump, went on Fox News to say that resettling Afghans is little more than a costly political move.

STEPHEN MILLER, FORMER TRUMP SENIOR WHITE HOUSE ADVISER: Those who are advocating mass Afghan resettlement in this country are doing so for political, not humanitarian reasons. It is extraordinarily expensive to resettle a refugee in the United States. They get free health care, they get free education, they get free housing, they get free food.

TODD (voice-over): Plus, Miller suggested without evidence that Afghans who have been granted those visas could pose security threats.

MILLER: We no longer are in control of the central apparatus in Afghanistan to be able to vet anybody.

TODD (voice-over): Advocates who've helped Afghan refugees are pushing back hard on Miller, saying it is unconscionable for him to reject those who helped U.S. forces in Afghanistan, and in some cases, saved American lives.

MATT ZELLER, CO-FOUNDER, NO ONE LEFT BEHIND: There is no us and them. There's just an, us.

[04:55:00]

And you know what, Stephen Miller never wore a uniform a day in his life.

TODD (voice-over): Krish O'mara Vignarajah, whose group has helped resettle thousands of refugees, points out, in the past, refugees like those from Vietnam, by and large, made their American communities stronger. As for any possible security risks among these arriving Afghans --

VIGNARAJAH: That couldn't be farther from the truth. These are individuals who went through a 14-part process in order to enter the U.S. They went through bio metric checks. They went through CIA and Interpol databases, in-person interviews, medical examinations.

TODD: Krish Vignarajah also says those Afghans are arriving in the U.S. with valuable skills. They worked as interpreters, engineers, doctors, drivers, meatpackers, security guards, she says. People who are especially needed in the United States right now given the labor shortage caused by the pandemic.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: And if you are interested in helping Afghan refugees or if you are a veteran troubled by events in Afghanistan, we can connect you with organizations offering help by visiting our website at CNN.com/impact.

Well, I'm Kim Brunhuber. Thanks so much for watching CNN NEWSROOM. "EARLY START" is next.

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