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Biden Vows Retribution for 13 Troops Killed, We will Hunt You Down; U.S General Warns that ISIS Attacks will Continue; Pentagon Updates Afghanistan Withdrawal after Deadly Attack. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired August 27, 2021 - 10:30   ET

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

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[10:30:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: America's longest war is about to end as it began. A nation in mourning in the wake of a deadly terrorist attack, lots of people left behind though.

Joining me now to discuss, CNN Global Affairs Analyst and Time Magazine Contributor Kim Dozier.

Many thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of Afghans who worked for the U.S. military government, other contractors, they're still in the country. I've spoken to some of them, as I know you have, and they feel that their under threat, the Taliban going door-to-door to look for some of them. You're saying some U.S. officials are advising them to go dark now. What does that mean?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Yes. I've been in the room and overheard some of those phone calls when there are people, especially if they're places away from Kabul. There is still a desperate scramble in Kabul to get some of the last people on some of the last planes out.

But if you're in a place like Kandahar or even Jalalabad, which is the eastern city between Pakistan and the capital, they're saying, we can't get to you, we're going to try to find a way but you need to destroy anything that tied you to us, move if you have to if your neighbors know who you worked for and go dark, meaning hope the Taliban are too busy trying to govern and hunt higher targets so that you can survive until you could escape or maybe become the vanguard of the eyes and ears, the network that the U.S. is going to have to rebuild on the ground to hunt ISIS-K, keep an eye on Al Qaeda, the human intelligence to match whatever they're hearing from phone calls.

SCIUTTO: Yes, that is quite a lot to ask, right, because that puts you at further risk. But you're saying, destroy documents. It is those documents that they need to prove, in effect, that they have ties to the U.S. government. It sounds like they -- they're being asked to give up that hope just to protect themselves.

DOZIER: But remember these are people who have a connection with someone in the U.S. who can vouch for them.

SCIUTTO: I'd say, I know this person, I know what they did.

DOZIER: I have seen letters of testimony from former heads of the Joints Special Operations Command for different groups of people saying, these people worked for us, here is how we train them to hunt the Taliban and we need to get them out.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DOZIER: So, they have to trust that those people are not going to leave them behind somehow, some way.

SCIUTTO: Well, we hope. Is the threat to these people primarily from the Taliban? I imagine ISIS-K would love to go after people who worked for the U.S. as well.

DOZIER: Absolutely. And ISIS-K, at least the Taliban had said, it was ISIS-K that was mostly targeting high-profile women, journalists, civil rights activists in the run up to the fall of Kabul. So, yes, they face a multitude of threats.

The Taliban's political wing has offered amnesty to most people like this. But the Taliban's military wing, which has many more of the firebrand extremists or those who have simply been on the ground fighting and are bitter, they're the ones who issued notices saying, you have got to show up to a Taliban trial so you can tell us why you worked for the invaders and then we'll decide your face.

SCIUTTO: A Taliban trial, God, what a phrase. I just want to note to our viewers, that is a live picture from the briefing room in the Pentagon. Any moment now, we will have a briefing from Pentagon officials on the latest on the U.S. evacuation operations. We will go to that live the moment it starts.

I have spoken to Afghans who worked for the U.S. government. And, for instance, one of them told me that the Taliban has come to the door of their house, their family's house, saying, we don't want to hurt you, we want to you come work for us now that you work for the Americans. I mean, it is almost darkly comical, right, to hear that from them knowing what these groups are capable of.

DOZIER: Well, that is the savvier wing of the Taliban that understands there are too many people for them to kill them all. If they do that, if they even sentence to death a large portion of people who worked for the previous government, they're going to enrage so much of the population that they will create the seeds of resistance at a time when they are being invited by other gulf nations to join the league of Arab nations in governing and running a country in way they've never done about.

[10:35:17] SCIUTTO: Yes. Well, listen, that is a tall order. I have to say, and I mentioned it to Barbara before, when you see the CENTCOM commander, General McKenzie, saying, well, we're in touch with the Taliban, we're asking them to do this and that, they're cooperating on this and that, that is a remarkable thing to hear from a uniformed officer who, for 20 years, fought the Taliban. And, by the way, we have watched and they've watched the Taliban attack and kill civilians, carry out terror attacks, much like the one we saw yesterday.

Post-August 31st, is there even any realistic possibility of those sorts of communications and cooperation?

DOZIER: The Taliban understands it is going to need international cooperation and it doesn't want the U.S. as an enemy. And don't discount those couple of years of peace talks where also General Scott Miller attended many times and U.S. envoys Zal Khalilzad spent hours.

SCIUTTO: And the president was going to invite them to Camp David.

DOZIER: Yes.

SCIUTTO: I mean, the former president, Trump. Let's remember that. And the former secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, described his agreements, their agreements with the Taliban.

DOZIER: Exactly. But that created a relationship. There are people who they know each other well, they can make those calls. But this withdrawal and the cost in American lives, that is going to make it much harder to build even the tactical trust that they need to fight a common enemy.

SCIUTTO: We are, as I noted, waiting for a press briefing from the Pentagon. That is the podium there. That is a live picture. The moment it starts, We will bring that to you live.

I wonder -- I do see some movement in the back of the room, so this may be a short thought, but crisis, it is not unreasonable to use that term, this is a crisis for the administration, it is a crisis for the U.S. military. What is the damage done from events in the last week?

DOZIER: I am talking to active duty and retired military officers. It is not political. They are heartbroken. They feel like they betrayed the people they trained with and fought alongside. There is going to be high threat of suicide, the veterans community is coming out and every day tweeting numbers, dial this number.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I've seen it.

DOZIER: And I'm talking to people who are dealing with one of the hardest moments in their lives and the only thing keeping them going right now is the thought and hope that they can get one more person, one more family out.

SCIUTTO: Folks need to understand that these are bonds built under gunfire, under threat with the loss of fellow brothers and sisters in arms. Those are real bonds. They take them very seriously, these current and former U.S. service members.

Kim Dozier, thanks so much.

We are still waiting for a live update from the Pentagon. We'll bring that to you the moment it starts. In the meanwhile, we'll take a short break.

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[10:40:00]

SCIUTTO: The terror group ISIS-K has claimed responsibility for the deadly bombings outside the Kabul airport yesterday, which killed 13 U.S. service members, more than 90 Afghans. Pentagon officials say more attacks from the group could be imminent. But who exactly is ISIS-K? What is their relationship with the Taliban?

CNN's Brian Todd takes a closer look.

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BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The chaos, the threats to Americans and their allies at the Kabul airport are pinned squarely on a terror group with a familiar name that has only burst into the mainstream in recent days.

COLIN CLARKE, AUTHOR, AFTER THE CALIPHATE, THE ISLAMIC STATE: My main concern is that ISIS-K would look to deploy a massive bomb or a team of bombers to strike simultaneously.

TODD: ISIS-K, the K for Khorasan, an area around the Afghanistan- Pakistan border. ISIS-K claims to be a branch of the main ISIS terror group, which gained power in Syria and Iraq seven years ago. Experts say ISIS-K comprised of some veteran jihadists from Syria and elsewhere has lost ground and manpower since 2018 but still has a presence in Eastern Afghanistan and has formed cells in Kabul. In total, according to a U.N. report, they're believed to have between 1,500 and 2,200 fighters in Afghanistan.

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: A lot of these are former Taliban who slapped on the ISIS patch in order to sort of make themselves the biggest, baddest guys on the block.

TODD: But ISIS-K is now sworn enemy of the Taliban.

BERGEN: The Taliban are fighting them. Really, it is more local rivalries.

TODD: Why more broadly have the two notorious terror groups turned on each other?

CLARKE: For a number of reasons, they range from ideological to political to military. Frankly, ISIS doesn't believe in a political agenda. ISIS believes that only God can rule. And even though the Taliban is attempting to establish an Islamic emirate, that is not enough for ISIS. ISIS is a bit more hard core. TODD: So hard core, according to Analyst Colin Clarke, that ISIS-K is thought to be even more draconian than the Taliban. In areas that they control, he says they impose harsh Sharia law, execute civilians and others who they suspect are spies.

[10:45:03]

CLARKE: They want to attracts and recruit the most ardent sociopaths in the country and their calling card is this rapacious and wanton violence against anyone that stands in their way. That actually helps them bring other fighters into the organization that have a similar mindset.

TODD: Some of those fighters have been sprung from Afghan prisons. ISIS-K has carried out several devastating suicide bombing attacks in Afghanistan in recent years, including on an attack on a school for girls in the spring, which, according to a Pentagon assessment, killed at least 68 people, most of them girls. Another threat from ISIS-K that analysts are watching for --

CLARKE: They could wreak havoc around airport by taking a shot at some of the aircraft that are taking off from and landing at Hamid Karzai International Airport. That is a great concern right now.

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TODD (on camera): Is ISIS-K a threat to wage a broader war against or even overthrow the Taliban? The terrorism experts we spoke to don't think so. The Taliban have far greater numbers of fighters, they say. ISIS-K could be a violent nuisance to the Taliban, doing hit-and-run, conducting IED attacks, according to experts, but they say ISIS-K is not going away without a fight.

Brian TODD, CNN, Washington.

SCIUTTO: In moments, we're going to hear from the Pentagon in the wake of yesterday's deadly terror attacks in Kabul. That is a live view from the Pentagon there. We're going to take you there the moment it begins.

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SCIUTTO: And there it begins. This, Major General Hank Taylor, an update on U.S. evacuation operates.

MAJ. GEN. HANK TAYLOR, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, JOINT STAFF REGIONAL OPERATIONS: We're glad that we're able to do that. And as from previous days, no exception, give you an operation update and then turn it back over to Mr. Kirby.

We don't have a lot of additional detail to offer you about the attack yesterday Abbey Gate but I can confirm for you that we do not believe that there was a second explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, that it was one suicide bomber. We're not sure how that report was provided incorrectly, but we do know, it is not any surprise that in the confusion of very dynamic events like this can cause information sometimes to be misreported or garbled. We felt it was important to correct the record with you all here.

You've now seen that we have updated our casualty list to include a 13th service member killed in action. Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to the families and to the teammates that we have lost. This is a devastating time for these gold star, a title no one wants to hold, but we absolutely hold in the utmost respect.

I can also report that two flights landed at Ramstein today carrying our wounded personnel from the attack. These personnel have been transferred to Lundstuhl Regional Medical Center and are receiving care.

In Kabul, commanders on the ground continue to assess the risk and the dynamic situation there, as they have been since the beginning. Forced protection remains paramount with the continued threat. We've continued the evacuation mission yesterday, as you saw, as you reported last night and I'll give you an update of how things have gone in the last 24 hours.

Yesterday, 35 U.S. military aircraft and 29 C-17s and six C-130s departed with approximately 8,500 personnel combined with the 54 coalition aircraft departures and additional 4,000 personnel left Kabul for various intermediate staging bases. 89 flights total yesterday out of Kabul, totaling approximately 12,500 evacuees now safely out of Afghanistan in a 24-hour period. In the past 24 hours, more than 300 American citizens were evacuated from Afghanistan, bringing our updated total to approximately 5,100.

We continue to maximize our efficiency and sense U.S. and coalition forces began the evacuation, approximately 111,000 evacuees have departed safely.

The State Department consular officers continue to screen and process people arriving at gates around Kabul.

[10:50:02]

Some gates have been closed and we reported but American citizens, SIV applicants and vulnerable Afghans who have the designated and proper credentials will continue to be processed for departure from the airfield.

There are still approximately 5,400 individuals on the airport as of this report awaiting for flights out of Afghanistan. We have the ability to include evacuees on U.S. military airlift out of Afghanistan until the very end. The Department of Defense has the continued responsibility to support the State Department in the ongoing movement evacuees through our intermediate staging bases and safe havens all the way to the United States in the coming days and weeks.

On that topic, here is a quick update on the military installations in our safe havens and staging bases in CENTCOM and UCOM that are helping transition all of these flights. CENTCOM locations, including Al Udeid Air Base, steadily receive, process and transfer passengers to follow- on locations in Europe and the United States. Today, UCOM will receive about 19 flights and approximately -- or

approximately 5,000 passengers in Germany, Italy and Spain, including the naval station, Rota. In turn, six flights will transport about 3,300 people from Europe to the United States. I could not say enough how important the contribution of our allies and our partners have been in this massive global operation.

Additionally, more evacuees continue to arrive stateside and are moving to designated installations throughout NORTHCOM. The NORTHCOM commanding general, General Van Herck, will provide a more focused briefing on this extensive effort in his brief later today.

In conclusion, I'll reiterate what General McKenzie said yesterday. There are more than 5,000 U.S. service members in harm's way saving as many people as they can. It's a noble mission. We have seen firsthand how dangerous that mission is. But ISIS will not deter us from accomplishing this mission.

We appreciate your thoughts and prayers for all of our service members who are carrying on this mission today. Above all, we remain focused on evacuating American citizens and other personnel designated by the Department of State safeguarding the lives of those whom we are providing assistance in keeping American troops safe. Thank you.

JOHN KIRBY, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: Okay. I just have one other thing to add and it is good segue from what the general ended with. Today, the Department of Defense could announce that it has authorized Marine Corps Quantico, Virginia, Fort Pickett, Virginia and Holloman Air Force Base new Mexico to provide additional support to the U.S. mission to evacuate Afghan special immigrant visa applicants,, their families and other at-risk individuals.

These installations join Fort Lee, Fort McCoy and Fort Bliss and Joint Base McGuire-Dix in providing support. The Defense Department will continue to support the State Department in providing temporary housing, sustainment and support inside of the United States for a capacity of up to 50,000 Afghan special immigrant visa applicants, their families and other at-risk individuals.

U.S. Northern Command will coordinate the details of all this with the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and, of course, the Department of Health and Human Services as necessary and will provided under presidential drawdown authority to the maximum extent possible with additional support being provided on a reimbursable basis. And as General Taylor let you know, we have General Van Herck, the commander of U.S. Northern Command, coming into the briefing room with you later this afternoon and he'll be able to provide a lot more context on that.

With that, we'll take questions. Leta?

REPORTER: This is probably for the general. The president has said he wants to -- vow basically to get back at ISIS. How difficult will it be for the U.S. military to do that type of operation considering the lower number of troops and the difficulty in getting intelligence on the ground? And then I don't know if this is you or John, can you just talk about the number of people that we'll see getting processed over the next several days? Is that number going to gradually go down? do you have out the number of people that you think you're going to or what is your ballpark estimate?

TAYLOR: All right. On your first question on the -- our capability and abilities to protect ourselves or to also to conduct the strikes, as you said, as I've said all along, we have resources, with the CENTCOM commander and with the commanders on the ground and the capabilities to allow us to execute any type of those operations as those are required to do.

[10:55:26]

KIRBY: So, Leta, again, we're still planning on ending this mission at the end of the month. And as I said the other day, as we get closer, and we are getting closer, you're going to see us begin to make those muscle movements to pull out our troops and some of our equipment, as appropriate with any retrograde.

What we want to do is preserve as much capability for as long as we can, both in terms of the security footprint, but also in terms of the ability, as the general alluded in his opening statement, to moving out evacuees. Lives are still the priority, and the lives of our troops and, of course, the lives of the evacuees and trying to continue to get as many out as possible.

So, there will be a balance over the next few days as we continue to process through that transition, as we continue to, as what we call, retrograde. And I can't give you a specific number on any given day but I think you'll see us adjust as necessary to make sure that we're achieving that proper balance. But we will be able to fly out evacuees right up until the last moment. That is going to be the goal.

And if I may, you didn't ask this but I want to take the opportunity to convey to all of you that, as we did before, when we began retrograde, a withdrawal back in April, we were very judicious about the detail that we were putting out. And I just want to level set with all of you that you're going to see us become more judicious now going forward as we get closer the end of the month about what information we're giving you in terms of how many troops on the ground.

I would you not expect us to be giving that number out going forward, and what the capabilities are and where they are and what they're doing, we're going to be very, very mindful of the operational security element of this and I think yesterday is a stark grim reminder of why that is important going forward.

I know that is not what you asked but I wanted to take an opportunity to get that out there. Jen?

REPORTER: John, how could you say with such certainty and how can General McKenzie say with such certainty that the Taliban were not involved in this suicide bombing? I understand that you're reliant on them for protection around the airport, but are you ruling out them being involved because you're so dependent on the Taliban right now. KIRBY: Actually, I didn't hear General McKenzie put it that way, Jen. In fact, I think in one of the questions he got, I think it was Adriss' (ph), he said -- Adriss (ph) asked was there a failure, and the general said, of course, there was a failure somewhere, obviously, and he even alluded to the fact that it could have been a Taliban checkpoint. So we've not been certain about that at all. There will be an investigation. We'll try to learn as many as we can about what happened and I really don't want to get ahead of that process.

REPORTER: And in terms of ISIS-K, how many ISIS-K prisoners were left at Bagram and are believed to have been released from the prison there? And why weren't they removed before the U.S. pulled out to some place like Gitmo?

KIRBY: Well, I don't know the exact number. Clearly it is in the thousands when you consider both prisons, because both of them were taken over by the Taliban and emptied. But I couldn't give you a precise figure.

And as for emptying out, remember, I mean, we were turning things over to Afghan National Security Forces. That was part of the retrograde process, was to turn over the responsibilities and so they did have responsibility for those prisons and the bases at which those prisons were located, and, of course, as the Taliban advanced, we didn't see the level of resistance by the Afghans to hold some territories, some bases and, unfortunately, those were bases that the Afghans didn't hold. But all of those responsibilities were turned over in accordance with the retrograde plan back from April.

Adriss (ph)?

REPORTER: I think this is more to the general. Yesterday, General McKenzie talked about wanting to talk to the Taliban about pushing the perimeter back as one of the sort of ways to avoid another incident. Has that happened and by how much but has it significantly been pushed back? And what are you seeing in terms of flow to Abbey Gate? Is it less people being allowed in? Is there still a rush of people, which could lead to some similar incident? What are you seeing today?

TAYLOR: So, what I can report, as my discussion with the commanders there on the ground, is that multiple activities have taken place.