Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

'Reporter's Notebook' from Afghanistan

Aired January 17, 2002 - 07:40   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: And welcome back. It's just about 14 minutes before the hour. As you might imagine, being a war correspondent can be risky business. For the past four months CNN's Nic Robertson has been on the ground in Kandahar and Tora Bora and other front line positions.

Now he's back from Afghanistan with his reporter's notebook chockfull of war stories and he's here to share some of them with us this morning.

Welcome back.

NIC ROBERSTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

ZAHN: Nice to see you in person for a change. Tell us a little bit about September 11th. You were one of how many western correspondents in Afghanistan?

ROBERTSON: There were about a dozen of us. We were covering a trial of Christian aide workers, two American ladies who were accused of trying to convert Afghans to Christianity. And I had called our international desk in Atlanta who coordinate the work we do in foreign countries. And they said, "It's chaos here." And I thought, well sometimes it is chaos, but what -- you know, what -- "Can I speak to somebody?" And they just put me on hold. And I heard when I was on hold about the plane hitting the World Trade Center. So I called my wife in London to find out more about what was going on, because she's a journalist with CNN as well.

She described to me the events that were happening in New York and what was happening in Washington, and I just realized when the second plane hit the World Trade Center that the story was going to come back to Afghanistan. And that was a chilling moment.

ZAHN: How quickly did you know that. I mean, because the speculation about who was responsible for these attacks didn't come much later on in the day. When did you realize you were going to be in a front line position?

ROBERTSON: The moment the second plane hit. It was a chilling moment. I almost looked at my wife over the telephone, if you will. We both knew without saying that this was serious terrorism. That the world's most serious terrorist was in Afghanistan. And that's where I was. You didn't need to say anymore. ZAHN: Now describe to us how long then you were able to stay in Afghanistan after that point.

ROBERTSON: A few diplomats in town left the next morning; most of the other journalists left the next morning. Other journalists left a few days later. We kept petitioning the Taliban. They said it wouldn't be safe for us to stay, the people would be angry with us. They would come after us. We kept petitioning saying, "We can stay. We'll be safe. We'll -- don't worry about our safety, we'll take care of our own safety." We went to Kandahar to meet with the foreign minister who was the top authority for journalists and said, "Look, we feel we can stay. We feel there's an important job to do here. We feel it's important to report from this country."

And he was clearly getting told from above, from Mullah Omar, from other around, Mullah Omar, "Just get the journalists out." They were telling us it wasn't safe. They didn't want us there, and we were forced to leave after. I think it was maybe 10 days.

ZAHN: And I remember a report you filed where you actually took us out of the country with you when you were on a bus. Describe to that -- that situation briefly for us.

ROBERTSON: As a journalist, it's horrible to leave a story that you know is an incredibly important story. A country where there is an amazing amount of suffering of the general population, and you know that potentially they are going to be exposed to more suffering. And it's a -- it was an important political story; it was going to be an important military story.

So everybody wanted to know what was happening in Afghanistan. You know, whether Osama bin Laden was going to leave. But to leave -- to leave as a journalist, that's a horrible feeling. You really want to stay for a multitude of reasons.

ZAHN: Then describe to us what you had to do to make sure you were in a position to come back into the country once you were given the OK to do such.

ROBERTSON: We had to keep petitioning the Taliban and trying to convince them there was a story to tell, that we wanted access to the country, we wanted access to the people, we wanted to know what the people were thinking about the bombing. And eventually they let us in, but in a very limited way. Always under their control, always at their discretion for limited periods.

ZAHN: I remember vividly a couple of the reports where there was tracer (ph) fire overhead and I wondered how vulnerable you ever felt at any point of your stay in Afghanistan.

ROBERTSON: I think in Afghanistan you feel most vulnerable to the things you can't predict to the events. You could be driving around the city or driving down a road in the countryside. There are so many weapons out there; there are so many people with different grudges, tribal or against -- you know, against aid workers, against journalists. You don't know who's going to step out and cause you trouble in the day. You just don't know when it's going to turn, and it can turn quickly.

ZAHN: Final thing, how troubled are you by the reports this morning that Pashtun tribal leaders are now saying, "We're not going to help American special forces go cave to cave."

ROBERTSON: It's interesting. I noticed in Kandahar -- and we were the first journalists to get in there when the Taliban left -- the governor who took over there, who had been supported by U.S. special forces to drive the Taliban out told us the day we arrived he knew where Mullah Omar had gone. It had taken three weeks after that for them to chase him down. After that, he negotiated a deal to have Mullah Omar to move on. It's very interesting, the political -- internal political dynamics of Afghanistan.

ZAHN: And the challenge it presents for the U.S. administration.

ROBERTSON: Absolutely. Absolutely.

ZAHN: Nic Robertson, glad to have you in New York.

ROBERTSON: Thank you.

ZAHN: And you have a special coming on tomorrow night at 8:00 PM, right?

ROBERTSON: Indeed, we do.

ZAHN: From ground zero.

ROBERTSON: From ground zero.

ZAHN: Your first thoughts as you arrived at ground zero.

ROBERTSON: That's right.

ZAHN: Again, good to see you in person.

ROBERTSON: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com