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CNN Live At Daybreak

International Aid Workers Finally Free After Months Under Taliban Control

Aired November 15, 2001 - 07:00   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.
PAULA ZAHN, CNN ANCHOR: Out of Afghanistan -- international aid workers are finally free after months under Taliban control. Details of their dramatic rescue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED RELATIVE: And I'm just thankful to god that she's safe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: Relief and elation. Relatives of the freed Americans celebrate. The waiting and worrying are finally over. And, on Osama bin Laden's trail -- the U.S. targets top members of his terror network as the search for bin Laden intensifies.

And good morning. Glad to have you with us this morning on this Thursday, November 15, from New York. I'm Paula Zahn.

Here are some of the big questions we will explore in this hour. How did U.S. forces get the eight international aid workers out of Afghanistan? Military analyst General Don Shepperd from the war room on the role of special forces.

Also, are U.S. forces zeroing in on Osama bin Laden? CNN's Bob Franken reports from the Pentagon on the latest effort to target his terror network.

First, though, the latest headlines. For that we turn to Leon Harris, who is standing by in Atlanta this morning with our war room -- hello.

LEON HARRIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT. Good morning, Paula. Good morning, folks.

Well, they were held for three months by the Taliban, but today they are free and out of Afghanistan. Eight Western aid workers, two Americans, two Australians and four Germans, have been airlifted to Pakistan by U.S. special operations helicopters. The Taliban had charged the eight with preaching Christianity and had taken them to a town southwest of Kabul. The International Red Cross was involved in releasing the aid workers to the U.S. military.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am pleased with the way our military has conducted its operations and I am glad to report to the American people that this chapter of the Afghan theater has ended in a very positive and constructive way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: Family and friends of the aid workers are ecstatic, as you may expect. We'll have their reactions coming up, so make sure you stay with us here this morning.

Now, U.S. officials in Washington say American war planes destroyed a building containing senior personnel of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terror network. One official told CNN national security correspondent David Ensor that everyone inside that building was killed and then asked if bin Laden was one of them. Officials said we don't know. There are no other details except that the building is somewhere in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

On the war front, the Northern Alliance now claims control of 80 percent of Afghanistan. A gun battle is reported to be under way for control of the airport at Kandahar. Now, Kandahar is the Taliban's stronghold in the south. Ethnic Pashtun fighters are also shooting it out with the Taliban in the streets of Kandahar.

And in the north, holdout Taliban fighters at Konduz are under siege by the Northern Alliance and are now being bombed by U.S. war planes.

Progress is reported in the financial assault on Osama bin Laden. The U.S. Treasury Department says $56 million in al Qaeda and Taliban funds are now blocked worldwide. Nearly 1,100 money accounts are under scrutiny in the United States and 120 nations now have blocking orders in office.

Turning to another story now, turbulence from another airplane is still a prime suspect in Monday's crash of American Airlines Flight 587. The air bus jet liner came apart in flight and crashed in the New York borough of Queens and officials think the tail section may have broken off first.

In Washington, investigators are poring over what they call a wealth of information coming from the plane's flight data recorder. At least 265 people died in that crash.

Well, those are the headlines for now. Let's go back to New York and Paula Zahn -- Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks, Leon. See you a little bit later on this morning.

Now, the end of a terribly challenging ordeal. A dramatic rescue and eight aid workers taste freedom once again. The eight, including two Americans, were snatched from Afghanistan, where they had been held for nearly three months.

Jim Clancy has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM CLANCY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Since their arrest by the Taliban in August, the eight aid workers risked the death penalty on charges of preaching Christianity. In what they said was one of their darkest hours, they suddenly found freedom.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you believe that you're out alive?

GEORG TAUBMANN, FREED AID WORKER: Well...

UNIDENTIFIED AID WORKER: No.

TAUBMANN: We still, it's like a miracle.

CLANCY: A miracle that the four Germans, two Australians and two Americans had not ended up as they feared, human shields in the crumbling defenses of the Taliban. Georg Taubmann described how Taliban forces hustled them out of Kabul as it was beginning to fall Tuesday.

TAUBMANN: We heard already the troops coming in and then the Taliban came in and took us away and took us in a vehicle and wanted to take us to Kandahar. And we know if we end up in Kandahar, we would not probably survive there.

CLANCY: Before they could reach Kandahar, the aid workers said they were temporarily imprisoned in the town of Ghazni, southwest of the Afghan capital. It was here that Northern Alliance troops loyal to assassinated military commander Ahmed Shah Massoud broke them out of their cells.

TAUBMANN: The Alliance people came in.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This was in Ghazni, right?

TAUBMANN: This was in Ghazni. And they broke open the prison and we were freed and we got out of the prison and we walked through the city and the people came out of the houses and they hugged us and they greeted us and they were all clapping and.

CLANCY: The Red Cross, German and Australian governments worked with the U.S. and Northern Alliance forces to arrange for U.S. military helicopters to pick up the aid workers outside Ghazni. They were later flown to Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, where they made their way to their respective embassies and the arms of family members.

An obviously pleased U.S. president had this to say.

BUSH: Today we've got incredibly good news. The United States military rescued eight humanitarian workers who had been imprisoned in Afghanistan. I am really proud of our armed forces and I'm also thankful for the folks in Afghanistan who helped with this rescue. There have been a lot of people praying for the eight innocent folks. It's particularly interesting for me, since I'm here in Crawford and two, the two Americans were from Waco. And I know a lot of the Waco citizens had been in deep prayer that they'd be rescued and their prayers were answered.

CLANCY: Prayers answered. A former prisoner now enjoying freedom put it more simply.

TAUBMANN: And I think this was one of the biggest days in my life.

CLANCY (on camera): Most, if not all, of the freed aid workers are holding meetings with family members here in Pakistan. The eight are expected to have more to say about their harrowing experiences inside Afghanistan when they hold a press conference on Friday.

Jim Clancy, CNN, Islamabad.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZAHN: And for more now on the rescue of the aid workers from a different perspective, let's go live to CNN's Tom Mintier, who is standing by in Islamabad, Pakistan -- Tom, what's the latest you've learned?

TOM MINTIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, this is an extraordinary story that didn't just start this morning when they flew out by helicopter. It started on Tuesday afternoon when the Northern Alliance made their advance on Kabul. It was then that the Taliban fled the city and left the eight international aid workers in their cells.

Now, they were picked up by a local commander who had the foresight to call the International Committee for the Red Cross. It was the Red Cross who notified the German government, the U.S. government and the Australian government that they could make contact with this commander.

Communications went directly from these governments to this local commander, who facilitated the pickup. They then set up an aircraft mission where special operations helicopters made their way into Afghanistan, dropped down, picked them up aboard the helicopter and then brought them to Pakistan.

The Red Cross said they sent a representative to check to make sure they were all OK, visited with the eight detainees and then facilitated, really, their way out. Talking to one of the German detainees, he said that he was not sure one minute to the next whether he was going to be staying with the Taliban, staying alone, staying with the Northern Alliance, on the way home or staying in Afghanistan forever.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAUBMANN: Fortunately we arrived at nine o'clock and right when we came the bombarding started and at 10 o'clock was the uprising and at 11 o'clock the Massoud people came and others from the Alliance there and broke into the prison and just opened the doors. And we were actually afraid that now the Taliban are coming and picking us and taking us to Kandahar. We were really scared. And they...

(CROSSTALK)

TAUBMANN: Yes, Alliance people came in.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This was in Ghazni?

TAUBMANN: This was in Ghazni. And they broke open the prison and we were free. And we got out of the prison and we walked through the city and the people came out of the houses and they hugged us and they greeted us and they were all clapping and they didn't know there were foreigners in the prison. So it was a big attraction. So everybody came out of the houses in the city and they were celebrating and waving at us and hugging us. And it was like a big celebration for all these people. And I think this was one of the biggest days in my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MINTIER: The two Americans will be talking about their ordeal. They're holding a press conference here in Islamabad on Friday. But the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Wendy Chamberlain, says they're staying at her house. And she also says that they're doing what people might be doing if they'd been spending a long time in the conditions that these two American women had been in. They've been spending a lot of time in the shower, washing their hair and making telephone calls -- Paula.

ZAHN: Tom, I know this is a very difficult position to put you in, but a lot of people are shaking their heads and wondering why the Taliban would have left these workers in prison because Mr. Mercer, the father of one of those missionaries, was quite fearful of quite the opposite, that they would be used as human shields and that the Taliban would come back and take them into harm's way.

MINTIER: It's quite possible there was an order by the Taliban to move them to Kandahar and that the officials here in Pakistan passed that word on to Mr. Mercer. But what the reality is on the ground in Afghanistan, that their command and control is not very good. It's been basically decimated by the bombing perhaps. So what is being said in Kandahar or Islamabad may not be heard in Kabul. And it's quite possible that the order to pick them up, take them down to Kandahar in the back of a truck was never delivered to the actual guards.

What the detainees say is that one minute the Taliban was there and the next minute they were out and away from their cells. They were gone. So it may be simply that the orders weren't delivered.

ZAHN: All right, Tom Mintier, thank you so much for that update.

As you've seen earlier on here this morning President Bush, of course, praised the U.S. forces involved in the rescue of the aid workers. The president is at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, wrapping up his summit with Vladimir Putin.

Also in Crawford is our own White House correspondent Major Garrett. Good of you to join us so early in the morning. Thank you. With the time difference I know it's a little bit different than your normal wakeup call -- good morning, Major.

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. Good morning, Paula.

President Bush interrupted an outdoor, or rather, chuck wagon dinner with President Putin and his wife Ludmilla (ph) to announce and put his own words to the rescue of the eight international aid workers. You know, the Taliban had tried unsuccessfully several times to use those aid -- international aid workers as bargaining chips with the White House. President Bush resisted each and every attempt by the Taliban to do so and the president had made clear from his memorable speech to the United States Congress right after the international campaign against terror began that one of his conditions was that those international aid workers be released and released as soon as possible.

Clearly, the chaotic situation in Afghanistan had the aid workers originally heading to Kandahar, but then they were dropped off in Ghazni and then after they were released by the Northern Alliance, picked up by U.S. special forces troops. The president very much happy with the U.S. military involvement, the International Red Cross involvement. And it's also a story of tremendous local interest here, Paula.

Waco is the largest Texas city to Crawford. The two U.S. international aid workers, Heather Mercer, who is 30, rather, she is 24, and Danya Curry, who is 30, were students at Baylor University. And Antioch Community Church here in Waco, nearby Waco, was where they are parishioners or members of that church. And members of that church had conducted a constant, round the clock vigil since their capture in August and have been praying constantly for their release.

The president noted that in his remarks at his ranch here in Crawford last night, said he was pleased that not only the U.S. military had rescued them, but also that the prayers of so many people in nearby Waco had been answered -- Paula.

ZAHN: Major, I don't whether you heard a little bit of what Tom Mintier was reporting, but it is unclear at this hour whether the Taliban had ever put through an order to have these missionaries transferred south to Kandahar. Have you gotten any confirmation that maybe that order was executed but not followed through on because of how compromised the command and control center is of the Taliban right now?

GARRETT: You know, White House officials are not really clear on the exact chain of events. What they're relying on mostly is the words from the aid workers themselves. Clearly, they were in Kabul. They were moved in a car, put in what they described as a container. They were freezing cold on this drive about 50 miles south of Kabul to Ghazni. Then they were just stopped there, put in the fetid, completely horrible prison, and then they were left. And they don't know why, although what they do know is that the Northern Alliance troops came, rescued them.

The contact was then made at the International Red Cross. The U.S. special forces helicopters arrived. Now they're in Pakistan and that's where they'd like to leave it happily, as this ending is. And the president and the White House officials are basically saying that's what we know and that's what we're sticking with.

ZAHN: All right, Major Garrett, thanks.

Relatives of the American aid workers could barely find the words to express their relief and excitement. After nearly three months of anxious waiting and worry, this was the news they had hoped to hear.

Here's how Danya Curry's relatives reacted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIM CASSELL, DAYNA CURRY'S STEPFATHER: It is so exciting, I don't know, even know how to begin to tell everybody how I feel. I'm only the stepfather. I know I'm only the stepfather and the father is out there. But we raised that child. She is like my own child. And I have to say that she is my stepdaughter, but she is as much a part of me as any daughter or as a son I've ever had and I'm so excited about this right here, I just can't imagine and I don't have words to say. And I'm just thankful.

TILDEN CURRY, DANYA CURRY'S FATHER: I just heard a few minutes ago that she'd actually been released and is in Pakistan now. That's just tremendous news. I mean I just heard it just a few minutes ago. Just, I just can't express how I feel. I'm just so relieved and happy.

DANIEL CURRY, DANYA CURRY'S BROTHER:

She's just so amazing, so brave. She has such a strong faith and I could never go over to a foreign, dangerous country and do what she's done. And she's just amazing and I really look up to her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZAHN: At the church in Waco, Texas where Curry and Heather Mercer are both members, friends celebrated the news with hugs, cheers and tears.

For friends and fellow church members, the release of the aid workers is an answered prayer.

Jeannie McGinnis is a friend of Heather Mercer. She joins us from Waco, Texas this morning. Thank you very much for being with us.

JEANNIE MCGINNIS, FRIEND OF HEATHER MERCER: Sure.

ZAHN: Has the news sunk in yet?

MCGINNIS: Yes. I think it has. I'm a little, I'm still kind of reeling from the news, but I've been excited, exhilarated and a little emotional.

ZAHN: Describe to us what the scene was like when you were finally able to gather members of your church community to talk about this very good news.

MCGINNIS: Well, we had been getting conflicting reports over the last three months of whether they were released or not. And so when we heard at around 5:15 our time here, we couldn't believe it. And so around 5:30 we got the confirmation from Pakistan and we all celebrated and started crying and rejoiced.

ZAHN: I know that I talked with Mr. Mercer just two days ago and he said one of his worst fears was confirmed when he found out that, in fact, the Taliban had transferred Heather and the seven other missionary workers south to this small town of Ghazni. How concerned were you at that point that Heather and her colleagues might be used as human shields by the Taliban?

MCGINNIS: Well, we didn't know what was going to happen. All we know is that our trust and our faith was in god, just as it has been this whole process. And I think September 11 was a big day for us of knowing that their only deliverer would be god. And so we've been praying fervently. We haven't been anxious, you know, concerned, but we haven't been anxious and we've put our trust in god. And I really feel like god is who has delivered them.

ZAHN: I know you had the opportunity to communicate with Heather through letters over the last several months. How well aware was she of the risks she might encounter by going to Afghanistan to do the work she was doing?

MCGINNIS: Well, I lived with her in '98 and '99 and even then she was planning to go to Afghanistan. And I know that through that, living with her, she has counted the costs. She knew that this was a biblical precedent, to be arrested. That was definitely not her hope or desire. But she was very well aware of the costs that were involved in going to Afghanistan.

ZAHN: And I know that you more than anybody else understands the depth of Heather's faith. But in any of her communications to you, did she ever let on how nervous she was or how scared she was along the way?

MCGINNIS: Sure, at the very beginning, especially, she had some very understandable emotional ups and downs. And she was scared. But I think what she's communicated overall, especially in the last few weeks, is that she's trusting god and her faith was in god and she knew that god was the only one who could protect her.

ZAHN: What does your church plan to do when she finally comes home?

MCGINNIS: When she finally comes home we're going to laugh and cry and celebrate and have her over for dinner and yes, I just can't wait to see her. ZAHN: Well, Jeannie McGinnis, we really appreciate your joining us this morning at this very joyful time of your community's life. Thank you again for being with us.

MCGINNIS: Yes. Sure.

ZAHN: Take care.

MCGINNIS: Right. Right.

ZAHN: We'll try to come to your celebration. We'll be as delicate as we can be with our cameras.

MCGINNIS: OK. Great.

ZAHN: Again, take care.

We, of course, will be talking to the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, Wendy Chamberlain, in just about half an hour from now to sort of clear up some of the confusion surrounding the rescue of these missionary workers.

Now, let's go, though, to the latest on the ongoing military action in Afghanistan. The U.S. is stepping up the hunt for Osama bin Laden and his followers. American war planes attacked the building where senior members of bin Laden's al Qaeda network were believed to be holed up.

CNN's Christiane Amanpour joins us live from Kabul with the very latest -- Christiane.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Paula, good morning.

There is still obviously fighting and uncertainty going on in much, in some parts of Afghanistan. Even in the north, the troops of the Taliban who retreated after certain towns in the north had been conquered have moved towards a town called Konduz and there's been quite a lot of fighting between Northern Alliance and Taliban forces there.

Here in Kabul, three days after it was freed from the Taliban, the situation is much different. There is calm. It is under control. People are out and about on the streets. Basically people telling us from all walks of life, whether men or women, that they feel a sense of liberation. They feel a sense of freedom, they said, what they had not had for the last five years of Taliban rule.

Particularly the women, who told us that they hope now that they will be able to go back and go back to work. Forty percent of the Kabul workforce was made up of women and they want to go back and get the jobs that they were banned from under the Taliban. They also want education again for their girls. Girls have been unable to be educated at schools here for the last five years, which has put a big, big gap in the upbringing and the development of so many millions of girls in this country for the last five years. In small ways, also, a return to normality can be seen in terms of television, which had been banned, again, all throughout the regime of the Taliban. Now, today, the Kabul television transmitter was hoisted back onto a roof, ready to begin broadcasting what they can and when they can.

In other areas of this city, there are other minorities. For instance, those who are ethnic Hindus and Sikhs, Afghanis who are Hindu and Sikhs, they, if you remember several months ago, had been ordered by the Taliban to put yellow insignia on their dress to single them out as minorities. The Taliban said at the time it was for their security. But the Hindus and Sikhs said that this was a form of discrimination and they say they are relieved that the Taliban has left town.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MASTER AZTAR SINGH, PRIEST: While the Taliban were in power, the people were under immense pressure. They insisted that we wear yellow fabric and women had to cover themselves from head to toe. Religious beliefs were torturing us. We could not easily come to terms with their doctrine. Now we are absolutely delighted that the Alliance has entered Kabul. We are secure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: Another thing we've been hearing a lot of in the streets is as soon as people know that we're from an American organization, they've been coming up to us and saying we thank the United States, because they have given us a chance at a new freedom. When I asked were they scared of the bombing, they said well, not really. They said there were a few mis hits, but they realized throughout the many weeks of bombing that it was mostly targeted, all targeted at military targets. So they are expressing a lot of appreciation and they're hoping that this really does mark a new beginning for them here in Afghanistan -- Paula.

ZAHN: Thanks, Christiane.

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