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Helicopters Bring 169 Americans To Kabul Airport; Chaotic Journey To Escape Through Kabul Airport; U.S. Made Commitment To Afghans As Taliban Began Takeover; Taliban Releasing Prisoners, Including ISIS Fighters; Some Haiti Areas Receiving No Aid After Earthquake; Thousands Protest Over Australia's Increased COVID-19 Restrictions. Aired 1-1:30a ET

Aired August 21, 2021 - 01:00   ET

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

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MICHAEL HOLMES, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world joining us from around the world, appreciate, company I'm Michael Holmes. Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM.

Desperate to get out, chaotic scenes at Kabul's airport with the U.S. president promising to get all Americans out.

Damage as far as the eye can see. Haiti struggles with the aftermath of a devastating earthquake hitting in the most remote of areas.

Also, Australia recording its highest daily count of COVID cases, protests over COVID restrictions.

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HOLMES: Evacuation flights have resumed in Kabul after a lengthy pause on Friday as officials scrambled to line up more countries willing to take in the refugees. Even temporarily.

It's a huge operation, nowhere near enough to accommodate the crowds outside of the gates. Anxiety, fear are everywhere as men, women and children wait sometimes for days in the heat and cold, trying to ward off assaults by Taliban militants.

The U.S. military is just one element of the evacuation efforts. The British military sending out photos of its troops and aircraft also involved in the operation. The Germans are as well and others.

Now the Pentagon confirming on Friday that 169 Americans were evacuated by helicopter from a hotel when they were unable to reach the Kabul airport on foot. It's the first known rescue operation of Americans outside of the airport perimeter.

But for thousands of Afghans massed outside the airport gates, the situation is becoming more volatile and tense. CNN's Sam Kiley with the latest. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Desperate for a child's salvation, a baby handed to the U.S. Marines over razor wire at Kabul's airport. President Biden offering a dispassionate view.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've secured the airport, enabling flights to resume, not just military flights but civilian charters and other -- from other countries and the NGOs taking out civilians and vulnerable Afghans. And now we have almost 6,000 troops on the ground.

KILEY (voice-over): But through the eyes of daylight today, no evacuation aircraft left the runway, leaving hundreds pressing on its perimeter as night fell. Some 13,000 people have been flown out by the U.S. since last Saturday, August the 14th.

Many times that number are waiting in heat, chaos and gunfire. Threatened by Taliban whips, they fear worse awaits them if they stay.

The German broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, says the Taliban fighters, searching for one of their journalists, killed a member of his family. And artists are fleeing in fear, too.

SAHRAA KARIMI, AFGHAN FILM DIRECTOR: As a human being you should have a value. But under Taliban rules, OK, you live but with miserable life. OK, life is not about just eating or they're in (INAUDIBLE), it is about creativity.

KILEY (voice-over): The Taliban is dismissing allegations of reprisal attacks against those who fought them or work for NATO as fake news. Twenty years of fighting by the U.S. and its allies has resulted in a Taliban triumph and an evacuation of local allies and foreigners that looks more like a rout.

Many European allies of the U.S. are rattled by the sudden withdrawal of American forces and the Taliban victory.

JENS STOLTENBERG, NATO SECRETARY GENERAL: There are hard questions that we need to ask ourselves over our engagement in Afghanistan.

KILEY (voice-over): The president defiant.

BIDEN: There's a greater danger from ISIS and Al Qaeda and all these affiliates and other countries by far than there is from Afghanistan.

And we're going to retain an over-the-horizon capability, if they were to come back, to be able to take them out, surgically move. So this is where we should be. This is about America leading the world. And all our allies have agreed with that.

KILEY (voice-over): The Taliban, meanwhile, celebrating with broadcast parades of its special forces, carrying what appear to be captured American weapons. They were all born in a time of war, like this baby who was treated in an airport clinic and returned to their family. If she makes it out of Kabul, she at least will have no memory of

these dark days -- Sam Kiley, CNN, Doha, Qatar.

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HOLMES: After reporting from inside Afghanistan for 3 weeks, our Clarissa Ward and her team made it inside the airport on Friday. Before leaving Kabul, she described the growing desperation among the thousands of people trying to flee.

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CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I've talked to people here who have been waiting for 2 days -- 2 days -- and it's such a bottleneck trying to get all of these people processed, all these people through.

The problem is that, at these bottlenecks, you have these very dangerous situations, where you have a crush of people, crowds. And one soldier was telling me that yesterday two women actually threw their babies over the fence, trying to throw them to the U.S. soldiers.

One soldier actually caught the baby in his arms. He went and found the woman afterwards to give the baby back.

But, honestly, what kind of desperate does a parent have to be in where that is your best hope, to just throw your baby to a soldier, to get them out, to save them from being crushed, to give them a better future?

I think there is nothing that illustrates better the panic, chaos, the fear than that description. I talked to another British soldier who started talking to me and he started weeping.

He said I've done 2 tours in Helmand. But the PTSD I will have from this last week is worse than either of those deployments.

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HOLMES: Now like so many others, Clarissa and her team faced a treacherous journey to the airport. She described the scene outside as a crush of desperate people. Once passing through Taliban checkpoints, her team waited for hours in the blistering heat and long lines with the Afghans as well.

But they were among the lucky few who managed to leave on Friday. This was a scene inside their flight to Doha in Qatar. Their team packed on a U.S. aircraft along some 300 Afghan evacuees.

A short time ago Clarissa tweeted they all landed in Doha, saying, "We are the lucky ones." CNN's Jomana Karadsheh joins me now from Istanbul. It's interesting, Jomana; President Biden working hard Friday to make

it sound like plans are coming together. But it's hard to believe that when we see these scenes at the airport.

What are people in the region, where you, are saying about what we've been seeing?

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, Michael, I think people have been absolutely shocked, stunned that this is the world's superpower. This is America trying to pull off an operation like this.

Granted, this is, as we heard from President Biden, one of the most difficult, one of the biggest airlifts in history. But what people are looking at, Michael, it's not necessarily the fact that these evacuations have been really tough. It's just the way it was all handled.

You have U.S. officials right now, from the president, other senior officials in damage control mode trying to project an image that they are in control, everything is going or will go well. They are going to expand this operation, ramp up evacuations.

But I think what will stick with people in this region for a long time is the images they have seen over the past week, images that Clarissa was describing, the crush to get into the airport, those desperate crowds outside. People clutching onto U.S. military aircraft, just so desperate to get out of the country.

They will also remember the words, what the U.S. President was saying throughout the week, what people were hearing in this region is, Americans are the priority. America's the priority.

Now we are hearing, of course, U.S. officials are saying that their partners are also a priority, allies, people who worked with them, they will get them out. But what people have taken from this past week, Michael -- I hear this from a lot of people -- there was hope when the new administration came into office, that this is going to be something different after the Trump era of America first.

But the feeling here is that, no matter who is in the White House, it will always be America first, that hope that human rights will be at the heart of American policy, foreign policy, people are still not seeing that.

So no matter what is said or done right now, what we saw unfold after the past week, this is really going to stay with people for a long time.

And it's going to be tough for the U.S. when it comes to working with allies with partners in other countries, to guarantee that they will always be there for them. Of course, Michael, as people are watching, no one wanted the U.S. to stay there forever.

It is just a question of why it had to be like this.

Why wasn't this done in a more orderly way? Other countries in this region, people in this country where I am, are also watching this, with a lot of sympathy, a lot of heartbreak seeing what is happening.

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KARADSHEH: But also a lot of concern that, whatever is going to be left, the mess that people say has been left, they are going to have to deal with. There's a lot of concern about another refugee crisis, Michael.

HOLMES: Yes, indeed. And the soldiers I embedded with, they don't like to leave anyone behind and people are being left behind. Jomana, thank you.

Jomana Karadsheh there in Istanbul.

Russia's president Vladimir Putin says the world needs to accept the political reality of Taliban control in Afghanistan, making those remarks at a news conference with German chancellor, Angela Merkel, in Moscow.

Mr. Putin says the way things unfolded show it's time for countries to stop meddling in Afghanistan's affairs.

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VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): It is necessary to stop the U.S. policy of imposing someone else's values from the outside. The desire to build democracy from outside, according to the other people's patterns, without taking into account any historical, cultural or religious realities, completely ignoring the traditions by which other people live.

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HOLMES: Bill Roggio is the managing editor of the "Long War Journal." You should check it out. He joins me now.

Good to see you again, Bill.

Now that the Taliban has taken, over what do you hear about a localized pushback?

What are the odds that opposition could become more organized and perhaps even lead to civil conflict in parts of the country?

BILL ROGGIO, MANAGING EDITOR, "LONG WAR JOURNAL": Hello, Michael. It has been a dark week and a dark several months in Afghanistan. But I think we are seeing a small, tiny ray of hope that is emerging from Panjshir province. It's the only province that hasn't been overrun by the Taliban.

The son of (ph) Ahmad Shah Massoud, who was the famed anti-Taliban leader of the Northern Alliance was killed by Al Qaeda on September 9th, 2001, he and Amrullah Saleh (ph), who was one of the vice presidents and the national director of security in Afghanistan's FBI and CIA, were all rolled up in one, are starting to mount some resistance.

So they held the Panjshir province -- that is a sort of fortress province in the mountains. And they are taking the fight outside. They took control of four districts, one in Parwan province, which is where Bagram Air Base, near Bagram Air Base right now, and 3 in Bagram province, it's the east and the northeast of it.

I'm hearing rumors that they're moving into Bamyan province as well. So a lot of questions here. It's a long shot. The Taliban is organized and they have a lot of war materiel.

But Saleh, he may have been the man Afghanistan needed. And we are hoping it is not too late.

HOLMES: Yes, well, hopefully, that is a glimmer. As you write in the "Long War Journal," I'll read some of it, you said, "The U.S. is fearful of upsetting the Taliban as it evacuates American citizens via Hamid Karzai International Airport."

What were the mistakes made in terms of even being in this position?

As many have said, evacuations, of particularly translators and other workers, should've started months ago.

ROGGIO: Yes, absolutely. The U.S. policy from February 29th, 2020, under the Trump administration, was that we were leaving Afghanistan. And yet nothing was done to prepare for this, to get the individuals out, to scale back the embassy, to talk to American citizens and Westerners as well as to get key Afghan personnel out.

Instead, the Biden administration pretended that Afghanistan had a year or two before it would be in trouble. It did not anticipate or understand that the Taliban was prepared to take over large parts of the country.

And it never implemented in its plan to just hold the embassy and the airfield in Kabul. This was an absolute mistake. If this was happening, you needed to secure big parts of the city.

HOLMES: Yes, it should have happened a long time ago.

I want to ask you this, the U.S. and others, including the president today, talking about an unwavering commitment to the Afghan people.

But is that not meaningless?

The Afghan people are on their own, basically, aren't they?

ROGGIO: Yes, there is no unwavering commitment, there's no commitment right now to the Afghan people. It is a madhouse in Kabul right now. President Biden and his team have told us everything's fine and the airport is accessible. But who are you going to believe, me or your lying eyes?

We all know what we are seeing on the television.

HOLMES: Yes, exactly. I wanted to ask you this, too. The Taliban have been releasing prisoners all across the country, including accused ISIS fighters as. Well

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HOLMES: How soon do you think terror networks, anti Western jihadis, establish themselves in Afghanistan and begin plotting attacks?

ROGGIO: Al Qaeda has been established in Afghanistan. In 2015, the U.S. raided one of the largest bases it's seen since it launched the war on terror in Kandahar province and killed 150 Al Qaeda operatives.

The release of these prisoners, this is a boon for jihadism. Some of them are Islamic, from the Islamic State, but most of them are from Al Qaeda and affiliated groups. I'm told that members of -- and it makes sense, because we know we detained them but of the external operation cells, these were the ones who plotted attacks (INAUDIBLE).

And scores of them have been freed from the prisons in Bagram and elsewhere throughout the country. So the Al Qaeda has had its ranks expanded significantly by this (INAUDIBLE).

HOLMES: I want to ask you this, too, before, we go, what do you make of the Taliban taking massive amounts of U.S. weaponry?

They were releasing photographs today of fighters with U.S. M-16s, M- 4s, not to mention driving around in U.S. Humvees and even MRAPs, quite apart from the embarrassing optics, it gives them a lot of firepower they didn't have before.

ROGGIO: Absolutely. We are just seeing a small fraction of this. I've seen video after video. So they overran all of the Afghan military spaces, their army corps headquarters and large military and training bases.

And in these videos, you will just see them panning over fields of Humvees, armored vehicles, fuel trucks, sometimes tanks, artillery pieces. And I've even seen Taliban flying helicopters. The more advanced weaponry is going to more difficult to keep in the air over time.

It'll degrade quickly; the maintenance and issues like. That but these Humvees and trucks and armored vehicles significantly increases the Taliban's combat power. (INAUDIBLE).

HOLMES: Yes, yes, it's a -- what a mess, as we have been saying. Bill Roggio, got to leave it there, really appreciate it, as always.

ROGGIO: Thank you for having me on, Michael. Have a great night.

(END VIDEOTAPE) HOLMES: Quick break here on the program, when we come, back some areas in Haiti are yet to see any aid, even though it has been a week since the devastating earthquake. Coming, up CNN flies to remote towns and villages that have been dealing with the aftermath largely alone.

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HOLMES: Welcome back.

More international aid is dripping into southern Haiti even as the needs of earthquake victims get more dire by the hour. UNICEF delivered its first batch of supplies to the capital on Friday with more aid on the way. But we want to take you to some areas that have not received any help since the earthquake struck a week ago. Our Matt Rivers flew there.

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MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Our chopper takes off with no clear destination in mind.

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RIVERS (voice-over): Flying with charity group World Central Kitchen or WCK, we want to find remote villages in Haiti that still need help.

A week after this earthquake just finding out where the needs are, remains a challenge. A tip led us to Grande Cayemite, an island off Haiti's coast.

On the ground, we're told damage is actually a bit further west, which it is seen from above. Dozens of structures were damaged and the contact in town told us no one has come to help them yet, but we can't either.

RIVERS: So there was damage in that town and the people there clearly wanted us to land and the problem was there was no safe area for us to touch down and that gives you an idea of how difficult it is to access these places. Just because you want to go somewhere doesn't mean that you can at least right away.

RIVERS (voice-over): Another tip leads us back into Haiti's mountains and the remote town of Minish. Destruction greets us as we land and the charity starts to assess the damage.

RIVERS: In terms of figuring out exactly what needs what you really need to go to the ground?

JEAN MARC DEMATTEIS, BOARD MEMBER, WORLD CENTRAL KITCHEN: Correct. And these areas are remote, for the cell service has been knocked out and due to damage from the earthquake. So there's no substitute for just getting out there and on the ground. RIVERS (voice-over): There team fans out and so do we, the damage is as bad as anything we've seen. Entire blocks destroyed, near some damage lead distinct smell of bodies lingers. Amidst all the rubble there is grief.

Rose Mika Fontus' mom died when her home collapsed. My mom was everything to us, she says and now she's gone. We're just waiting for help.

Rose is now homeless, saying the government has yet to visit her town, they've had to make do with what they have not easy in such a remote place. That's where charities like WKC are trying to help fill the gap. People crowd around as the team drops off a few hundred sandwiches. Now that they know where to go, aid workers say thousands more meals will likely follow soon.

RIVERS: Of course, it is a good thing that organizations like the World Central Kitchen have identified this town in dire need of assistance. They're starting to figure out exactly what those needs are. But those are just first steps, unfortunately.

Getting those government resources actually moved into that area is a different challenge altogether. And this is not the only town affected by the earthquake there. Scattered throughout the region affected by all of this, many of which haven't gotten any help so far -- Matt Rivers, CNN, Port-au-Prince, Haiti.

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HOLMES: And find out how you can help the people of Haiti suffering from the earthquake. Go to cnn.com/impact. Plenty of resources there for you.

Hurricane Grace is now the first major hurricane of the Atlantic season and approaching landfall in Mexico for a second time. Its outer bands lashing the Mexican coast, a category 3 storm with maximum sustained winds of 195 kilometers per hour.

Grace expected to produce up to 12 inches, 300 millimeters of rain. And the National Hurricane Center warning of potential storm surges between 6 and 9 feet.

Coming up on CNN NEWSROOM, anger over new COVID restrictions in Australia. We will have the latest on demonstrations after new lockdowns were imposed. We will be right back.

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HOLMES: New restrictions to stem a virulent COVID outbreak meeting with sometimes violent resistance in Australia. Officers in Melbourne clashing with demonstrators, using pepper spray, as the state of Victoria went into full lockdown.

Thousands of protesters marching in various cities as Australia records its worst daily case count of the pandemic, 825 infections in New South Wales.

As cases also rise in New Zealand, its prime minister says a newly extended lockdown will let contact tracers find out how far the virus has actually spread.

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HOLMES (voice-over): A national lockdown extended in New Zealand over a small cluster of COVID-19 cases. The first case identified in Auckland earlier this week. Cases have been discovered in at least one other city since.

JACINDA ARDERN, NEW ZEALAND PRIME MINISTER: We just don't quite know the full scale of this Delta outbreak. All in all, it tells us we need to continue to be cautious and that we need more time before we have the complete picture we need to change our seatings (ph).

HOLMES (voice-over): The country's lockdown now continuing into the middle of next week to try to contain the first outbreak of locally transmitted cases since February. Some residents say they had hoped it was gone for good, at least in New Zealand, which has had much success containing the virus.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just got it, really. I think most of the country is gutted. We've kept it out for so long and now it's, back so it is what it, is I suppose.

HOLMES (voice-over): Australia also tightening some of its coronavirus restrictions. A lockdown in Sydney has been extended until the end of September. And officials say that people must wear masks as soon as they step outside their house except when exercising.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's time for all of us to bunker down, take this as seriously as we can, although so many of us have, the vast majority have.

HOLMES (voice-over): Officials say the outbreak in Sydney has not yet peaked. The worst is yet to come. The city still logging record- breaking numbers of new COVID-19 cases, even after nearly two months of lockdown.

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HOLMES: Thanks for spending part of your day with me, I'm Michael Holmes. You can follow me on Twitter and Instagram @HolmesCNN. Do stay with us. "LIVING GOLF" coming your way next. I will see with 30 minutes.