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Biden Still Deciding Over Extending August 31 Deadline; Thousands at Kabul Airport Fear Being Left Behind; FDA Fully Approves Pfizer COVID-19 Vaccine. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired August 24, 2021 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:17]
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, again, everyone. I'm John Vause.
Coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM:
The harsh reality of math. The number of evacuees leaving Kabul every day is falling way short of the number needed to ensure all Afghan with special visas are airlifted to safety before next week's deadline.
After eight months and more than 200 million doses administered in the U.S., Pfizer's COVID vaccine receives full approval, bringing hope to the boost in the rate of vaccinations.
And amid a surging COVID crisis in Japan, the Paralympics is set to begin. The stadiums are empty but the interest is growing.
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VAUSE: The fate of possibly tens of thousands of Afghans who helped U.S. forces during two decades of wars and their families now rest with the U.S. president and a crucial decision on whether to extend and airlift beyond August 31st deadline that seven days away.
And pressure is also growing among U.S. allies. Britain, France and Germany say there is a moral obligation to the Afghans and all three countries expected to push for a deadline extension during a virtual meeting of G7 leaders now hours away. The U.S. says more than 16,000 were evacuated from Sunday into Monday, more than double the number from a day earlier.
But even so, Kabul airport remains crammed with about 6,500 people, mostly Afghans, hoping for flight to safety. Another pressure point comes from the U.S. military, which has told the White House it needs to know within 24 hours if the current deadline stands, because of logistics and planning needed for the withdrawal of close to 6,000 troops and equipment.
And then there is the Taliban. Any extension for them is a non- starter, warning that if all U.S. troops and personnel are not out by early next week, there will be consequences.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETRY: We are well aware of the stated desire to -- by the Taliban to have this mission completed by the 31st of August. I will tell you that we too are still planning on completing it by the 31st of August. That is the mission that has been signed by the commander-in-chief assigned to us, and that's what we're trying to execute.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Amid the cold calculations of airlift capacity divided by days left until the deadline, there are families, mothers, and fathers, children who are waiting and watching as each passing minute brings a possible death sentence a minute closer. And now comes a new threat from the terror group ISIS.
CNN's Sam Kiley reports now from Kabul airport.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One of four Afghan soldiers wounded in a firefight after an unknown sniper killed a comrade who is guarding Kabul's airport. The attack followed warning that ISIS posed a threat to the evacuation of thousands of foreigners and Afghans from the capital.
JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: The threat is real, it is acute, it is persistent, and it is something that we are focused on with every tool in our arsenal.
KILEY: This was the first recent attack on the airport, and it came as the State Department said that Afghans who've been issued special immigration visas would no longer be allowed into the airport. Thousands of others already inside are being evacuated.
This is the penultimate stage for evacuees before they get on an aircraft and get out of the country to safety. They're down to about the last 10,000, having moved 10,500 the last 24 hours. But the problem is, the thousands of people left outside the gate with no real prospect now that the special immigration visas have been suspended of getting in and getting out to safety.
The re-opening of the gates to the airport is likely to depend on how long U.S. and coalition forces can stay on to run evacuations.
President Biden has said troops would remain until all Americans are out. But the Taliban has told CNN that U.S. troops would have to leave by August 31st and no extensions.
American troops are already feeling the strain of refusing entry to so many families at the airport gates.
LT. COL. PINKIE FISCHER, DIVISION CHAPLAIN, 82ND AIRBORNE: A lot of these paratroopers are married. And I know while they're standing there nothing else to do but doing their job, they're probably thinking about what it would be like --
KILEY: Those are my kids.
FISCHER: Exactly, what would it be like?
KILEY: Here though, safety and freedom comes with a white wristband. It's a plane ticket given out already to 38,000, but the window to more flights to freedom is fast closing.
Sam Kiley, CNN, Kabul International Airport.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: CNN's Anna Coren has covered Afghanistan for years and has recently returned from Kabul.
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She's with us live from Hong Kong.
Anna, the time now in Kabul just past 9:30 on Tuesday morning, sort of a start of new working day, if you like. How many evacuees are now actually inside Kabul's airport at this time?
ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, that number that we have just learned, six and a half thousand evacuees, I mean, that is a vast difference to what we were hearing yesterday -- 20,000 evacuees within the airport. So, if they were just working with six and a half thousand evacuees, they should be able to get those out today if they are all vetted and everything checks out, and they have the appropriate documents, they should be boarding planes and flying to U.S. bases, third countries today.
Does that then mean that the U.S. will allow those special immigrant visas, those holders to then enter the airport? We have seen those chaotic scenes outside the perimeter at all the various gates around this enormous airport compound. But with thousands of people had just packed, some camping out for days, many with their families, many with children, we have heard reports of dehydration, of children running out of water.
So, you've got a humanitarian crisis just unfolding outside the very gates of the airport.
Will the marines then allow the people with the appropriate documents, not just those who applied for an SIV, but those who are holding these very important pieces of paper which then allows them to potentially settle in the United States?
This is -- this is the question, or will the marines decide, done, any operation has to wind down now? Then they have to get five and a half thousand, more than -- what, 5,900 U.S. troops. You've got British troops on the ground, along with Australian troops, other troops we know who were there at Hamid Karzai International Airport. Will they wind up those operations? They need to pack up equipment.
Remember, we never thought that this airport was going to fall. You know, when I was there last month John, it was supposed to be a U.S. embassy patrolled by 650 U.S. troops. They were going to operate between the embassy and the airport. U.S. troops were going to look after until Turkish troops remained.
That has all now disappeared, that as all vanished into thin air. The Taliban are in control, and as we heard from the Taliban spokesman yesterday, if the U.S. remain beyond that August 31st deadline, not be a clear violation and there will be consequences.
We know the President Biden will be attending that G7 virtual meeting convened by the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. We know that there is pressure from the Brits, as well as the French to extend that deadline, perhaps to September 11th.
But as we are continually hearing from indeed the White House, they want to meet that 31st of August deadline that does not give much time, John, to get any more Afghans out.
VAUSE: Time is the issue here and it's clearly running out.
Anna, thank you. Anna Coren live for us in Hong Kong.
Lieutenant Colonel Tripp Adams served with the U.S. military for 25 years. He's now working with other veterans to help get Afghans out of the country.
Lieutenant Colonel Tripp Adams, thank you for being with us.
LT. COL. TRIPP ADAMS, DEFENSE COUNCILOR, TRUMAN NATIONAL SECURITY PROJECT: Thanks for having me, John.
VAUSE: OK. So, there is chaos and confusion in Kabul airport. And now, CNN is reporting that current policy is to only let U.S. and NATO citizens into the airport. They hope to soon move to permitting applicants for the U.S. Special Immigrant Visa program, along with the U.S. embassy's local Afghan staff.
At this current pace, there seems virtually no chance that all the Afghans who working alongside U.S. forces as well of their families could get out before next Tuesday, which is this August 31st deadline. And in many ways, there seems to have never really been a chance from the get-go.
ADAMS: I would agree with that statement, John.
VAUSE: Where does that leave us now? There was deliberative attempt, or there was no attempt to get these people out?
ADAMS: I'm not sure if it was deliberate. I think to me just as a military planner and someone who's been doing this for 25 years, it was a failure to make, you know, certain assumptions and as I talked about yesterday today, it is a throughput and a coordination problem, and you just think of it of like a clog.
Today, I believe they got 16,000 people out of the airport. But the gates were relatively closed. If you're not getting people through the gates, will they be able to repeat that tomorrow? And they were only doing a couple of thousand the previous days. So, where does that leave us? It's a math problem.
And as you said, you know, three to four days from now, when we start packing up, we're still going to leave tens of thousands of the people who helped us and served with us for 20 years behind.
VAUSE: Yeah. I want you to listen to the U.S.'s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, on how long he says this evacuation will continue.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SULLIVAN: We will continue to get Afghans that risk out of the country, even after U.S. military forces have left.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: How? How will that even be possible?
ADAMS: I don't know how that is possible. I think there's a lot of risks that comes to folks getting to the report. You know, the reason that myself and other veterans and other State Department folks and their personal capacities come together to support this is because it's so difficult just to get to the airport gates and through the gates right now with the U.S. military forces there.
So, how are we going to do that once the U.S. military leaves? I think it's a real challenge. I would be interested in hearing with the plan is for that.
VAUSE: So, when veterans like yourself, especially veterans who served in Afghanistan, when they look at what's happening, and look at these people who supported and worked alongside and were colleagues of U.S. and Air Forces in Afghanistan for almost two decades, when they see them sort of being left behind and not be able to get to the airport, what does that do to them? How does that leave you feeling? How do you cope with this?
ADAMS: John, it's destroying them. It's mental trauma that I think it's going to be absolutely destroying this generation of veterans. You have veterans who have fought for 20 years. Kids who were born back in 2001 who have fought no. And the people they serve next to we are leaving behind, I spoke to a good friend who's a former 75th ranger regiment. One of the greatest warriors I've ever known. He has been through combat, lost friends and come back through it strong. He broke down on the phone with me the other day, because his interpreter who saved his life and served with him, texted him and was saying, hey, I understand you're not going to be able to come for us and I don't blame you.
It's breaking them. It's breaking veterans. I think there are two disasters here. There's the humanitarian disaster you were reporting about. Live on television. And there is the mental trauma disaster that's going to haunt our veterans for decades to come. VAUSE: What's known as the civil reserve air fleet in the United
States was evacuated over the weekend. Commercial jets by the president, helped with this airlift. Just outside Washington on Monday, on board 340 evacuees, flown to U.S. airbase and Qatar out of Kabul. These flights don't actually go into Kabul. They go to other bases in the region, from Germany, wherever.
But it does beg the question, why is this only happening now? I mean, the airlines we are told on Friday, they could be needed. I mean, this goes to the point that there was no plan in place, and it's all just sort of ad hoc.
ADAMS: So John, I agree. There is a great organization out there. No one left behind, human rights first, international refugee assistance program. They've been working there for years. They presented plans about how to get these folks out.
So, why it's happening, we can debate about that and analyze it. Once we get our people out. Right now, I think the key point is there is, an arbitrary deadline of August 31st. I listen to what was said before about we're going to pull the troops out. What is that going to do to our interpreters?
We are targeted by the Taliban. These people who fought alongside us stuck their necks out on the line for us, and I just don't see the U.S. military allowing them to have a fair chance to get out or even live.
VAUSE: Wow. I mean, the reality is something has to be done. What could be done with the 7 days left?
ADAMS: We've got to get more people through those gates. There's been a lot of miscommunication between the inter-agencies and the Department of State and the Department of Defense.
And I want to applaud my colleagues in the state and defense. I worked with them and they are doing heroic efforts, but they're just not equipped with the resources that they need. Even if we got 10,000 or 16,000 folks out for the next few days, we'd still be leaving tens of thousands of interpreters, cooks, female judges, female parliamentarians behind, because we didn't plan ahead.
So, I think the first thing is to remove that arbitrary deadline. It needs to be conditions based deadline.
VAUSE: So, we'll leave it there.
Lieutenant Colonel Tripp Adams, thank you so much.
ADAMS: John, thank you very much for having me.
VAUSE: Ahead here on CNN, there are few things in this world more terrifying right now than being a woman living in Afghanistan. How the Taliban can be expected to turn the clock back on 20 years of progress. Also, it seems those who refused to be vaccinated with COVID-19 are running of reasons why. Regulators in the U.S. put an end to one in the more popular excuses by giving full approval to Pfizer's vaccine. And what does now mean for mandates?
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VAUSE: In the past 8 months, more than 200 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been administered across the United States. And finally, on Monday, health regulators issued their full approval, the first for a COVID vaccine in the U.S.
Until now, all COVID vaccines had received until not emergency use authorization. The announcement means the Food and Drug Administration has confirmed much of the original data about safety and effectiveness submitted by Pfizer from emergency authorization, as well as meaning quality and safety standards during manufacturing.
Health experts say that time has come for reluctant Americans to get the shot.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. STEPHEN HAHN, FORMER U.S. FDA COMMISSIONER: For those who've been waiting for this full approval that this is the impetus for them to get vaccinated, we have clear evidence of the safety and effectiveness of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. It's undergone full approval and full vetting by the gold standard, the USFDA.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So, just how much sway will this FDA approval have on vaccine skeptics? Well, it depends on who you ask.
Back in June, a Kaiser Family Foundation survey broke it down into groups. Of those who said they wanted the vaccination as possible, almost 80 percent said they'd be more likely to get the shot after FDA approval. But that number drops to 49 percent among those waiting to see how the vaccine would work. Thirty percent for those that said they would only get it if the shot is forced, and only 8 percent who say totally opposed to the vaccine.
The White House chief medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, says if the overwhelming majority of Americans get vaccinated, then the U.S. could bring the pandemic under control by May next year.
CNN's Nick Watt picks up the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): About 82 million Americans are eligible but have not yet gotten the vaccine. Some were waiting for this, not just emergency use authorization but full FDA approval. JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The moment you've been
waiting for is here. It's time for you to go and get your vaccination, and get it today. Today.
WATT: The president also made a plea for more vaccine mandates.
BIDEN: If you're a business leader, a nonprofit leader, a state or local leader who has been waiting for full FDA approval to require vaccinations, I call and you now to do that for that requirement. Do what I did last month, require your employees to get vaccinated.
WATT: This morning in Miami, defying the anti-mask governor, schools reopened in Florida's largest district with a mask mandate.
ALBERTO CARVALHO, SUPERINTENDENT, MIAMI, MIAMI-DADE COUNTY: If there's a consequence, put it on me. If there's a price to be paid, put it on me.
WATT: The feds also ready to fight anti-mask local legislatures.
MIGUEL CARDONA, U.S. SECRETARY OF EDUCATION: We are prepared to launch investigations with our Office for Civil Rights to ensure that all students have access to this fundamental right of education.
WATT: There are schools in the South that have opened and closed again or put kids in quarantine due to COVID cases.
DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: I think this is a harbinger of the challenges that we're going to face nationally as schools reopen. The schools could become focal points of community transmission.
[01:20:02]
WATT: The U.S. is now averaging nearly 150,000 cases a day, and once again averaging over 1,000 COVID-related deaths per day. That is up over 50 percent in just a week. Vaccines? They were just three days in a row with more than 1 million shots in arms. We haven't seen that since mid-June.
DR. VIVEK MURTHY, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: Especially with the delta variant, getting that protection is more important than ever.
WATT: Mississippi has among the lowest vaccination rates in the country. Officials there say, more and more people are taking a lot of stock anti-parasitic instead. There's an online lie that it fights COVID-19. The FDA tweeted: You are not a horse, you are not a cow. Seriously, y'all, stop it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WATT (on camera): So, with that full approval, Pfizer can now also market and advertize its vaccine. A spokesperson told CNN said with that they hope to increase confidence in the vaccine.
One word of warning from the FDA, they are saying to physicians, do not use this vaccine off label for kids under 12. Not yet, they say the data is still being gathered. The dosage is still being figured out.
Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Dr. Ashish Jha is the dean of Brown University School Public Health. He's with us this hour from Providence in Rhode Island.
Welcome back. It's been a while.
DR. ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Thank you so much for having me back.
VAUSE: Again, well, the FDA specifically addressed some of the false and misleading statements, some of the blatant disinformation which has been circulating about the safety of COVID vaccines. Listen to this.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
DR. PETER MARKS, DIRECTOR OF THE FDA'S CENTER FOR BIOLOGIC EVUAATION AND RESEARCH: We've heard false claims COVID-19 vaccines cause infertility, contains microchips and it cause COVID-19. And worse, we've heard false claims that thousands of people have died from the vaccine.
Let me be clear: these claims are simply not true.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
VAUSE: So how far do you think it is that the approval will go towards ending that kind of disinformation, or improving public confidence?
JHA: Yes, I think it's going to help a lot, actually. You know, there are going to be a small proportion of conspiracy-minded people who are going not necessarily be swayed by this, but there's a large chunk of people who are unvaccinated who just didn't feel comfortable with something that only had emergency use authorization. I do think for them, it's going to be a confidence booster. And then I think for businesses thinking about mandating vaccines, this is going to go a long way.
VAUSE: Yeah, because public confidence is important. And, obviously, you don't want to dismiss it in any way. But this approval seems to have a lot more impact in terms of opening the door for mandates. Whether it's a business, or schools, the military, gyms, wherever, right? And that's where the significance could come.
JHA: Absolutely. And you know what? People are realizing, what businesses are realizing, businesses, schools, universities, is that they really cannot get back to any semblance of normal if they have a lot of people who are unvaccinated. It just won't work. They can't figure how to do it. So they want to do mandates as a way to get businesses back. But they
have been waiting for approval. They didn't need to wait for approval, by the way. They've could've done it under emergency use, but they were waiting for an approval and now they have it. I think that's going to make it much better.
VAUSE: Because approval effectively gives cover? Is that the thinking here?
JHA: Yeah, I think there's a psychological element that the vaccines are now fully approved, it's not just emergency use. So, if you're going to compel somebody to do something -- and, by the way, we compel them to get vaccinated for all kinds of things all the time. So, that's not unusual. But it's usually been in the context of fully approved vaccines.
VAUSE: White House medical adviser, Dr. Anthony Fauci, also talked about the potential real world benefits from this vaccine approval. Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, U.S. NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: If we can get through this winter, get really the majority, overwhelming majority of 90 million people have not been vaccinated, vaccinated, I hope we can start to get some good control in the spring of 2022.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: That's still not until well into next year. It's still an if. It's a long time. It's still uncertainty out there.
JHA: Yes, look, I would be a bit more optimistic. I think what we are seeing is you look at Vermont, Massachusetts that are well-vaccinated. Yeah, they are having outbreaks. But their hospitals are not filling up. People are not dying in large numbers.
So, I do think that if we can get into the sort of 70 percent of the population or higher vaccinated, it will make an enormous difference. Well over 50 percent of the option now, adding kids, adding some type of people who've been waiting on the facts, I think it start making a big difference, even going into this winter.
VAUSE: Yeah, the former U.S. President Donald Trump who politicized so much about this pandemic, he encouraged anti-maskers, he praised those who are opposed to lockdowns, he downplayed the virus from the beginning, but he talked up vaccines at a rally over the weekend in Alabama.
[01:25:00]
Here he is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I recommend taking the vaccines. I did it, it's good, take the vaccines. But, you got -- no, that's okay, that's all right. You've got your freedoms. But I happened to take the vaccine.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Yeah, the booing seems to say that he can't undo the damage he's done in many ways. Those that see pandemic restrictions as an attack on personal freedom are unlikely to be swayed.
JHA: Yes. Look, first of all, I was absolutely thrilled to hear the president, the former president, talk about the fact he got vaccinated. I think it will help encouraging more people. I wish you would go on the road, I wish the White House -- the current White House would invite him to the White House to talk about the fact that he got vaccines.
Whatever has happened in the past, we need President Trump to play a constructive role now, and he can for his followers of by speaking -- by talking up the vaccines.
VAUSE: And very quickly, where do you stand on these third booster shots? Are they still necessary because of the delta variant?
JHA: You know, I think for certain high-risk people, no doubt about it. Immunocompromised people should be getting it now. I think elderly, people with chronic diseases.
I have not yet seen the data that compels young healthy people from getting the booster. If the data becomes available, sure. But right now, we focus on high-risk.
VAUSE: Okay, and now, it is approved, and it is legit, if you like, in many ways. It's a good time to get vaccinated.
Dr. Jha, it's good to see you. Thank you for being with us.
JHA: Thank you so much.
VAUSE: It's becoming increasingly obvious, evacuations from Kabul are falling way short. So, will this Taliban regime be willing to negotiate and allow operations to continue beyond next Tuesday's deadline? What leverage does U.S. have? More on that in a moment.
And the mess in Afghanistan is following the U.S. vice president to Southeast Asia. We'll tell you what Kamala Harris would rather talk about instead of Afghanistan.
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VAUSE: U.S. President Joe Biden is under growing pressure to extend their withdrawal deadline in Afghanistan that will only increase during the virtual meeting with G7 leaders in the coming hours. Mr. Biden is also being pushed by the U.S. military to decide by Tuesday if he will keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan beyond that August 31st deadline. Those troops are currently employed as security of Kabul's airport.
And while there has been a significant increase in the number of flights out, about six and a half thousand people, mostly Afghans are now inside the airport area waiting to leave.
From beginning to end, the U.S. withdrawal has been criticized for what is a total lack of planning, complete failure of simple logistics, and the consequences will fall most heavily on those who are not evacuated. It's been an easy wait for thousands of people watching the clock tick down to withdraw deadline.
We have more now from CNN's Oren Liebermann reporting in from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
We have more now from CNN's Oren Liebermann reporting in from Washington.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At Kabul International Airport, the end of the month is coming too quickly. The U.S. is trying to hit its self-imposed August 31st deadline to complete the evacuation from Afghanistan.
JAKE SULLIVAN, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: In the days remaining, we believe we have the wherewithal to get out the American Citizens who want to leave Kabul.
LIEBERMANN: Taliban warning there will be consequences if it takes any longer. A firefight at the airport Sunday that left one Afghan security member dead underscoring the tense security situation as the U.S. tries to maximize the number of people it can fly out.
The military flew more than 10,000 people out of Kabul in 24 hours and another 5,000 on charters and other flights -- a new record and a pace that must continue.
GEN. STEVE LYONS, COMMANDER, U.S. TRANSPORTATION COMMAND: We are pushing the limits to do everything we can to get every single evacuee out of Kabul.
LIEBERMANN: In order to speed up evacuations, the Pentagon activating the Civil Reserve Air Fleet for only the third time, using 18 aircraft from commercial carriers like United and American to move evacuees from the Middle East onwards.
For now though, the U.S. prioritizing getting American citizens out. Several thousand have left the country already, the Pentagon says. A senior state department official says there still several thousand more.
The Pentagon acknowledging helicopters have left the airport not once but twice to pick up evacuees. Pentagon press secretary John Kirby hinting at more. ADMIRAL JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: On occasion where there
is a need and there's a capability to meet that need, our commanders on the ground are doing what they feel they need to do to help Americans reach the airport.
LIEBERMANN: For now, the U.S. embassy in Kabul is telling Afghan special immigrant visa applicants and evacuees not to come to the airport until they are told with potentially a little more than a week left of this evacuation airport, fear of a totalitarian Taliban regime is growing.
The brother of an Afghan interpreter received these letters from the Taliban -- a court date for helping U.S. troops and shielding his brother. And then a notification of his death sentence.
"These court decisions are final and you will not have the right to object," the third and final letter reads. "You chose this path for yourself and your death is imminent, God willing."
But a new terror threat from ISISK, an offshoot of ISIS in the Middle East, forcing the U.S. to develop alternate routes to the airport for safety even when there is so little time left to evacuate.
(on camera): Tuesday marks one week until the end of the month and a Defense official familiar with the conversations and the discussions around the U.S. troops presence in Afghanistan says it is a crucial day -- decision day.
If the U.S. wants to get all of its troops, that is 5,800 in Afghanistan, out of the country by the end of the month, the decision needs to come on Tuesday.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Vali Nasr is a professor of Middle East studies at Johns Hopkins University. He was also senior adviser on Afghanistan during the Obama administration. He is with us this hour from Washington. Professor, thank you very much for your time.
VALI NASAR, PROFESSOR OF MIDDLE EAST STUDIES, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY: Thank you.
VAUSE: In the 12 hours on Monday from 12:30 p.m. Kabul time, the white house now claims that a total of approximately 10,900 people were evacuated from Kabul. This is the result of 15 U.S. military flights which carried approximately 6,660 evacuees; 34 coalition flights which carried more than 4,000 people.
I mean that total number which includes U.S. and coalition and flights, it seems to be a bit of an attempt to punch the numbers, at least a little. We don't know how many were American or Afghan citizens, especially on those coalition flights.
Chances are, not many were Afghans with special visas or Afghans at risk. But even at this accelerate pace, does it seem almost certain that not everyone, certainly not the Afghans will make it out by this deadline next Tuesday?
NASR: No, it doesn't look like it particularly because the number of Afghans is quite large. I mean some estimates are that upwards of 20,000 Afghans should qualify for SIVs, as people who worked with us and should be evacuated. Each of them has four or five family members, that already puts the numbers close probably to 100,000 at the most.
And then we would like to bring out other people who are at risk -- women leaders, civil society leaders and the like. And those people also have family members, so we're potentially speaking about a very, very large number.
I think the administration's priority is to get the Americans out. And then get the SIVs out, and particularly to finish this without any American casualty, because if an American evacuee is killed or an American soldier is killed or injured, then we will be in a very different place.
VAUSE: Well the Pentagon said during Monday's briefing, there has been constant communication with the Taliban and there continue to be constant communication about access to Kabul's airport. Listen to this.
[01:34:49]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KIRBY: Thus far and going forward it does require constant coordination and deconfliction with the Taliban.
(CROSSTALK)
KIRBY: It absolutely is going -- it's absolutely requiring of us to keep these lines of communication with the Taliban open who do have checkpoints out beyond the airport.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: So with that in mind, the U.S. president could decide as soon as Tuesday if the airlift deadline of August 31st will be extended. But it would seem the Taliban will ultimately make that decision. It's not a decision the U.S. president gets to make on his own, right?
NASR: Well, first of all, I know the president is under a lot of pressure to extend this deadline and perhaps he should in order to get as many people out. But I think what makes him and many around him nervous is that the longer that we are on the ground, the more time it gives for an accident to happen, unintended shooting or something like that or for ISIS which the administration has identified as a threat to have time to plan an attack. So the longer you are sitting on the ground, the more the chances of something going wrong will increase.
But at the same time, you're correct. We're playing with these numbers as if the Taliban have no say in it. The Taliban would like us to get out, get out safely and be gone. But they don't want us to just make these decisions on our own. So we made a deal to leave Afghanistan May 1st, that was the original Doha deal. It was extended to this time period. And I think the Taliban will want something in return if they are to compromise and allow the United States to stay.
VAUSE: Well, with that in mind, could that something be money? Could the U.S. use as leverage the billions of dollars which have been frozen in foreign bank accounts which are essentially Afghan cash reserves? Could they essentially pay to get Americans and Afghan's out of the country?
NASR: Well, I think economic incentives are quite important. This is not just paying off a group that we don't like. The Taliban is now the government of Afghanistan. It's paying people salaries, salaries of the very people that we are trying to protect, people who work in the different ministries, or work in different organizations. They have to pay that. they have to keep the economy going.
We don't want 34 million people in Afghanistan to fall into abject poverty and become displaced. So there is an incentive for us to keep the economy going. It may not be the United States bank, it might be that we allow certain trade or we allow some way in which the Taliban can access some economic benefits that would allow them to function.
I think that is a big incentive, I think threatening them is not going to go anywhere because they can threaten us back. Right now they are meters away from American soldiers, they can shoot at us or they can lift their checkpoints. The checkpoints the Taliban have put there is a nuisance. But at the same time if those checkpoints weren't there, then, you know, all kinds of people could get very close to American soldiers.
And so we want to keep this process moving without getting into a fight with the Taliban. And therefore we have to be willing to negotiate with them.
VAUSE: Vali Nasr, some insight there which we very much appreciate. Thank you, sir.
NASR: Thank you.
VAUSE: Vietnam is the next stop in Kamala Harris's trip to Southeast Asia. Right now the U.S. vice president is in Singapore talking about APEC, the military coup in Myanmar, taking some pointed swipes and very big ones at China.
Manisha Tank is following the vice president's visit live from Singapore. In fact, Kamala Harris made some serious accusations of coercion and intimidation by China in the South China Sea.
Is this perhaps being taken less seriously because it's seen as maybe an attempt to divert attention away from Afghanistan?
MANISHA TANK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think the foreign policy experts will come out on that one eventually, John. But for the -- for the here and now the speech in which these comments were made was really intended to make it very clear what the U.S.' strategic play would be in the Indo-Pacific region. And even that term "Indo-Pacific" being used throughout the speech is something that foreign policy experts have already picked up on saying, you know, in previous administrations we always heard the term Asia-Pacific but now we're talking about Indo-Pacific which gives us basically a certain geographic area that's being targeted.
Obviously she's come to Singapore, South East Asia at the heart of that. And the comments that you mentioned were meant to be heard. They are meant to be heard in Beijing because she was referring to the South China Sea disputes.
You and I both know these disputes have gone on for decades, these are territorial claims. Some would say not just decades, hundreds of years where there have been discussions and conversations around trade routes for example that were the economic bedrock of this part of the world -- a massive part of its history.
So it cannot be ignored. They were strong words. Here's what she had to say.
[01:39:40]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Beijing continues to coerce, to intimidate and to make claims to the vast majority of the South China Sea. And Beijing's actions continue to undermine the rules-based order and threaten the sovereignty of nations.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TANK: And to those outside the region who perhaps don't follow these disputes so closely, what she's referring to here are the real -- the various disputes by various countries around the South China Sea, particularly Vietnam. You have the Philippines as well where there has been particular conversations that are contention (ph) and typical conversations with China about who has territorial rights in this part of the world.
So that is what she is referring to and it is a very strong position to come out on.
But she had to address Afghanistan. It wasn't ignored. In fact before the prepared remarks this morning here in Singapore, she came out right from the beginning and said I'm going to address Afghanistan because we know that the world is watching effectively. Those weren't the exact words.
And she was asked many questions about Afghanistan. Just yesterday in her first press conference with Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong so it definitely needed to be addressed.
VAUSE: Absolutely. Manisha, thank you. Manisha Tank, live in Singapore. Thank you. When we come back, touching down to safety, a group of evacuees from Afghanistan reaching U.S. soil on a commercial airline. More on that in a moment.
Also ahead, the 2020 Paralympic games about to begin in Japan, but COVID threatens to overshadow it all. We'll have a live report from Tokyo.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: United Airlines' first evacuation flight with Afghans on board touched down U.S. soil Monday. United is one of six commercial airlines the U.S. government enlisted to fly evacuees from temporary locations like Qatar and Germany to the U.S.
Afghans who applied for Special Immigrant Visas are now being granted permission to enter the airport in Kabul after an earlier message from the U.S. embassy told them to stay clear.
CNN's Clarissa Ward described the scene for those who do make it on to a flight out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Essentially there are hundreds of you. It is the middle of the night it is incredibly loud. You walk along the airfield, there's hot air being blown at you from all the different engines on the runway. And you are crammed onto this enormous C-17.
Everybody has to stand and face forward because you are like sardines packed in there. And then at a certain point everybody sits down unison so that there is room for everyone to sit but you are not really able to -- you can sort of just about sit cross-legged and you are sort of looking around and people are just so scared.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: And that was the case for thousands of people who boarded planes out of Afghanistan and many now at the Ramstein Airbase in Germany waiting for another flight this time to the United States.
Atika Shubert is there.
[01:44:53]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ATIKA SHUBERT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In the last three days at least 39 evacuation flights have landed at Ramstein Airbase. The number evacuees now waiting here has swelled to nearly 8,000. All of them desperate to get to the U.S.
To speed up mobilization, the Pentagon ordered some extra help.
(on camera): Delta Airlines waiting for passengers to board but as you can see this is no ordinary flight. We're at Ramstein Airbase and that is part of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet that has just been activated.
What's happening here is that military planes are bringing evacuees from Afghanistan to U.S. bases. And now commercial airliners like Delta will be flying those evacuees back to the United States.
(voice over): But as we wait for departure the plane stayed put. As of Monday night the U.S. government says only one flight had left the space to bring evacuees to the U.S. from Ramstein, a military plane with 60 passengers. That's nearly 8,000 in -- 60 out, a bottleneck.
The State Department responsible for processing Afghan evacuees says the combined resources of U.S. bases in Germany, Italy and Spain alone will be able to shelter about 15,000 Afghans as they wait transit to the U.S.
But for now what it was supposed to be a 48-hour transit stop is taking much, much longer.
Atika Shubert for CNN, at the Ramstein Airbase in Germany.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: Some of the women who have fled Afghanistan had done so with firsthand knowledge of the misogynistic child bride marrying Taliban. Now with its horrors set to play out again, they're trying to save their daughters.
CNN's Salma Abdelaziz looks at why their fears are so well founded.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): After take over, the Taliban vows to govern Afghanistan by Sharia. When asked how that would differ from the group's rule two decades ago this was the answer.
"If this question is based on thoughts, ideology, beliefs then there is no difference. We have the same belief," the group's spokesman said.
The Taliban says it's forming an inclusive government that will ensure women's rights within an Islamic framework. But because Sharia is not a codified system of laws, what that means is entirely up to the Taliban themselves, says Professor Hisham Hellyer.
HISHAM HELLYER, PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE CENTER OF ISLAMIC STUDIES: When we talk about Sharia in a public context, then again interpretations for how that is applied as Islamic law, they differ tremendously across the board.
ABDELAZIZ: The group's record is bleak. The Taliban's draconian regime from 1996 to 2001 was widely criticized by Muslims and non-Muslims alike. And modern legislative applications of Sharia by other Muslim majority states provide little comfort.
Take for example, Iran -- a country ruled by strict Shia interpretation of Islam. There the morality police subject women and girls to daily harassment and violent attacks says Amnesty International.
In Qatar, women are denied the right to make key decisions about their lives, from marriage to work without a male relative, Human Rights Watch reports.
And under Saudis male guardianship system, women must obtain permission for some of their most basic rights. Men can even file cases for disobedience, rights groups say.
But there has been a recent shift in the kingdom. A driving ban was reversed and travel restrictions on females eased in recent years.
HELLYER: There's certainly interpretations that are held up and then there are other interpretations that are equally valid in Islamic law that are not. Why? That is a public policy decision.
ABDELAZIZ: And that's exactly where the Taliban say they are changing. They want to engage on a global stage.
HELLYER: They also have to take into account relationships that they have with powerful actors outside of the country.
ABDELAZIZ: That leaves the U.S. and its allies with one key piece of leverage -- international recognition and legitimacy.
Hanging in the balance, the 20 years of gains and rights and liberties for the women and girls of Afghanistan.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN -- London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
VAUSE: For the very latest on the situation in Afghanistan check out the live stream on CNN.com.
And we will be back in a moment.
[01:49:34]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
VAUSE: About 10 people are unaccounted for after flash floods in Tennessee over the weekend. The death toll stands at 21, including 7- month-old twins. A relative says they were swept from their father's arms.
Some areas saw almost half a meter of rain on Saturday, likely shattering the state's single day rainfall record.
And the record rainfall which brought deadly flooding in western Europe last month was made up to nine times more likely because of climate change, according to a new study.
At least 220 people were killed in the floods in Germany and Belgium. Scientists say this shows that even the most developed wealthy nations will not be safe from the most severe impacts of climate change.
For more on all of this, let's go to CNN meteorologist Pedram Javaheri at the CNN Weather Center, Pedram.
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, you know John, when you look at the data coming in it certainly makes sense when you see the incredible amounts of moisture into the atmosphere and how it translates to tremendous amount of rainfall.
You know that it's been nine times more likely for what occurred in portions of Germany when it comes to landslides as a result of that tremendous amount of rainfall that we saw.
Look at the amounts, typically on average in Cologne, you see about 90 or so millimeters of rainfall in the month of July. On the 15th of July, one single day essentially doubling where you would see in an entire month coming down with that storm.
Now what does it take to get to that value? You've got to have a lot of water vapor in the atmosphere for that to occur.
And in central Tennessee, the National Weather Service across the United States really sends two weather balloons every single day in almost 100 weather stations. And one of those is in central Tennessee. Guess what they told us here in the last 24 hours?
The weather balloon they sent up into the atmosphere to observe the moisture in the atmosphere showed record amounts of moisture before the tremendous amount of rainfall, the half a meter, you know that came down across this region.
So it kind of plays out and essentially a disaster in the making here with how much moisture was present in the atmosphere. Again, verifies -- this verifies and they are looking into the numbers. This would be the state's wettest single observation for a 24-hour period. And that's just on the rain aspect of it.
But of course in Canada, we've had wildfires, you've got excessive heat from Seattle, Washington. We've talked about the heat there into the massive fires into California, second largest, the Dixie fire in state history.
Work you way, we noted Germany, of course, we talked about Greece, on into Turkey, temperatures, the hottest the continent has ever seen took place in the last several weeks.
And in Turkey we had significant flooding and a few weeks later followed with excessive fires from Greece on into Turkey that we touched on as well.
So you kind of see this excessive pattern take place in Iran, it is (INAUDIBLE) drying up at an alarming rate here excessive drought and poor water management that has led to this.
And we know when it comes to -- especially when it comes to heavy rain events, that is one of the most likely scenarios to be directly related to climate change, John, because warmer air holds more moisture.
You take a look around the world, we know that our planet has warmed about one degree Celsius on average above pre-industrial values. Studies show that increases water vapor almost 10 percent. So it makes complete sense to a meteorologist that you're seeing heavy rainfall be historic almost every single time when you have these events take place, John.
VAUSE: Yes. Those numbers are going up. Pedram, thank you. Pedram Javaheri there at the Weather Center.
Well, just hours now until the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games and the number of daily COVID infections continues to rise across Japan. The host city Tokyo recorded near record numbers of infections for four days in a row last week straining an already overwhelmed health system.
CNN's Blake Essig is live in Tokyo. He joins us now live.
And Blake it seems that you know, when it comes to this pandemic it does not discriminate. Olympians and Paralympians are all impacted fairly equally.
BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, John, I mean as you said, whether it's the Olympic athletes a couple of weeks ago or the Paralympic athletes this time around, I mean challenges await. You know, the COVID situation is far worse now than it was a month ago and so we'll have to see how things play out over the coming weeks.
[01:55:01]
ESSIG: But in just a few hours the Paralympic flame will be lit inside the national stadium right there behind me making Tokyo the first city to host the Paralympic Games two times, the first time being back in 1964.
Now, compared to the somewhat festival-like atmosphere surrounding these Olympic games a weeks ago, there's clearly not quite that level of excitement surrounding these games.
But it is still early and for some people who have been here, these events have special meaning. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I also have a disability and so it gives me courage to see all the Paralympians doing their best, and showing nothing brings them down. It's really moving for me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some people in Japan still have prejudices against foreigners. And that prejudice extends to people with disabilities.
The Paralympics highlights how everyone is different and how that is absolutely fine and actually a great thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ESSIG: Health and safety was the story throughout the Olympics and will continue to be the story throughout the Paralympic games. Now, here in the capital, COVID-19 infection rates continue to skyrocket. In fact cases are at least three times higher than they were when the Olympic games started about a month ago.
And just last week Tokyo's governor called the situation a disaster level emergency. Currently only 41 percent of Japan's population is fully vaccinated. And medical professionals say that the recent surge of cases has put the medical system under immense pressure.
And while There's no question that the movement of people has increased as a result of the Olympics, organizers maintain that there's no connection between the games and the rising number of cases here in Tokyo.
Now, at this time, 19 prefectures including Tokyo are under a full or quasi-state of emergency through mid September as a result of the ongoing state of emergency orders in prefectures that are holding Paralympic competitions. No general spectators are going to be allowed to attend any events, John.
VAUSE: Well, regardless of the pandemic, London 2012 will always be seen as a highlight for Paralympics or a highlight to follow. We'll see what happens in Tokyo.
But Blake thank you. Black Essig there, live with the very latest from Tokyo.
Thank you for watching. I'm John Vause. Please stay with us.
CNN NEWSROOM continues with Robyn Curnow after a very short break. I'll see you tomorrow.
[01:57:10]
