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Afghanistan Withdrawal; Hurricane Ida Relief Efforts. Aired 2- 2:30p ET

Aired August 31, 2021 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:15]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm Victor Blackwell. Thank you for joining us.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: And I'm Alisyn Camerota.

President Biden plans to address the nation this hour on the end of the war in Afghanistan. For the first time in two decades and after a chaotic and deadly two weeks, U.S. forces have ceased all military operations in Afghanistan, leaving the Taliban in full control of one of the most vulnerable countries in the Middle East.

BLACKWELL: Now, just moments after the U.S. departed, Taliban fighters were seen celebrating. Here is the video, entering a hangar and checking out helicopters and other equipment the U.S. military left behind.

And today they showed off their new convoy of military SUVs and aircraft as well. Now, I should say the commander of Central Command says the dozens of U.S. vehicles and planes left at the airport have been demilitarized, which means that they're inoperable.

CAMEROTA: Right. But these are operable, whatever they're driving around in here.

BLACKWELL: Yes, and we don't know if they commandeered these from the Afghan military. We will get into that with some of our analysts.

Let's bring it now first, though, CNN senior White House correspondent Phil Mattingly.

So, Phil, what is the message that the White House wants to relay through this address from the president today?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, I think you will see the president start off by highlighting what's transpired over the course of the last 16 days in terms of the Herculean effort almost from both service men and women on the ground, but also diplomats on the ground, to help in the process to evacuate more than 120,000 people.

That is certainly something the administration wants to talk about, something the president wants to talk about, given the situation they were faced with heading into the last 16 days.

They will also most certainly pay tribute to the 13 U.S. military service men and women who were killed while that effort was being carried out.

But I think, more interestingly, I think what everybody's going to be paying close attention to is how he lays out really what's transpired over the course of the last seven months since this decision was made, the process to get to this point, the chaotic and very bloody nature of the last two weeks, and probably most notably one of the final decisions he had to make, which was to stick to that August 31 withdrawal deadline, even though, according to the State Department, there are over 100 Americans who want to leave the country still in the country.

How the president addresses that, something he pledged would not happen, and how the president addresses the path forward in Afghanistan, but also more broadly. There's clearly a diplomatic path forward the administration is pursuing in terms of getting Americans and Afghan allies out of the country, even though there is no longer in a military presence there, even though the U.S. no longer controls an airport.

There are a lot of questions about what that will look like and how successful it will be, both from international partners and from allies and Republicans on Capitol Hill. But I also think you're going to see the president talk about how this decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan after 20 years kind of slots into his broader foreign policy, why he decided to do it, and what it means going forward for how he wants to approach the world.

Those are what White House officials are saying he's going to focus on. We will see if he takes questions as well. Obviously, there are no shortage of questions in the wake of the last 16 days that the president and his team know they have to answer, will likely have to answer in the days ahead and may be answering today, guys.

BLACKWELL: There are many audiences for this address from the president today, domestic and foreign. Phil Mattingly, thanks so much.

We're learning details of a secret agreement, stunning details between the Taliban and the U.S. military. It was put into place to help Americans reach the gates of Kabul's airport in the final days of the evacuation mission.

CAMEROTA: CNN's Barbara Starr is at the Pentagon.

Barbara, tell us about your new reporting.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, hello to both you.

Look, we all knew, because the military talked about it, that they had what they call a pragmatic relationship with the Taliban, that they were on the phone with them multiple times a day, that they were coordinating, if you will, deconflicting, making sure there was nothing that could be misconstrued. So that existed, but what we are learning today is multiple defense

officials tell CNN it went much deeper. There was in fact a secret arrangement with the Taliban for them to go to muster points outside of the airport, where Americans would have been told to gather with their documents to get into the airport.

And this went on several times a day and for several days. The Taliban would gather up the Americans at these predetermined muster points and help them get to the gates of the airport, where U.S. troops were waiting to guide them in.

We hadn't had a complete understanding of how deep all of this went. Now, we should say, of course, there are many reports of Americans not being able to get past the regular Taliban checkpoints with their paperwork being turned away. At the end of the day, the administration says it got about 6,000 Americans out, 100, 200 maybe left that want to leave, that they're going to continue to work diplomatically to get out of Afghanistan.

[14:05:07]

At the same time, another chain of events we have learned about, U.S. special operations forces were many times on the phone with Americans trying to navigate around the airport and basically vectoring them in, saying, where are you, walk here, walk there, guiding them step by step to get to those all-important gates, where they could be let into the airport.

At the end of the day, the calculation, according to the Pentagon, is it maybe hundreds of Americans got out through both these channels -- Victor, Alisyn.

BLACKWELL: Wow. Wow.

CAMEROTA: Remarkable reporting, Barbara.

BLACKWELL: Barbara Starr there the Pentagon, thank you.

The Biden administration also says the diplomatic efforts in the region will continue. We heard that from the secretary of state. As the military mission ends, the diplomatic mission begins. But that's going to Doha, Qatar.

CAMEROTA: So, CNN's Sam Kiley is there.

Sam, what happens now in Afghanistan?

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, from the perspective of the Qataris -- and they arguably have the best insights into the Taliban, having hosted them throughout the period of the peace talks with the United States that were successful in some regards, and the unsuccessful intra-Afghan peace talks.

They now have people on the ground regularly meeting with the Afghan Taliban and demanding of them that they make good on the promises for an inclusive government, for respect for human rights, and making sure that they understand that any kind of future trade and aid with the international community will be dependent on that.

Now, from the American perspective, this speaks directly to the 100 or so Americans who still want to get out of Afghanistan. In all probability, I think, given the reporting that Barbara has been doing about Taliban escorts, that they will be safely escorted out of the country, either overland or by the airport.

On top of that, the Taliban saying to their own people, you have to respect other Afghans, saying to their special forces at the airfield, stop oppressing people, do not oppress people, you have got to behave in an inclusive pan-Afghan kind of way, so making all of the right signals, but at the same time -- and this is the key issue -- many of their rank-and-file have been programmed in madrasas, brainwashed, effectively, with an extremely limited and primitive form of Islam that stretches much closer to some of the teaching of Islamic State K, ISK, which is, of course, the greatest threat now in the immediate future to the successful Taliban rule.

They effectively now have to fight an insurgency against ISIS-K. And they are aware that their own membership has been penetrated literally by members of that movement, but also, ideologically, there will be some crossover. And that is going to be very problematic for them in the future -- Alisyn, Victor.

BLACKWELL: Sam, we're about 30 minutes out from the president's address on the end of the war in Afghanistan.

He no doubt will address those who still want to get out of the country who did not get on one of these evacuation flights. So, what about those civilians now? What are their options?

KILEY: Their options, I think, are to -- and this will be handled for them by, I imagine, the American diplomatic structures that still have very close liaison with the Taliban. The American Embassy has now moved from Afghanistan to Qatar here so they can work directly and via the Qataris to say to American citizens, don't worry, we will fix it. We will negotiate it with the Taliban.

And I think, in all probability, based on the previous behavior of the Taliban during this whole process of evacuation, that shouldn't pose too much of a problem. That is the immediate issue. Then you have the other issue of the many, perhaps tens of thousands or more Afghans who want to get out who worked with the coalition.

That is going to be trickier.

CAMEROTA: Sam Kiley, thank you very much for all the reporting.

Let's get analysis now from retired Army Brigadier General Peter Zwack. He's also a Wilson Center Global fellow at the Kennan Institute. And Kimberly Dozier, our CNN global affairs analyst.

Great to have you both here.

General, as a veteran yourself, what do you want to hear President Biden say today to mark this important day? BRIG. GEN. PETER ZWACK (RET.), U.S. ARMY: Thank you for the question.

And it's great to see my old friend Kim Dozier online with me here.

I think that the president needs to continue to say it as he sees it. We have just been through an extraordinarily rough chapter, which closed with the -- with us departing Kabul airfield after 20 years.

[14:10:05]

Can you believe it, the tragic symmetry 9/11, and now we're just few days away.

The president, we're ruing the loss of our brave service members and an innocent Afghans. But if you look at what just happened with the U.S. military and friends, they just pulled off, with a clear mission statement, and then they could plan against it, and it's the best big picture still executing organization in the world.

And they pulled off an evacuation for the ages. I thought it was going to be worse. I was mortally worried that they were going to try to take down a jetliner. They did get in and blow a suicide bomber up on our perimeter and killed a bunch of us.

But it could have been much worse. I could say much more. I think he can talk about that. And then we got to build on the future, because this -- we're in a new chapter with Afghanistan with the AMCITs and other -- and there seems to be some dialogue with the Taliban.

BLACKWELL: Kim, I said this with Phil just a couple of moments ago, that there are many audiences for this address, a domestic audience, a foreign policy element as well.

What do you think that the president needs to address in 30 minutes from now?

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: The president needs to explain how he's going to make his word stick.

So far, in the run-up to the departure of all U.S. troops., was one of many different journalists, volunteers in touch with Americans who weren't permitted to go through the gates to the airport and are still stuck in Kabul.

And in the past 24 hours, I have been aware of at least two convoys that have gone overland and been turned back at the border. And the Taliban got on the buses and forced those people to go back to Kabul. So, the Taliban is not honoring its promise to the United States to let people who want to leave, leave.

They're not honoring the U.N. resolution that was passed to allow the free passage of Afghans and foreign passport holders. And these countries surrounding Afghanistan, they are saying, if you don't have the right paperwork, we're not letting you in.

This is a huge crisis in the making. CAMEROTA: General, what about that? What about that? What leverage

does the U.S. today have with the Taliban? Because the Taliban says that they want good diplomatic relations.

But, really, what do they -- why do they need it? I mean, aren't the Taliban still well-funded by outside investors from Saudi Arabia or Iran or wherever and they have the opium trade? I mean, do they need good diplomatic relations or not?

ZWACK: I think that the Taliban, while showing, if you will, exhibiting that fierce independence, they have a lot of looming issues.

We saw that with ISIS Khorasan. They have inherited a bureaucracy. We were implacable foes in our day, but they have shown and as the region, the tribes, a pragmatic shifting of loyalties and allegiances that may be part of this.

The bottom line is there are AMCITs and the other people we care about in Afghanistan. If we go in and we start to be really aggressive, militarily, especially if the Taliban has not crossed a line, we will put any hope of getting AMCITs out and others and lose, if you will, even a tendril of links with the Taliban in the counterterror challenge.

And so they have got a lot of issues to balance, including the extremism in the ranks and a host of other countries that are almost in a new age great game are kind of measuring the situation. Bottom line, though, they all can't stand radical Sunni Islam of the ISIS Khorasan type, and perhaps that is what all temporarily pulls us together.

BLACKWELL: Kim, you mentioned that there were Taliban fighters boarding buses that were headed toward land borders to tell them to turn around to go back to Kabul.

But even if they were to get to those borders, the neighboring countries are saying, you can't come here. I mean, Pakistan has already accepted 1.1 million refugees over the last several years. They're saying that they have hit their limit.

The president has thanked countries for taking in these refugees. Where will they go, though?

DOZIER: Yes, the couple of buses that I was referring to had actually gotten to the Tajikistan border. And it was Taliban checkpoints there after these buses were turned back that said you shouldn't have been trying to leave anyway and put armed guards on them to force them, to make sure they go all the way back to Kabul.

[14:15:00]

So that is the big crisis that's looming in terms of either you're going to have groups of people gathering, like you have hundreds of people now waiting at one of the main crossing points into Pakistan that we saw earlier in Clarissa Ward's reporting. They're going to start pulling up in places where they're either trying to get through because they fear retribution or because the country's running out of money. Those reserves are still frozen by the U.S. The country runs on about 80 percent of its budget made from foreign aid.

That's got to get flowing pretty fast. Now, I know that the Taliban hasn't declared its full government yet. That's going to take another 24 to 48 hours. And perhaps some of this international aid will start coming in after that, but they're also going to have to show through their actions that they can govern in a humane way, before they get the money they need to keep the country going.

BLACKWELL: All right, Kim Dozier, Peter Zwack, General Peter Zwack, thank you both.

ZWACK: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Well, no power, no clean drinking water, little to no gas, and add to that no air conditioning in the middle of summer. Why it could be weeks before life returns to normal for the Louisiana residents.

CAMEROTA: And minutes from now, President Biden is expected to address the nation on the end of the war in Afghanistan.

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[14:20:50]

BLACKWELL: So many of the survivors of Hurricane Ida have no power, little food, and now they're waiting in long lines in the sweltering heat to buy gas and supplies for their families.

According to heat advisories, it will feel like 100 degrees or higher over the next few days in Southern Louisiana and Mississippi.

Look at this. This is Grand Isle, Louisiana. The mayor says that every building there, every building in that town suffered damage. And the person who took this video says he tried to leave on a boat, but had to turn back because the waterways were clogged with mud.

More than a million people are in the dark throughout Louisiana.

CAMEROTA: Entergy power company says it will take days just to figure out the extent of the damage.

St. Charles Parish is alerting residents that they may be waiting at least a month before their power is restored. Can you imagine with those temperatures that you just described?

Louisiana's governor is urging residents to stay away until directed otherwise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GOV. JOHN BEL EDWARDS (D-LA): Many of the life-supporting infrastructure elements are not present. They're not operating right now.

So, if you have already evacuated, do not return here or elsewhere in Southeast Louisiana, until the Office of Emergency Preparedness tells you it is ready to receive you. The schools are not open, the businesses are not open, the hospitals are slammed, there's not water in your home, and there's not going to be electricity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: CNN's Brian Todd is at a food distribution site in New Orleans.

So, Brian, what are people there telling you?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, Victor, we're going to give you a sense of just how desperate people are for food and water.

As you mentioned, these conditions, the heat is very oppressive. It's going to get worse in the next few days. Still no power. No end in sight to the power outage. This is a food and water distribution center in the neighborhood of Algiers, Southern New Orleans, on the West Bank of the Mississippi River.

They're distributing meals to people as they drive in here. A lady who's doing some of the distributing told me they're going to go by the honor system. They will give as many meals to a different vehicle as there are people in the vehicle.

But then the people can say that I have six people in my house, they will give them six meals. They're going on the honor system, because they want to get as much food to people as possible. But here's just a look at how needy people are right now, as we try to make our way down and show you the line.

This line snakes down here, down the street, around the other corner down there, again, people here desperate for just the basics.

A short time ago, I spoke to Yolanda Teague. She's a resident of this neighborhood. She's got at least 12 people living in her house, including a 10-year-old who has a heart condition. Take a listen to what her situation is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOLANDA TEAGUE, HURRICANE SURVIVOR: My living room is caved in right now. So, when it rains right now, we get water inside the house. So we had to move all my living room furniture out the living room.

And we are like migrating. And it's a four-bedroom house. So, right now, we're living in like two bedrooms.

TODD: What's your biggest worry right now, Yolanda?

TEAGUE: We're already running out of food and beverages. And I have a son with a heart condition. So that's my biggest concern is him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: Now, Yolanda says her son has the medications that he needs right now and that she was worried, though, when that medication ran out where she was going to get it.

She was just assured by a local hospital that they have got an ambulance service that can come and attend to him and possibly give him some medication.

But, again, people are having to fend for themselves now, guys, and try to find out this information on their own, find out about these distribution centers. And it's kind of a -- it's a desperate time here in New Orleans.

CAMEROTA: Oh, for sure.

And, Brian, I mean, we hear that they might be for weeks without power. And if the temperatures really are going up to 100, what's the plan?

TODD: You know, that's a very good question, Alisyn. I don't know what the plan is. I'm not sure that the energy company knows what the plan is. They're not giving a timetable for when the power might return to some of these parishes, because they probably figure that they can't box themselves in there.

You just hope that the city has a plan for keeping order and just keeping these people at least informed as to where they can go to get food and water and setting up these stations. This is one station that we found. We don't know how many stations there are like this.

And I can tell you that it doesn't seem to us like there are too many of them. People have to have the information as to where to go. The city has to set up many, many more of these stations. I don't know if they have done that yet.

BLACKWELL: I mean, the good thing is that these people have made it through this storm with their lives. That's the first thing, because some people, we know, have not.

[14:25:07]

But, understandably, it is miserable without the air conditioning and, of course, food and water.

Brian Todd for us there in the Algiers neighborhood there of New Orleans, thank you so much.

Listen, this storm is still dangerous. It's headed north now. We have got some video here from Highway 26, pictures, actually. This is in George County, Mississippi. At least two people were killed, 10 others injured when seven cars tumbled into a crater last night.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. BLACKWELL: Now, troopers say it Ida's rains likely washed out the road. Look at this. It formed a massive hole 20 feet deep, 50 feet long.

CAMEROTA: Tom Sater is at the CNN Weather Center tracking Ida for us.

So, what now, Tom?

TOM SATER, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, we could see some states that actually pick up a month's worth of rainfall still. So there's a lot going on.

When you talk about Louisiana and all the power outages, it's estimated that if you were to stretch all the power lines out, it's about 2,000 miles. This is going to take weeks. I mean, it stretches from New York all the way to Salt Lake City.

We still have colors of red on our infrared imagery. That means the system is still trying to release all of its energy. And you can see the heavy rainfall still down to the South with a chance of tornadoes and, again, a lot of lightning. The center is actually about 70 miles to the southwest of Nashville, big concerns, high anxiety, in, of course, Waverly and areas of Centerville, where they had the horrific flooding, about one to two inches. So good news there.

But it is quite heavy in the Panhandle of Florida up into areas of Georgia, again, the tornado threat and flash flooding. But when you look at the states, we have got 20, 20 states with flash flood warnings. And it looks like when it gets in toward the Smokies and areas of the Blue Ridge and Appalachians, this could really stretch a lot of rainfall or wring out a lot of rainfall for several states, including parts of Pennsylvania.

And also the corridor of I-95 between Philadelphia and New York, we could see a good four or five inches of rain. But when it comes to the heat, the National Weather Service in New Orleans had to leave. Obviously, they're without power.

So, the National Weather Service took over in Jacksonville. And they have issued this heat advisory. They actually had to lower the threshold. Typically, sure, it's hot and humid. You have heat index values upper 90s, near 100.

But when millions are without power, this is going to cause big concerns, heat exhaustion and heatstroke. Heatstroke is actually the leading killer, weather-related killer across the world. So the last thing we need, besides those that are injured with search-and-rescue efforts, is to have more patients in the hospitals.

But you can even see Lafayette 100, Baton Rouge 98, 95 in Houma. This is just for today. And, again, a three-day forecast will show many of them in the triple digits. We could see heat index values at 105. But it's not just that. It's the explosive growth and spread of mold.

Even homes that were not flooded, Alisyn and Victor, we're going to see mold in that as well. And if this power outage continues past three weeks or four weeks, it's not just the -- it won't just be the homes that have been flooded that have damage. It's going to be many more. This is going to be a multi-multi-billion-dollar disaster. Extremely sad.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, Tom. Thank you for laying out all of the repercussions for us.

I mean, it's like what you were saying. They were -- their lives were spared in the storm.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CAMEROTA: But then, with heatstroke I mean, the officials there have warned us that the death toll could still climb today, even if you survived the storm.

BLACKWELL: Yes, considerably.

And when you think about the people waiting for food and water, those are the ones who can get to it, right? So we have got, of course, stay with our reporters, who are trying to find out what's going on in these communities where they have not gotten the comms yet.

CAMEROTA: All right, meanwhile, we're waiting for a major address from President Biden, his message to the nation after the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan.

Of course, we will bring that to you live.

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