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Trump And 18 Others Indicted In 2020 Georgia Election Case; Trump Facing 91 Criminal Charges In Four Criminal Cases; Maui Fire Death Toll Rises To 99, Still Likely To Increase; Ukraine: Russia Launches Missile Strikes On Several Regions; Afghanistan Marks Two Years Since Fall Of Kabul. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired August 15, 2023 - 02:00   ET

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

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[02:00:57]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. And we begin this hour here in the U.S. State of Georgia where a grand jury has indicted Donald Trump for an historic fourth time for allegedly attempting to overturn the state's election results in 2020. The grand jury approved every indictment presented by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis on Monday.

The former U.S. president has been charged with 13 counts in the indictment, including a racketeering charge. 18 others have also been charged under the state's racketeering laws for allegedly joining "a conspiracy to unlawfully change the outcome in favor of Donald Trump."

Now those names include several high-profile individuals from Trump's time in office, including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, former Trump attorneys Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman and top Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, among others. And here's what Fulton County's District Attorney Fani Willis had to say as she unsealed that 41-count indictment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FANI WILLIS, FULTON COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY: A Fulton County grand jury returned a true bill of indictment, charging 19 individuals with violations of Georgia Law arising from a criminal conspiracy to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election in this state. The indictment includes 41 felony counts and it's 97 pages long. Please remember that everyone charged in this bill of indictment is presumed innocent.

Specifically, the indictment brings felony charges against Donald John Trump, Rudolph William Lewis Giuliani, John Charles Eastman, Mark Randall Meadows, John Cheesebro, Jeffrey Clark, Jenna Lynn Ellis, Ray Stallings Smith III, Robert David Cheeley, Michael A. Roman, David James Shaffer, Sean mica treasure Steele, Steven Cliff guard Lee, Harrison William Prescott, Floyd treyvion, FEA Cudi, Sydney, Catherine pal, Kathleen Austin Latham, Scott Graham Hall, and misty Hampton also known as Emily Misty haze.

Every individual charged in the indictment is charged with one count of violating Georgia's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act through participation in a criminal enterprise in Fulton County, Georgia, and elsewhere, to accomplish the illegal goal of allowing Donald J. Trump to seize the presidential term of office beginning on January 20th, '21.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: And the former President Donald Trump has reacted to the indictment against him calling it politically inspired.

Well, let's discuss this further now with Areva Martin, an attorney and Legal Affairs commentator. Ariva, good to have you with us.

AREVA MARTIN, LEGAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Hi, Rosemary.

[02:05:02]

CHURCH: So, in an historic move, former U.S. President Donald Trump has been indicted for a fourth time. Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows and 16 others criminally charged on 41 counts in connection with efforts to overturn Trump's defeat in the Georgia State election. Now, Trump is charged with 13 counts, including violating the state's racketeering act. What stands out to you? And what is Trump's legal jeopardy here?

MARTIN: Well, Rosemary, this is a historic day and not in a positive way. We have never ever in this country, the United States seen a former president who is running for president to be both twice impeached and now to face four criminal indictments. And that's in addition to civil lawsuits that have been filed against him as well. I think what's most shocking is the expansive nature of this indictment.

We knew it was coming. We didn't know how many individuals would be indicted. We didn't know the expansive nature of the charges in the indictment. And we see now not only Donald Trump, some of his most trusted attorneys, his campaign staff members, individuals from the U.S. Department of Justice, individuals that were in his presidential cabinet and other lower-level individuals who we don't know haven't been prominently displayed in the media.

But these 19 individuals, this is unprecedented in U.S. history. And this is going to send shockwaves through our entire country.

CHURCH: And Areva, count 28 In this indictment involves that recorded telephone call that Trump made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger where Trump pressures him to find 11,780 votes. How strong is that evidence, particularly given this was recorded and what about the strength of the other evidence?

MARTIN: The evidence in this case is incredibly strong. You have 19 individuals, as some of these individuals have a tremendous amount to lose. Look at Rudy Giuliani, he's 79 years old, at the time that this case makes its way through the court system. And through trial, he could easily be in his early 80s. When you have this many individuals that have been indicted in a racketeering case, it is probable, it's most likely that some of these individuals are going to plead guilty and are going to become witnesses for the prosecution.

So, that phone call in and of itself is strong evidence. But in addition to that evidence, I suspect that there's going to be some if not a majority of these 19 individuals will also become witnesses for the state and witnesses against Donald Trump.

CHURCH: And the date for this trial will be set by the judge, but District Attorney Fani Willis says she wants to try all 19 defendants together and do that within the next six months. How feasible is that?

MARTIN: Not clear that all 19 defendants will be tried together. But I think it's just important to note what Fani Willis did in that press conference last night was to make it clear that she's ready, that she's prepared, that her office is prepared, that her prosecutors have their case in order. And of course, it's the judge's ultimate decision about the timing of the trial. But I think she was sending a very clear message to Donald Trump and the other 18 individuals that her case is strong and she's prepared to litigate it.

So, whether they all get tried together or as I said whether some of them plead guilty, and this case ends up involving a handful of people not clear at this point, but it is very clear Fani Willis is ready to go. This is her 11th racketeering case that she has filed against defendants using this racketeering statute -- Georgia's racketeering statute. And she's only been in office since 2021. She's filed 11 of these cases since 2021.

So, I think this is a very strong indictment. And all of these defendants have a tremendous amount to be concerned about.

CHURCH: Yes, I mean, this is serious. The minimum prison time, would apparently be around five years. And because these are state charges, not federal, Trump would not be able to pardon himself if he is ultimately elected, reelected president in 2024. How possible is it to given the evidence and of course, the charges involved that Trump could get out of this even without pardoning himself?

MARTIN: Mathematically, Roseberry, it's not probable. When you think about having four indictments and the number of charges that have been filed against Donald Trump, even if he is successful and he is exonerated, he's acquitted. In one of these cases, it's very unlikely, improbable that he will be acquitted in all four of these cases. And then as you just stated accurately, this is a state-based indictment.

[02:10:06]

Even if he's elected president and he tests the limits of our constitution and tries to pardon himself, he does not have any control. Any authority over a state prosecutor like Fani Willis. And so, this trial even though she indicated she wants to move forward within six months, even if it's delayed because of the number of defendants, because of the number of issues included in the indictment, she has nothing but time. So, Donald Trump could literally be still facing criminal charges and

involved in criminal trials passed this year and even passed next year.

CHURCH: Areva Martin, always appreciate your legal analysis. Thanks for joining us.

MARTIN: Thank you.

CHURCH: A tragedy beyond tragedies. That is how the Hawaii gov is describing the wildfire devastation in Maui. We will have the latest on the search and recovery efforts.

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CHURCH: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. More on our top story this hour. Former U.S. President Donald Trump and 18 other people have been indicted in Georgia over efforts to overturn the state's election results. Atlanta prosecutor Fani Willis says she intends to try all 19 defendants together including some of Trump's lawyers and top aides.

[02:15:07]

She has urged them to surrender voluntarily by Friday August 25th so they can answer to the 41 charges that have been handed down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIS: Every individual charged in the indictment is charged with one count of violating George's Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. Through participation in a criminal enterprise in Fulton County, Georgia and elsewhere to accomplish the illegal goal of allowing Donald J. Trump to seize the presidential term of office beginning on January 20th, '21.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Trump has responded claiming the indictment is politically inspired.

Hawaii's governor says, our hearts are broken by the scale of the devastation in Maui. At least 99 people are now confirmed dead after a wildfire swept through the tourist town of Lahaina last week. And authorities say that death toll is all but certain to keep soaring as crews sift through the ashes of incinerated homes. The governor has said, well over 2200 structures burned and the vast majority will people's homes.

Right now, there is a big push to get survivors out of shelters and into longer-term housing. The Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Agency are among the disaster relief groups helping with that effort. During a White House briefing, the head of FEMA spoke about the tremendous sense of loss so many people are feeling right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: Nothing can prepare you for what I saw during my time here and nothing to prepare them for the emotional toll of the impact that this severe event has taken on them. The coming days and the weeks they're going to be tough. They're going to be difficult as people process what they have lost and what the road ahead looks like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The wildfire recently became the United States deadliest in more than a century. Hawaiian are under scrutiny for their disaster readiness and response. And the state's main electricity provider is already facing legal action. CNN's Nick Watt explains.

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the local utility is coming under increased scrutiny. Was it a downed power line downed by wind or a falling tree that's arc these fires. Is there more that the utility could have been doing over the past few years to prepare for circumstances like this? And perhaps most crucially, should the utility have shut down the power grid preemptively knowing that these high winds were coming?

Well, a class action lawsuit has already been filed against the power company. It reads in part by failing to shut off power during these dangerous fire conditions, defendants caused loss of life. The defendant here is the Hawaiian Electric Company and subsidiaries spokesperson told CNN specific to a formal power shut off program we like most utilities do not have one. The spokesperson also said that any shut off would have to be coordinated with firefighters on the ground because on Maui "electricity powers the pumps that provide the water needed for firefighting."

Now this spokesperson wouldn't comment any further on the litigation saying that right now they are focusing on trying to help the recovery effort. Now, there are also a lot of videos surfacing now on social media putting even more scrutiny on the power company. Video showing poles bending in the wind and also downed cables. Take a listen to Shane Treu as he films outside his house.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHANE TREU, LOCAL RESIDENT OF LAHAINA, MAUI: Hey, heads up. The line is live on the ground right there. Thank you. Hey, the power line is live there. You see them right there, the power line started from up the road there and all of that is still burning. (BLEEP) firetrucks still never come here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: Now the utility has been making efforts in recent years to mitigate for fires. Last year, they asked for nearly $190 million for, "a climate adaption program" but in the previous four years, they say that they actually haven't cleared any hazardous trees that lie outside their right of way around their equipment and trees from a little further off can also fall and cause problems. Now utility companies have been found responsible in the past for fires over here in California, PG and E was actually found guilty of 84 counts of involuntary manslaughter for the fire that pretty much destroyed the town of paradise.

[02:20:10]

I must stress in this case, there is still no cause, no official cause for the fire that pretty much destroyed all of Lahaina. And clearly there were a few factors at play here. High winds, dry vegetation caused by drought. So, the big remaining question is what actually provided the spark here or the sparks.

Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

CHURCH: I want to bring in Luke Meyers, Disaster Management Coordinator for the office of the Hawaiian Governor. Thank you so much for joining us at this very difficult time.

LUKE MEYERS, DISASTER MANAGEMENT COORDINATOR, OFFICE OF THE HAWAIIAN GOVERNOR: Yes, ma'am. Good evening. Thank you for the opportunity to be here.

CHURCH: And I want to start with those questions being asked about the state's readiness and response in the midst of this devastating and deadly wildfire. Many criticizing the lack of warnings too. How do you respond to that?

MEYERS: Right now, Governor Green has a number of priorities that are focusing on life safety. Our immediate concern at this point in time, is trying to take care of those disaster survivors, and get any amount of shelters in Detroit transitional housing. We are making some progress, we had about 300 individuals who were move out of shelters in the last two days.

(CROSSTALK)

CHURCH: And I do want to talk about that in a moment.

MEYERS: Yes, ma'am.

CHURCH: But I think we do need to address this because a lot of people, a lot of survivors have said that they knew nothing about this fire. They didn't hear any alarms, any warnings of any sort. It was only through friends, through word of mouth from those around them that they heard about this. And then we're hearing that some fire hydrants, there wasn't enough water pressure to respond.

I mean, there's a lot of criticism about the way the state was just not prepared and ready for that. So, I just do want to get your answer on that. And then we can move on to the housing, of course.

As an emergency management professional, when we have any type of incident, there are operations that are in place including alert and warning. Our counties have responsibilities, our state agencies have responsibilities. The investigation into this incident will go on and there will be lessons to be learned. And that is all I can say at this point in time regarding this specific incident.

CHURCH: All right. So, we also learned from the governor, Josh Green that more than 2200 structures have been destroyed and nearly 90 percent of those are residential. There are people's homes, the devastation is extensive, and the rebuilding task, obviously massive. But the more immediate task at hand is providing relief housing to those most in need, who lost their homes in these wildfires.

How are you able to do that? What are you doing exactly?

MEYERS: So we anticipate about two to 3000 residents will need some type of immediate short term and long-term housing. So, under the governor's directive, we're working with federal, state and local partners and our private partners to identify transitional or bridge sheltering. In particular, some of our hotels that have areas that we can put the disaster survivors and their families. So, we have worked hard the last several days with our larger hotel hospitality partners and identifying rooms to get individuals out of the shelters into the hotels so they can be taken care of with services that they may need.

CHURCH: And you're confident that all of those people will be given some -- somewhere to live from some -- for some time. I mean, what sort of length of time we're looking at, because it's going to take a very long time to rebuild, isn't it?

MEYERS: Yes. An incident of this magnitude, we'd be looking at displacement from a rebuilding process that may take years. As we look at the transitional housing, we may be looking at families in hotels for six months. But as we find inventory within Maui, and with other areas, we're going to look to try to house them in other areas, such as homes that may be available. So, we're actively working with the partners in Maui and our private sector partners to identify potential properties.

We have another program that we have identified a little over 350 either accessory dwelling units or someone's home or even a room in a home. And so, we're going to try to match the disaster survivors with those rooms and with those properties. Again, really trying to get them out of the shelter environment into a much safer place.

CHURCH: And a lot of these homes were not insured. So, who pays for this?

[02:25:01]

MEYER: Well, this situation there has been an outpouring of a lot of generosity from all over the world which we are very thankful for. There will be assistance for the individuals that have been impacted, whether those are disaster survivors, or the families of disaster victims. We'll be working with FEMA, our state emergency management partners, our county partners, Red Cross and others to identify the unmet needs that may be there for each family and try to provide as much as we can.

CHURCH: Luke Meyers, thank you so much for coming on the show. Appreciate it. MEYERS: Yes, ma'am. Thank you.

CHURCH: And coming up next. More on our top story. The historic 41 count indictment unsealed in Georgia. A closer look at what Donald Trump is facing in his fourth criminal case.

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[02:30:18]

CHURCH: Back to our top story, Donald Trump and 18 others have been indicted in Georgia on state charges stemming from their efforts to overturn the former president's 2020 election loss. This marks the fourth criminal case against Trump, who faces 13 counts in this latest indictment.

That includes a racketeering charge for allegedly attempting to unlawfully change the outcome of Georgia's election result. In a statement, Trump attorneys call Monday's events shocking and absurd. Among the 18 others charged in the 41 count indictment, several Trump lawyers, including Rudy Giuliani and former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

Giuliani is now reacting to the indictment, calling it, quote, "An affront to American democracy". Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis says that she will try all 19 defendants together and says that they must surrender to Georgia authorities by Friday, August 25th. Here is what she had to say when asked about a trial date.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FANI WILLIS, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, FULTON COUNTY: What is the timetable for the trial? As you know, in this jurisdiction, trials are set by the judges and so it will be the judge that sets the date of the trial. This office will be submitting a proposed scheduling order within this week, however that will totally be at the discretion of the judge.

I want to try him and be respectful of our sovereign states. We do want to move this case along, and so we will be asking for a proposed order that occurs, a trial date within the next six months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: I want to bring in Michael Moran, a lecturer in political risk at the Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver. We appreciate you joining us.

MICHAEL MORAN, LECTURER, KORBEL SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL STUDIES, UNIVERSITY OF DENVER: Thank you, it's nice to be here, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Earlier this hour we focused on Donald Trump's legal jeopardy with this historic fourth indictment, but let's turn now to the political ramifications of all of this. We know, of course, that if Trump is reelected in 2024 he will not be able to pardon himself or his allies on these estate charges, he can on federal charges. How do you expect his legal and political teams to deal with this, perhaps his most challenging indictment of all four of them?

MORAN: Yeah, I would agree with that statement. I believe this is the most challenging from the political standpoint of all of the indictments that have been brought against him. Largely because the evidence is recorded. We hear Donald Trump actually making, putting the pressure, twisting the arm of Brad Raffensperger, who is the chief elections official in Georgia, looking for nearly 12,000 extra votes, if you can find them, that kind of thing.

And the nature of the indictment will open some opportunities for the Trump legal team, I think. Because it is a racketeering indictment and, in the United States, often these were devised to go after the Mafia. The American organized crime syndicates.

Ironically, earlier in my career, way back when, I actually covered a very large racketeering case against the Lucchese family which was brought, in part, by Rudy Giuliani, who was then the U.S. attorney, and whose earlier career involved prosecuting the Mafia, so he knows Rico, the statue that is behind the racketeering charges, very well.

It is a very complicated thing, you have to create a very sophisticated case that involves conspiracy, knowing, malfeasance, and then the actual crimes themselves. The Trump legal strategy, from what we can tell, will be to deny that he ever thought he lost the election. He always believed that he actually did win and that it was stolen from him.

So in some ways there is a very high bar on this. Having said that, going back to the political aspect, I think it is a tough sell for the American public that Donald Trump was not trying to influence the outcome of the election, given the recorded tape that everyone has heard at this point.

CHURCH: While his legal team can say that he always thought he had won, there is evidence that shows that he knew he hadn't won. So they would use that, surely?

[02:35:01]

MASON: Absolutely. And, you know, we live in a post-truth environment, unfortunately. I hate to say that because it goes against everything I really cared about when I became a journalist in the 1980s.

But objectivity has been degraded, newsgathering has been commoditised to the extent that opinion has jumped over it, and opinion now is something that people can get on tap, where they want it, when they want it, and it destroys the whole concept of objectivity because you never hear the other side.

So unfortunately, in a political sphere, an indictment like this will become a political football. The people who don't want to hear that tape ever again or believe, for some reason, it was doctored or whatever, or it was perfect, as Donald Trump likes to characterize it, will believe that. The numbers in the United States suggest that that continues to be 40 to 45 percent of the Republican Party, but that does not, in any way, represent a majority of the United States. In fact, his loss in the 2020 election reflects the fact that, while

he has a lock on the base, the conservative and right-wing base of the Republican Party, he does not win the independent vote and he does not win Democrats, obviously.

So that is his great challenge, I think this, of all of the four indictments, is definitely the one that creates the greatest problems for him because it puts, once again, out in front of people, this really stunning arm twisting, political, it's not my place to say it is corruption, but it smells of corruption when you listen to that tape.

CHURCH: Michael Moran, thank you for joining us, appreciate it.

MORAN: Thank you.

CHURCH: Still to come, an update from the battlefield in Ukraine as officials there are now reporting new missile attacks by Russia. Back with that and more in just a moment.

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[02:41:17]

CHURCH: More on our breaking news this hour, a historic fourth indictment for Donald Trump in the state of Georgia over allegations that he and 18 others conspired to overturn the state's 2020 election results. The former president now faces 91 criminal charges in four criminal cases across the U.S..

Trump himself is speaking out, he posted online saying, in part, quote, "This politically inspired indictment, which could have been brought close to three years ago, was tailored for placement right smack in the middle of my political campaign."

We are following new developments in Ukraine where officials say that Russia has launched missile strikes on several areas overnight, including the Lviv region in the west. Meanwhile, Ukraine's deputy defense minister says Ukrainian forces are preventing Russia's advance in the East, where the fighting is ongoing, but does caution Russian forces are regrouping.

Heavy fighting has also been reported near Bakhmut where Russian forces are trying to regain lost ground. This as, Ukraine says, its forces have liberated more land around the city. Elsewhere in the Donetsk region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited troops near the Eastern front lines on Monday. The visit coming as he thanked the U.S. for a new $200 million security assistant package which includes air defense munitions, artillery rounds, and mine clearing equipment.

CNN's Clare Sebastian joins us now live from London. Good morning to you, Clare. So, Russia is hosting an army exhibition and what it describes as an International Security Conference this week, even as missile attacks on Ukraine continue. Can we glean anything from the events in Moscow about their strategy? CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Rosemary, look. I think this is a showcase from Russia in more ways than one. They are trying to show that they are still a military power to be reckoned with. Russia was of course, before the war, and likely still is, the world's second biggest arms exporter so I think they would like to do a few deals there as well.

So I think this is showing that to the Russian people and to the West, and also to show that Russia is not isolated, that it is taking its place now as it sees it in its set of new alliances with China, India. You can see here the defense minister is inspecting displays of the army expo from Iran, China, and India.

The Chinese defense minister is also expected in Moscow this week to speak at the Moscow International Security Conference, so I think that is part of the messaging here, but there is this giant elephant in the room which is that, all the while that it is hosting the so-called security conference, Russia is still bombing Ukraine.

The Ukrainian Air Force says that 28 cruise missiles were launched at the country overnight, of which 12 managed to evade Ukrainian air defenses. We are hearing about damage and injuries from up in the West and the town of Lutsk, which is some a hundred kilometers from the Polish border, where three people were killed, according to the mayor there when an industrial enterprise was hit, all the way down to Dnipropetrovsk, that region in the South.

We are getting images of a sports facility that has been damaged there, another industrial enterprise, although there are no deaths reported in that region as of yet. The message there is that nowhere in Ukraine is safe but I think the hard reality is that, despite that, there are still countries that are willing to engage with Russia, that see some utility in doing so. Rosemary.

[02:45:02]

CHURCH: Alright. Thanks to Clare Sebastian joining us live from London. And, coming up here on CNN NEWSROOM, we are looking back at a pivotal day in Afghanistan's history when Taliban fighters entered Cable and took over the country. In just two years, the country has changed dramatically and we will show you how.

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CHURCH: Tuesday marks two years since Taliban fighters seized control of Afghanistan's capital. That day ushered in the sudden end of the 20-year war with the United States and threw the country's future into doubt. Since then, Afghans have suffered from emergency food shortages, malnutrition, and prolonged drought.

[02:50:07]

CHURCH: Despite promises to be lenient, Taliban leaders are steadily cracking down on human rights and no one is paying a higher price than women and girls. I want to turn to Anna Coren now who joins us live from Hong Kong. So, Anna, two years since the Taliban swept to power in Afghanistan, taking over the capital, what is life like under Taliban rule?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Rosemary, it's hard to believe that it has been two years since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan. To celebrate today, the Taliban has announced a public holiday, for the girls and women of this country there is no celebration. Each day they are facing extreme repression and have now become prisoners in their own homes.

The U.N. says that the Taliban is implementing a system of total discrimination, exclusion, and subjugation of women and girls, while Afghan women's rights activists are calling the Taliban's hard line stance as a war against women. We spoke to a university student inside Afghanistan who said there is no future for the women in her country. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COREN (voice-over): In the corner of her room, on a piece of string, hanging by paper clips, are the treasured memories of a 20 year old Zahra.

ZAHRA, AFGHAN UNIVERSITY STUDENT: They are my favorite people that I have them in my life.

COREN (voice-over): Photos, drawings, mementos. A secret world of a life once lived that this Afghan university student now grieves for.

ZAHRA: When I stand in front of the mirror, when I look at myself I just see a different Zahra from two years ago.

COREN (voice-over): On the 15th of August, 2021, Zahra's life as she knew it was shattered. The Taliban swept to power after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan following its 20-year war. Handing back control to the same group of Islamic extremists who ruled in the 1990s. While the Taliban promised to be more moderate and honor women's rights within Islamic law, the past two years have brought only a hard line stance towards women.

The closure of secondary schools for girls, the forced implementation of the burqa, the restriction on travel without a male chaperone, the banning of women from universities and working at NGOs, including the United Nations. And, just last month, the Taliban closed all beauty salons that employed roughly 60,000 women, many of them the sole breadwinners of their homes.

MAHBOUBA SERAJ, AFGHAN WOMEN'S RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Women's freedom doesn't exist. There is no such thing as women's freedom anymore.

COREN (voice-over): women's rights activist Mahbouba Seraj, who stayed in Kabul while more than a million Afghans fled, says the Taliban government is erasing women from society.

Seraj: Even the rights that we had in Islam, even the rights that we had in Sharia, we are losing all of that. So if it's not annihilation, what is it?

COREN (voice-over): For Zahra, an aspiring designer, it is very clear what the Taliban demands of her.

ZAHRA: Just to stay at home, get married, you have to give birth to children, that's it. And this is your life, this is what women are made for.

COREN (voice-over): While the international community repudiates the Taliban's treatment of women and girls, the Taliban is refusing to listen, saying it will not be pressured.

BILAL KARIMI, TALIBAN DEPUTY SPOKESPERSON (through translator): Afghanistan was freed from occupation. Afghans were able to regain their country, freedom, government, and will. The only way to solve the problem is understanding and dialogue, pressure and force are not logical.

COREN (voice-over): But human rights activists fear that international condemnation is waning and that the Taliban, desperate for international recognition, is gradually being normalized.

HEATHER BARR, ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR, WOMEN'S RIGHTS DIVISION, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH: They are posing in photographs with smiling diplomats. They're getting on private jets to fly off to important, high-level meetings where people roll out red carpets for them. They are being permitted to take control of embassies in a growing number of countries. So I think, you know, from their perspective it is going pretty well.

COREN (voice-over): A terrifying assessment for the women of this country. Protests have all but disappeared, apart from a small group who face the threat of arrest as they try to get the world's attention. For most, they suffer in silence. Convinced that the world no longer cares.

ZAHRA: If it continues like this, the future, not only for me, but also for other girls, it is horrible and it is disaster.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COREN (on camera): We spoke to Taliban Deputy Spokesperson Bilal Karimi yesterday. He proudly listed the Taliban's achievements such as restoring security and cracking down on drug addicts and the opium trade. When we asked him about girls' education he was very evasive, refusing to say when girls will be allowed back to school or university.

[02:55:13]

COREN: All he said was that the Taliban needs to wait for the environment to become favorable. Now, it is important to note that this was the very same line that the Taliban gave back in the 1990s when they ruled for five years. In that time, Rosemary, girls were never allowed to return to school.

CHURCH: Anna, we appreciate you reporting on this, thank you. And, thank you for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. I will be back with more CNN NEWSROOM in just a moment. Do stay with us. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:00:00]