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Police Say, No-Knock Warrant was Meant for Amir Locke's Cousin; CNN Investigation Raises Questions After U.S. Military Says No One was Hit by Gunfire After Kabul Airport Bombing; Companies Release Sneak Peek at Celebrity-Filled Super Bowl Ads. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired February 09, 2022 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:06]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN NEWSROOM: Now, we see another senseless death of a black man in Minneapolis at the hands of police. I'm just curious, as you see his parents both grieving publicly and fighting for justice for his death, what goes through your mind?

ANGELA HARRELSON, GEORGE FLOYD'S AUNT: It's heart-wrenching. It's like trauma all over again. It's not just an emotional trigger for me of the pain, but it's also for the community. It's for the community, and black America. It's like, here we go again.

GOLODRYGA: Have you reached out to Amir's family? Would you like to? What message would you send to them?

HARRELSON: I wanted to reach out to them. I know they've been pulled in so many directions. I tried to reach at them to another source, to a referral. But what I would say to them is just surround yourself with family, with friends and just know that you're not alone in this, and that we got your back, and we're going to be there for you, and that the Floyd family stands in solidarity with you.

GOLODRYGA: You talk about your nephew in this book, and it really sparked a reckoning not only in this country but around the world, right? President Biden, then-candidate at the time, said that he changed the world. You write in your book an interesting point, because this happened during the pandemic. And you say, the coronavirus pandemic had most Americans under stay-at-home orders in May of 2020. Millions of people sat in front of their T.V. for more than hours than they were used to. They were in a position to see a video of something most of them had never seen before, a modern day lynching. What was it like for you to see your nephew die, those excruciating 9.5 minutes, and to know no one came to his rescue, no one helped him, that the surrounding police officers there did nothing?

HARRELSON: I was shocked, I was devastated. I wanted to just reach through the T.V. and just say, stop, just like everybody else. And I was all over the place. My emotions were all over the place. I was angry, I was mad, I was furious. I mean, I wasn't myself. I can truly say I was unstable at that time because I could not understand for the life of me in the 21st century that I'm watching someone, my loved one, die slowly in front of my eyes.

GOLODRYGA: The civil trial for those three officers now is underway, and you talk about this in the book, because it's an uplifting book in the sense that you talk about someone from a family of 13, the first of your family to go to college. You thought you were going to go and pursue law. You ended up pursuing nursing, serving in the military. As someone who was taught, who was sworn to give an allegiance to help those in need, when you hear that these officers say that their excuse for not intervening was that they weren't trained properly, how do you respond to that?

HARRELSON: I can't even relate to that, because it's about humanity. It's about humanity. I mean, yes, as a first responder, you are trained to initiate CPR. And the officers, they became paralyzed, paralyzed with God knows what they were paralyzed for. And I cannot understand why they didn't act for what they were trained to do. So, I don't -- it's very hard for me to have sympathy with that, because as a professional nurse, we're trained to initiate CPR. And for them not wanting to help, that's something I do not understand.

GOLODRYGA: My final question to you, Angela, and you touch on this in your book, your nephew, you referred to him as Perry, he moved to Minneapolis in part to be with you, to start a new chapter in his life. Here we are two-and-a-half years later, he wasn't able to have that chapter in his life fulfilled. Do you think, as a nation, we are starting to move on, that that chapter has turned and that we're improving in terms of all of these difficult issues regarding race and policing? Are we there yet, are we on our way, or do you think not as much?

HARRELSON: My nephew's death brought an awareness. It brought acknowledgment. It brought the validation. It opened up the transparency. The door is open for us all to do better, and that's what we have to do. And with the policing, they have to do better than what they are doing now, because now they're being exposed. So, now they have to be held accountable.

[10:35:01]

GOLODRYGA: Well, Angela Harrelson, I know that's a message you're sending in this book as well. Thank you so much for joining us.

HARRELSON: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: And we'll be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: We are learning new details on the deadly terror attack at the Kabul airport last August that killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 170 Afghan civilians. A Pentagon investigation said everybody died as a result of a single suicide bomber blast. But a four-month CNN investigation now raises hard questions about whether the attack has been fully investigated.

GOLODRYGA: A full warning, this report contains graphic images that may be disturbing to some viewers. CNN's Nick Paton Walsh has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The blast tore into the crowd.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A very high bomb blast sound and dead people. I saw a lot of hands, legs without their bodies.

WALSH: At least 170 Afghans and 13 U.S. troops died after an ISIS suicide bomber struck outside Kabul airport. The Pentagon investigation of the attack released Friday said everyone died in the blast.

GEN. KENNETH FRANK MCKENZI, COMMANDER, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: The single explosive device killed at least 170 Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. service members by explosively directing ball bearings through a packed crowd.

WALSH: The review unearthed this brief glimpse of the bomber.

[10:40:00]

CNN spent four months investigating the incident, reviewing medical records and analyzing video photos and audio of the scene and speaking to over 70 witnesses or families of the dead, doctors, hospital staff and survivors who insist some of the dead and wounded were shot.

The analysis and testimonies raised hard questions as to whether the bomb can explain all the deaths.

NOORULLAH ZAKHEL, SURVIVOR: I mean, the solider came directly and they started firing. I laid down when they started fighting, like this.

WALSH: CNN spoke to doctors and medical staff at five hospitals who spoke of seeing or treating what they say were gunshot wounds. An Italian-run emergency hospital told CNN in a statement about that evening, their doctors assessed, quote, gunshot wounds on nine victims who arrived dead in the hour after the blast. Seven were shot in the head, they said. But there was no autopsy done. Those are rare in Afghanistan. So, they assessed the appearance of the wounds.

At an Afghan military hospital, a doctor recorded two other victims that were, quote, dead due to gunshot injuries and blast injuries from the airport attack. Then there are the survivors. One Afghan survivor was treated in the U.S. military's own Walter Reed Hospital outside Washington. He showed us his medical records, asking to be anonymous for his safety. They recorded a gunshot wound to the left chest and blast injuries too.

Another survivor, Morsal Hamidi, had a bullet injury to the left side of her face, say her records from the Italian hospital in Kabul.

MORSAL HAMIDI, SURVIVOR: I realized that the blood is coming from my face, like water of a tap (ph). I was hit by a bullet in my face, in my right jaw here, and the blood extracted from this part of my throat.

WALSH: We spoke to a doctor who treated patients at Wazir Akbar Khan Hospital, one of the biggest hospitals in Kabul. He said he pulled bullets out of four injured patients from the airport that night. He said he found gunshot wounds on many other dead bodies he examined, suggesting the number of people shot may be much higher. He asked that we hide his identity for his safety.

DOCTOR, KABUL HOSPITAL: There was two kinds of injuries, people burned from the blast with lots of holes in their bodies. But with a gunshot, you can see just one or two holes, in the mouth, in the head, in the eye, in the chest. I removed bullets from four or five injured.

WALSH: U.S. military investigators insist that was not the case.

BRIG. GEN. LANCE G. CURTIS, U.S. MILITARY INVESTIGATOR: There were absolutely no gunshot wounds. We found no evidence that, post-blast, U.S. service members killed other U.S. service members or Afghans.

WALSH: But investigators admit they did not talk to any Afghan civilians.

CURTIS: During the course of our investigation, we did not have an opportunity to speak with Afghans on the ground.

WALSH: Yet dozens of Afghans assert there was deadly gunfire after the bomb hit here at Abbey Gate. We built a 3D model of the scene. Here's the canal outside the gate 45 minutes before the blast. And then just before the device detonated, it's packed and the Marines are bunched up. The U.S. military said the device was sophisticated and could be reasonably expected to have killed all the people.

The U.S. military told CNN that doctors might have mistaken wounds made by these ball bearings for bullet wounds, adding they were too similar to tell apart without study of the internal wounds and the finding of the projectile that caused it, which the Afghan hospitals could not do in a mass casualty event.

But the doctor who said he pulled bullets out of four patients disagreed.

DOCTOR: According to my 15 years of surgery in Afghanistan, bomb and bullet injuries are very different. When a ball bearing enters a body, it makes a big hole, different from a shard of bullet. When a bullet enters, it makes a small hole with a specific border. And when it leaves, it makes a big hole.

WALSH: Other staff at his hospital told CNN they too had seen bullet wounds. There is no dispute there was some shooting, some in this video. Three minutes after the blast, you can hear three gunshots but not see who is shooting. There is chaos and fear. U.S. Marines are likely tending to injured near the gate, children are being carried away, some crouched for cover.

U.S. military investigators released drone video they said started just after this. It is patchy, but they said their analysis of the footage showed nobody running away in panic from gunfire or any evidence of shooting.

The U.S. and U.K. militaries have said there were three bursts of gunfire both at some point just after the blast.

[10:45:04]

U.S. troops noticed a suspicious military-aged male after across the canal soon after the blast. U.S. investigators said they fired four warning shots. A U.K. defense official told CNN their troops on top of a tower fired warning shots at about the same time to prevent a crowd surge. The U.S. investigators said the British fired 25 to 35 rounds over the crowd from two positions. Another Marine team fired again, this time at a male on a roof armed, they said, with an AK-47. Investigators couldn't say how many rounds they shot. The U.S. and British military say all the shots were fired over the crowded canal but did not hit anyone.

That's important to remember, that none of the dozens of eyewitnesses we've spoken to ever recalled seeing any other gunman, be it ISIS or Taliban, in that scene in the aftermath.

Doubts of the Pentagon story also emerge from Afghan survivors. They also recall troops opening fire but say civilians were hit. Morsal was there with her sister, Shogofa, in the trench three meters from the blast, she said.

HAMIDI: A head from -- was falling to my hands I just put it on the other dead people.

WALSH: You saw the soldiers on the wall of the trench, shooting down into the trench?

HAMIDI: Yes, they shoot it on trench.

WALSH: And the shooting started, did you see it or did you hear it?

SHOGOFA HAMIDI, SURVIVOR: Yes, I saw the soldiers exactly. Some came to save their own colleagues, others stood there and fired directly towards people.

WALSH: Noorullah Zakhel said he was also in the trench, hit in the head by the blast and tried to flee with his cousin, Zohal (ph).

ZAKHEL: I turned to my cousin so he'll run. We ran together. I tried to go climb out from the tunnel. I succeeded, but I think my cousin is death. The soldier came directly and they started firing.

WALSH: When did you find out that Zohal (ph) was dead?

ZAKHEL: In the morning time. My family was not okay. They said he was murdered.

WALSH: And how was his body? What were the injuries on his body?

ZAKHEL: They were two bullets, one on the head, on this side and taken out from this side, and another one on the shoulder.

WALSH: A total of 19 survivors CNN has interviewed said they saw people shot or were shot themselves. The U.S. military said the witnesses we spoke to had, quote, jumbled memories from a concussive event and are doing their best to piece together what their brain is unlikely to remember clearly.

The volume testimony from Afghan survivors though does present questions as to how so many witnesses could make such similar claims. CNN hired a forensic blast analyst to see what the scene could tell us about the bomb.

CHRIS COBB SMITH, FORENSIC BLAST ANALYST: There's actually nothing, the concrete infrastructure of this area that has been damaged significantly by a big blast. I do not believe that bomb was big enough to kill 180 people at all.

WALSH: Other experts disagreed, saying the bomb could have killed all those people, but there are enduring questions here from survivors of the blast. For them, the Pentagon's narrative is disputed by memories that haunt them.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Kabul.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:55:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't throw away that spinach. Make a frittata.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mom's already tackled, food waste, man.

That's a big guy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sorry, man, had to.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I get it. I'm very hittable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Make taste, not waste, baby!

(END VIDEO CLIP) WALSH: Just one ad you'll see this weekend. Pete Davidson and ex NFL Star Jerad Mayo, just some of the famous faces in this year's Super Bowl ads.

SCIUTTO: CNN Senior Entertainment Reporter Lisa France joins us now. Some folks watch for the football. Some folks watch for the commercials. So, tell us what those folks should be looking for?

LISA FRANCE, CNN SENIOR ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: The name of the game, of course, staring buzz (ph) to get people excited and tuning in. That means big stars and clever commercials, like Scarlet Johansson and Colin Jost had a little bit of fun with their marriage in a new Amazon ad. I think we have some of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alexa, it's game day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Streaming football on Prime Video, closing blinds, chilling rose.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Rose?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, it's an afternoon game.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's like she can read your mind.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Read your mind.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love that we get to sleep.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Ordering fresh mint mouthwash, extra strength.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCE: How much fun is that? So much fun. And this is what people are tuning in for. They want to see a football game but they also want to see these commercials.

SCIUTTO: I hear you, Lisa. We'll be watching. It's coming up. Thanks so much to you and thanks so much to all of you for joining us today. Boy, it was a busy news day. There's more to come. I'm Jim Sciutto.

WALSH: And I'm Bianna Golodryga.

At This Hour with Kate Bolduan starts after a quick break.

[10:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN AT THIS HOUR: Hello, everyone, I'm Kate Bolduan. Here's what we're watching this hour. Mask, confusion, more states loosening restrictions, while the CDC is standing by its own guidance.

[11:00:01] Mitch McConnell speaking the truth, does this now put him at odds with the rest of his party?