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CNN Live At Daybreak

Opening A Living Time Capsule: The U.S. Embassy in Kabul

Aired December 19, 2001 - 05:39   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.
CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: Time stood still for the U.S. embassy in Kabul after officials evacuated it nearly 13 years ago.

CNN's John Vause was there when the building reopened this week, and he joins us to tell us what he found. John, you got to go inside?

JOHN VAUSE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes Carol, it was an amazing experience to walk into that building. The U.S. staff, they said, it was like a living time capsule, and they were right.

Now, as you're about to see, the building needs quite a bit of work, but the staff there hope to have the embassy up and running and operational in just a few weeks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(voice-over): A moment frozen in time, January 30, 1989, the day the U.S. embassy was evacuated. Windows and doors locked, bolted, and welded shut. The building has been deserted ever since, except for a small work force of Afghan guards and groundskeepers.

We were among the first allowed inside. What we found was a time capsule. On the tables in the staff canteen, newspapers and magazines from a different era.

On the front page of "Time", George Bush with Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev. The deputy chief mission's office like everywhere else covered in a thick layer of dust. In the corner of the room, old reports on the Soviet Union, a reminder of the tensions of the Cold War.

The office of the Charge d'Affaire, an old record player. What actually is it? CDs go where? A photo of then Secretary of State, George Schultz.

Everywhere throughout this building signs of a frantic departure. Filing cabinets left open. Documents scattered across desks. In the conference room, a cigar left in an ashtray. Bottles of Fanta left half full.

(on camera): When you look at this room, what do you think when you come into a room like this?

JOHN KINCANNON, U.S. KABUL EMBASSY OFFICIAL: What I find interesting about it is that it seems to be just sort of a living time capsule of this embassy. I mean, it's clear that people when they left this embassy, they left in a hurry and it's not neat. It's not tidy, and I think it shows, you know, sort of a nice, you know, touch of probably what was going through everybody's minds as they were, you know, rushing to hurry up and get out of the building.

VAUSE (voice-over): The embassy was closed after the Soviet withdrawal. There were fears that U.S. staff would be caught in the crossfire of the civil war, which followed. The Taliban ransacked this building, taking the floor carpet and office equipment, but, to the surprise of U.S. staff here, there was no major damage.

(on camera): What do you think about the future? What's going to happen in this office -- you know, what's going to happen here I guess is the question.

KINCANNON: Well this, of course, is you know -- you know a key building block, you know, for the, you know, the future of American relations with Afghanistan, and I assume it will not be too long until we have another ambassador here, and America is back in Afghanistan in a big way.

VAUSE (voice-over): There hasn't been an American ambassador here since 1979 when Spike Dobbs was assassinated. Lower-level diplomats were left in charge. But now the American flag is again flying over the compound -- the very same flag, which was flying almost 13 years ago.

For many Afghans, a symbol of hope that this time the U.S. may be here for good.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(on camera): And Carol, just to put it in context, about the amount of work which the staff there at the U.S. embassy has to do, imagine what your house would be like if you hadn't cleaned it for 13 years. They're going to need a lot of 409 and a pretty big vacuum cleaner.

LIN: You know John there are days where it looks like that right now. You know while I was watching your piece, I was -- I was thinking about the time that you have spent in the region.

I mean you were in Pakistan early in the war campaign covering a lot of these anti-American demonstrations and now here you are here in Kabul watching as the American flag flies over the U.S. embassy there. Can you -- can you give me an idea of how you've seen people's attitudes change in that region, if at all, towards Americans?

VAUSE: The amazing thing about being here in Afghanistan, as opposed to being in Pakistan and I guess the difference, which has got to be stated is that ours in Pakistan when the Taliban was still in power here in Afghanistan, so I've arrived in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban -- actually as everybody else, and it's not an understatement to say that when American flag went up, a lot of people in this -- in this city and in this country saw it really as a symbol of hope. They saw this as a chance for their country to rebuild; that the international community is not going to leave them behind. They saw it as a chance for aid -- that the international community is once again going to be there to try and help them -- that they won't be abandoned. They won't be left behind as a failed state

The difference, I think, is that when I was in Islamabad when the airstrikes were going on, is that there was that small minority of anti-U.S. protests and anti-west protests, if you like, which were taking place almost on a daily basis. That seems to have changed quite a bit now that the Taliban have gone and that there's this new interim government here in Afghanistan. So really yes, a big change in the mood, but the big thing here in Afghanistan that American flag -- the symbol of hope for all the people of Afghanistan that finally that they may be able to get this country back on its feet.

LIN: Definitely. All right, thank you very much. John Vause reporting live today from Kabul.

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