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CNN Live At Daybreak

Reporters Face Tough Battle to Get Information in Afghanistan

Aired December 03, 2001 - 06:43   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, suddenly it's as if everybody wants to be in Kandahar: the Taliban, their opponents and a battalion of reporters, including our Nic Robertson, who describes his efforts to get to the scene of the action.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Further inside Afghanistan, we understand that the Taliban still do not control the main highway from Kandahar. But in Spin Boldak itself, everyone...

(voice-over): When words like "perhaps" and "possibly" pepper your stories, you know you're not close enough to the news, and you know you're chasing missing parts to the puzzle.

So while we've been stuck at the border, prevented by the Taliban from crossing and doing our best to divine from truck drivers and defecting Taliban officials what's happening in their last bastion, Kandahar...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will be willing to assist you day or night. We have given the telephone number to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) --

ROBERTSON (on camera): So when the Taliban give over the town to you, then you can help us come in.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): We've also been pushing tribal leaders to let us join fighters they claim are closing in on the city, so we can see for ourselves.

It's no good asking the former Taliban ambassador, who grew to international importance through his daily news briefings, delivering the Taliban's view, because he says he is no longer able to grant visas for travel. But instead now tells how it all went wrong for the Taliban, how bombing left front-line fighters without food and ammunition, and how he and other Taliban officials tried to persuade Mullah Omar to hand over Osama bin Laden.

So the question, when stuck so far from the story, is: Who is to be believed?

The truck driver: "The Taliban don't control the highway," he says.

The defector: "Last night, elders said anyone who wants to leave, can. I am going to my family," he says.

The former official or the tribal leader: "The Taliban will hand over this town, because it means they won't have to die," he says.

It all paints a picture of the Taliban under pressure, very much what we were expecting, and therefore, more easily believable. So where, then, do the other details from the same people fit into that image?

Like the tribal chieftain, seemingly on the same side as American forces, fighting the Taliban. But when asked what difference it makes having U.S. troops on the ground: "The people aren't happy, but they can't do anything about it. We have no government, no defense, and do we believe as well the new Taliban officials sent in to replace the defectors. As long as our leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar, is alive," he says, "we will defend this patch. And for that matter, how will we know if he does die?"

(on camera): The truth is we'll keep trying to get to the news, every tribal leader and every Taliban official, every Pakistani border agent, whatever we can do to get close to the news, only then will we have all of the pieces of the puzzle.

Nic Robertson, CNN, from the Afghan-Pakistan border.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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