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CNN Live Saturday

Interview With Robert Pelton

Aired August 03, 2002 - 12:42   ET

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

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: For more on the battle at Mazar-e Sharif and the making of this extraordinary documentary, we're joined by the program's associate producer, Robert Pelton. He's in Los Angeles. Well, thanks, Robert, for joining us.

What all of us know on the surface is four-day uprising involving 500 Taliban prisoners. We know in the end that it led to the death of CIA Agent Johnny Mike Spann and the apprehension eventually of American Taliban John Walker Lindh. What is your hope that people walk away from the most about this documentary, that it was particularly volatile and dangerous, more so than most people realize?

ROBERT PELTON, ASSOCIATE PRODUCER, "HOUSE OF WAR": No, this is probably typical for war. And you very rarely get to see an actual battle being played out and documented on videotape. And plus, you have enough points of view to really understand how confusing and how many errors are actually made in warfare. So I think people should watch this and understand the gravity of war.

WHITFIELD: And how confusing things and matters did get to help make sense of all this? You have got eyewitness accounts. You have got the videotape that we're looking at now and we'll see again on "CNN PRESENTS." How did you manage to put all that together so that it would make sense and not look too chaotic?

PELTON: Well, the nature of journalism is that there are a number of people, there are about five people who are actually documenting from different news organizations for different reasons. And when I went over it with director Paul Yule (ph), we actually took all this footage and only eyewitness accounts and cut together a very easy to understand, day by day telling of the story, and it's quite interesting.

WHITFIELD: You talk about the confusion. Does this also underscore the communication, or perhaps lack thereof, as it involved allied forces, U.S. forces on the ground, special agents, et cetera?

PELTON: There were a number of very serious mistakes that led to people's deaths and injuries. Obviously one of them was Mike Spann and Dave Tyson (ph) showing up unannounced the day the prisoners were being interrogated. The other one was a bomb, a 2,000 bomb dropped on the U.S. and British control center. The other one was the prisoners just showing up trying to hook up with another Taliban group and pretending they were surrendering. So there was a variety of sort of very strange and unpredictable events that fueled this battle.

WHITFIELD: At the same time, do you worry about undermining the efforts by the American soldiers there and the security that is in place, or perhaps security that is about to be put in place, in that region, still?

PELTON: Well, it's the job of journalists to tell the truth, and if people made mistakes, that's part of the truth. And keep in mind that these mistakes are what need to be fixed. So if we pretended that everything went perfectly and nobody's getting killed and war is a lovely thing, we're not doing the right thing. So I think the truth is more important then.

WHITFIELD: As American Taliban John Walker Lindh still faces conspiracy charges in court with that trial upcoming, his attorney has made it very clear that he doesn't want any of this tape or the first interview that was conducted of John Walker Lindh by you and your colleagues. Do you think that this tape has a place in that trial?

PELTON: Well, first of all, John Walker has already confessed to being part of that war, and he is going to go down for 20 years. This tape actually, I think, I understand from sources that this tape played a part in John Walker copping that plea, because once the truth was out about his real intentions, I think he would look a lot less sympathetic in the eyes of the American public.

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you very much, Robert Pelton, associate producer of "CNN PRESENTS: House of War," and that airs tonight at 8:00 Eastern, 5:00 Pacific.

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