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Afghanistan Falls to the Taliban, U.S. Races to Evacuate. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired August 16, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

[05:59:30]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, good morning to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I am Brianna Keilar alongside John Berman. We're beginning with breaking news.

The Taliban has taken over Afghanistan, seizing control of Kabul with hardly a shot fired. The U.S.-backed Afghan government collapsing swiftly after insurgents overran key provincial capitals in the span of the last week.

And this morning, commercial flights in and out of Kabul's airport have been cancelled. The panic, as you can see here, among Afghans visible at the airport. People flooding the tarmac, desperate to flee the country.

Embassy officials warning Americans not to travel to Kabul's airport, because it is unsafe. The U.S. rushing an additional 1,000 combat troops to secure the airport perimeter for evacuation flights.

And the U.S. embassy in Kabul has been evacuated. France, New Zealand, other countries, as well, are scrambling to do the same as the Taliban now claiming to control 90 percent of the government buildings there in Kabul, including the presidential palace after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: President Biden was briefed at Camp David over the weekend. He is still there. He is expected to address the nation the next few days on the fall of Afghanistan.

Now, whether or not one agrees with the president's decision to withdraw all U.S. troops, there's no question the White House was wrong about the length of time they had. Wrong about the strength of the Afghan military. Wrong about the reach of the Taliban.

Now the question for this minute: Does the U.S. have the ability to get all Americans out safely? Not to mention the thousands and thousands of Afghans who have helped the U.S. over the years, whose lives hang in the balance this morning?

Another major concern: is Afghanistan, will it become a safe haven for terror groups like al Qaeda or ISIS to re-emerge?

The U.N. Security Council is meeting today to consider how or if the world will negotiate with the new Taliban leadership.

We're going to begin our coverage on the ground in Kabul. CNN's chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, is live there.

And Clarissa, you have taken a remarkable trip around the streets, including to the site of what I guess is now the former U.S. embassy.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. I mean, what a difference 24 hours made.

This is -- this is day one now of reporting in what's called the Islamic emirate now. You can see a lot's changed. Certainly, the dress code for me as changed.

We're standing here with Taliban fighters just behind us, and they're keen to show the world that they are able to maintain law and order on the ground.

Of course, that's flying in the face of those images we see from the airport of sheer desperation, thousands and thousands of Afghans desperately trying to get out, frightened for their lives. That crush of chaos in the moments as they flooded the airfield.

The U.S. military is now in control of the perimeter. They've put razor wire all around to avoid a repeat of that.

Here in the city's center, it feels like a very different story. We've been driving around all morning. Take a look at what we found.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WARD (voice-over): As soon as we leave our compound, it's clear who is now in charge. Taliban fighters have flooded the capital, smiling and victorious, they took the city of six million people in a matter of hours, barely firing a shot.

(on camera): This is a sight I honestly thought I would never see, scores of Taliban fighters and just behind us, the U.S. embassy compound.

(voice-over): Some carry American weapons. They tell us they're here to maintain law and order.

"Everything is under control. Everything will be fine," the commander says. "Nobody should worry."

(on camera): What's your message to America right now?

(voice-over): "America already spent enough time in Afghanistan. They need to leave," he tells us. "They already lost lots of lives and lots of money."

People come up to them to pose for photographs.

(on camera): They're just chanting, "Death to America," but they seem friendly at the same time. It's utterly bizarre. (voice-over): At the presidential palace, the Taliban are now guarding

the gate. They say they're here to fill the vacuum left when the government fled.

But the welcoming spirit only extends so far, and my presence soon creates tension.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's because of you.

WARD (on camera): They just told me to stand to the side, because I'm a woman.

(voice-over): Outside, ordinary Afghans clamber to talk to us, struggling to process the dizzying speed of Kabul's fall.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Actually, I feel nothing right now. We want peace. We are tired of this ongoing war.

WARD (on camera): What does the future look like to you now?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, I cannot predict even in seconds right now, and I can't predict even minutes right now. So that's why I don't know what will -- what will happen tomorrow, what will happen after.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WARD: You know, in many ways, John and Brianna, the story today is about the people who aren't out on the streets, who don't feel safe, who are petrified, who are wondering what the future will bring, who are hiding out.

There are tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of them across this city. We can't see them, and they're not speaking, because they're so concerned; their voices are largely silent.

[06:05:06]

But still when you think of those images at the airport, you have to keep those in your mind. That is the other side of the coin here, the dark reality of the absolute bitter fear that is consuming so many Afghans in this new, bizarre world.

KEILAR: That's really the description coming from inside of Afghanistan, Clarissa. I was trying to have some women who are holed up there in Afghanistan on the show today, trying to book them on the show through an Afghan-American cousin who is here in the United States, but they're just too terrified. They're too terrified to come on, even with the promise of obscuring their voices and their identities.

And right now they're holed up in their house. The Taliban is walking outside of their house, and they worry it's just a matter of time until someone knocks on the door.

WARD: And absolutely. Especially for women who have been outspoken, for women who have had prominent jobs, women in politics, women in the judiciary, female journalists. All of these women, incredibly strong, brilliant women, are right now absolutely petrified, just waiting to see what happens? Where can they go? Where can they turn? Will they become a target? Many questions.

BERMAN: Clarissa, we are looking at pictures right now, scenes from the airport in Kabul. Obviously, the frenzy of people trying to get on planes there. But can people even get to the airport at this point?

WARD: So we had several teams of colleagues who tried to get to the airport yesterday. And it was mayhem. Essentially, the entire road was completely blocked with cars. You had people driving down the wrong side of the road.

You had -- one American friend told me there were just scenes of chaos, this crush of people trying to get through.

And then there was shooting. It's not clear whether the shooting was targeting somebody or whether it was simply someone trying to scatter the crowd because the chaos was too much.

But, as you well know, whenever you have a scene like that, where you have a crash of humanity, where you have absolute chaos, where you have bullets flying, that's when people get hurt.

And I think those images that you're seeing, and they're seared into all of our minds, speak to this desperation. How desperate, how petrified does an individual have to be to risk everything and just try to physically crush yourself on to the outside of an airplane?

Those images of people holding onto a U.S. Air Force carrier. I think that's something many Americans will -- and people around the world will not be able to get out of their minds for quite some time.

KEILAR: Yes. They are risking death, because they're certain they're going to face it there in Kabul.

I wonder, Clarissa, what -- what will become of the U.S. embassy now that Americans have left? I mean, is there a possibility that we could be seeing a Taliban flag flying over the embassy? Is there -- are there security forces there to stop something like that happening?

WARD: We didn't see any indication of security forces there. Look at what the Taliban did last night in the presidential palace. Hours after Ashraf Ghani fled the country, the former president, they were in there asserting themselves, holding court.

And I should say these are mostly commanders and fighters. We have yet to sort of have the arrival, let's say, of the more seasoned Taliban political leaders. And I think they will be trying to call the shots with an eye on what the international community will be thinking and making of this whole situation.

But it is certainly quite possible that you will see the Taliban enter the U.S. embassy. Certainly, there's no real way at this stage to stop it. BERMAN: No, because the U.S. has completely evacuated said embassy. I

guess a really important question over the next few days, Clarissa, is what are the Taliban's intentions toward the airport, with the airport, with the one remaining site where people can get out?

WARD: I think for now the Taliban is happy for the airport to be under the purview of the U.S. for as long as those evacuations are going on. In a strange sense, they don't want to do anything that would impede those evacuations because they want all foreigners out of this country. And they said as much to many many times on the streets today.

So, there is a sort of threshold of patience whereby they're willing to wait out the next couple of days until those evacuations are complete.

But one can only assume that at some point, they will very much want those 6,000 U.S. troops to leave, as well as, you know, some various British and other nationalities' military who are also here evacuating their own citizens.

[06:10:02]

We don't know yet, though, what the Taliban's timeline is for that one. They have said they will not declare an interim government, a transitional government, until everybody is out.

KEILAR: As you mentioned, Clarissa, your -- your dress code has clearly changed here in the last day since the Taliban took over Kabul. Is it -- is it safe there? Is it less safe for you? Obviously, you're reporting from the street, but what are considerations right now for foreign journalists like yourself?

WARD: Well, we've been told that we're free to report here. We're very cautious. We have good lines into the Taliban. Any time we want to shoot video on the street, we'll stop, and we'll go and ask them.

For the most part, it hasn't been a problem. Occasionally, my gender does flummox them. At the entrance to the presidential palace, as you saw, it was sort of an uncomfortable moment, and they were shooing me away and sort of asking why they -- my colleagues had brought a woman with them, which is, you know, frankly, to be expected and not unusual.

I will say also, Brianna, a lot less women on the streets today. Normally, Kabul, it's still a conservative society. Women do wear the head scarf, but not quite as tightly as this. You might see them with some hair showing. You might see them wearing colors. You might see them wearing slightly more shapely silhouettes than I'm wearing in this abaya. Today, seeing a lot more burkas on the streets and far fewer women.

KEILAR: Clarissa Ward, thank you so much for this report from Kabul, really giving us a sense of what is happening there on the ground.

And, you know, Berman, you bring up such an excellent point, as you're talking to Clarissa there. What -- what does the Taliban -- you know, what are they thinking about for the airport? Because as we actually understand, we've just confirmed some information from the Pentagon from the spokesman there, John Kirby, who says that the Pentagon is planning to potentially relocate up to 30,000 Afghan special immigrant visa applications, which is key.

So these are the folks we've been talking about. The translators, the Afghan support staff, who really, over the course of this 20-year war, put their lives at risk by helping Americans.

The question is can they do this in time? He says that they're going to be housing them, actually, domestically, here in the U.S. This is a huge reversal for the Biden administration. At Forts Bliss and McCoy. So Fort Bliss, of course, in Texas. McCoy in Wisconsin.

And the other thing that appears to be a reversal here is that these evacuations that they're prioritizing are going to be a mix. That's what he says. A mix of American citizens and these SIV applicants. So not just Americans prioritized as we had understood yesterday.

He said they are, the Americans, in charge of air traffic at the airport. Of course, we have to see is that going to continue? The timeline here, how long will they do this? He said they're working under the assumption that they will be going until August 31, which was that official date for the total drawdown.

The question, Berman, as you pointed out, what will the Taliban allow, right? They are right there by the airport.

BERMAN: All right. We're going to bring in retired General James "Spider" Marks. He's also the head of geopolitical strategy at Academy Securities.

And General, I want to try to get to some of the questions that Brianna just raised there, because I think they're the key questions for this minute, what's happening right now.

So there are thousands of U.S. troops now at the airport in Kabul, up to 6,000 that are going to be there. What will they do?

GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: John, the key -- the key mission for the soldiers and the Marines that are on the ground and certainly the airmen that are flying those C-17s in the images that we've seen to try to get American personnel out of the city, will be to maintain a cordon from pockets of where American citizens might exist in the city or might be coming into the city from providences outside of the Kabul area.

And then to safely escort them and get them into the airport so that we can get them out of country. That's the key mission.

The one thing that has happened, which is a bit surprising, is the Taliban have entered into Kabul, and they've done it in a relatively peaceful way. I think they want to do that. No. 1, they don't want to poke the bear. They don't want to get the United States upset, because we will fire back. If they were to engage, we would slaughter them and they know that.

And also they want to put a global face out there, saying, Hey, look, we're about to take over. We want to do this peacefully. We're going to -- we're going to try to walk through this transition that's going to take place inevitably. And we want international support as we kind of stand up these different forms of governance that will be in place.

BERMAN: General, so can 6,000 U.S. troops keep the airport in Kabul open indefinitely?

MARKS: Not indefinitely, of course not, John. No. If the Taliban wanted to shut down the airport, we would have to have a significant presence. We'd also, which we do have, we have tremendous ability to bring some phenomenal and very precise fire power from the air that would allow us to create conditions to make it that much more difficult for the Taliban. But the question about indefinitely is a very long horizon.

[06:15:09]

BERMAN: OK. So, Admiral Kirby confirmed to Brianna that the goal is to get the 30,000 people, not just Americans, but some of the people, special immigration visas, people who have been cooperating, helping Americans there for decades out of the country, up to 30,000 by August 31.

How possible is that if the only exit point is that airport in Kabul?

MARKS: Right. Very, very tough. If that's the only point of departure, it becomes extremely difficult.

Look, it's a physics problem, right? We've got to get aircraft in. We've got all manner of aircraft. We also need to get civilian aircraft in there, in support of military missions, and we know how to do that.

But that would be a huge mission requirement. A large number of folks would have to be processed. Because we have to diligence those people before we stick them on an airplane and then launch that airplane out of there. That's a large number of folks trying to get out of country in about a week and a half.

BERMAN: And just one last question about the airport here. Again, I'm focused on this, because it's so important for what's happening minute by minute right now.

Those U.S. troops that are there, are they there primarily to guard the perimeter of the airport, to keep the Taliban out? Or are they to keep order within the airport? Is this now -- are they now air traffic control operations for any anti-Taliban forces in Afghanistan?

MARKS: Yes and yes. Look, the United States military will do multiple missions simultaneously. So, certainly, it's to ensure that there is good order discipline movement. We can't afford to have multiple images like we just saw, folks clinging onto a C-17 as it's taxiing on the runway, and folks underneath those engines as it's either about to land or about to takeoff. That's dangerous. That's unacceptable. The United States will make sure that doesn't take place.

But certainly, we have to ensure that we can bring folks in. There has to be ingress into the airport of those that we want in there. And the ability, we always retain the ability of force protection and the ability to engage as necessary.

BERMAN: General James "Spider" Marks, thank you so much for helping us understand what we're seeing unfold before our eyes. And what might happen, of course, everything that has happened to this point has not gone as expected or, frankly, as promised by the Biden administration.

So we will watch very closely over the next several hours and days. Thanks, Spider.

MARKS: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: So for months, the Biden administration assured an orderly exit from Afghanistan. How did it go so wrong?

KEILAR: Also breaking this morning, devastation in Haiti again from a powerful earthquake. We will have a live report on the search for survivors.

BERMAN: And the latest in the legal showdown over masks in one state dealing with a crushing number of new COVID cases, particularly among children.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:22:17]

KEILAR: The rapid fall of Afghanistan stunning the Biden administration and this nation, quite frankly. And many of the promises, predictions and the words of the president and his White House are coming back to haunt them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan now inevitable?

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: No, it is not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why?

BIDEN: Because you have the Afghan troops at 300,000 well-equipped, as well equipped as any army in the world, and an air force against something like 75,000 Taliban. It is not inevitable.

So the question now is, where do they go from here? That, the jury is still out, but the likelihood there's going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Well, they own the whole country now, the Taliban does.

When Biden made those comments on July 8, just about a month ago, the Taliban had already started gaining ground in the country. Biden said for months that it was going to be up to Afghan leaders and security forces to maintain power.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I think they have the capacity to be able to sustain the government. We can be value-added. But the Afghans are going to have to do it themselves with the air force they have and which we're helping them maintain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: They absolutely were not, the Afghan security forces able to sustain that. Afghanistan fell within days. And in Kabul, the Taliban met little resistance.

President Ashraf Ghani had already fled the country by the time the Taliban marched into the streets of Kabul.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken conceding the administration was unprepared.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: That the Taliban was at its greatest position of strength at any time since 2001, when it was last in charge of the country. That is the Taliban that we inherited.

And so we saw that they were very much capable of going on the offensive and beginning to take back the country. And the fact of the matter is, we've seen that that force has been unable to defend the country. And that has happened more quickly than we anticipated.

The Biden administration is now unable to articulate why the evacuation of its personnel and Afghan allies was botched so badly after Biden himself had vowed a competent withdrawal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: We'll not conduct a hasty rush to the exit. We'll do it -- we'll do it responsibly, deliberately and safely. And we will do it in full coordination with our allies and partners, who now have more forces in Afghanistan than we do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Biden has mobilized additional U.S. troops to join the few thousand that are still in Afghanistan as the U.S. attempts hasty evacuations from Kabul's airport, even as the Taliban controls neighboring areas.

[06:25:09]

And one more recent promise that has been broken. That is the promise that this would not be similar to the fall of Saigon in 1975.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The Taliban is not the South -- the North Vietnamese Army. They're not -- they're not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There's going to be no circumstance where you're going to see people lifted off the roof of a embassy of the United States from Afghanistan.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Let's talk about this now with Susan Glasser, CNN global affairs analyst and staff writer for "The New Yorker"; and Peter Bergen, our CNN national security analyst. Peter's new book, "The Rise And fall of Osama bin Laden," is out right now.

Susan, to you first. You know, put some of this in context for us. We heard the president there, who made a promise that clearly he thought he could keep: this would not be like the end days in Vietnam.

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: You know, it's -- it's very painful to look at it when you see this and realize that, whatever the strategy was, by their own account, the Biden administration, and those have failed. And they've been behind the eight ball, really, throughout this crisis as it's unfolded and escalated.

You know, even just yesterday, you had the secretary of state on CNN talking about an orderly withdrawal. The images that we're seeing out of Kabul today suggests it's not so orderly, of course.

You know, I have so many questions that haven't been answered. It's been a very untransparent, so far, process.

And with their policy in shreds, I also have to say Washington right now is engaged in this sort of recriminations game of was it Trump? Was it Biden?

My questions are, going forward, we don't really have the policy that Biden said we were going to have, because he said we'd maintain an ongoing presence in Afghanistan to work with the Afghan government that no longer exists.

So what is our policy going forward? What are the diplomatic efforts that we're making to secure a corridor of refugees, to do other things that address the reality that has now unfolded?

KEILAR: There were differing opinions, Peter. Should their maintain -- should the U.S. maintain a presence in Afghanistan? Obviously, Biden made clear he didn't want to do that.

But even for folks who supported this total drawdown of U.S. troops, I haven't heard from a single one who doesn't think that what we're seeing is not an unmitigated disaster.

So, where does that put us in terms of what the president needs to do in this moment, what leadership he needs to show? PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I'm with Susan. I think

it's very -- I mean, debacle, fiasco, choose your noun.

There's a lot of discussion of Saigon in '75. Let's talk about Kabul '96, which is actually an even better analog for what is going to unfold.

First of all, the Taliban will declare an emirate, very similar to the ISIS caliphate. Secondly, they will put women back in their -- into their homes. They will not allowed to work except in certain sectors, like education and health. Girls will no longer be educated.

Music will disappear. The television will largely disappear except Taliban propaganda. The only public entertainment will be executions in the soccer stadium. I mean, the list goes on and on.

We know what they've done in the past. They haven't changed substantially.

And according to the U.N., Brianna, as you -- I'm sure you know, relations between the al Qaeda and the Taliban remain very close. That's according to a U.N. report in June.

Every jihadist group in the world is going to be celebrating this, whether they're sitting at their computer in, let's say, Ohio as just some sort of fan boy, or whether they're actually going to physically go from Pakistan into Afghanistan.

That's the movie that we've seen before. Why would it be different this time?

BERMAN: You know, Susan, this wasn't just a military collapse in Afghanistan. It was also a political collapse, right? I mean, the last few days there's barely been any fighting. Kabul fell with few shots fired, which is just radically different than I think the White House had expected going into this.

Part of this -- and you mentioned this, and some other reporters did this morning also -- Joe Biden, known as someone with extreme empathy and feeling for other people, there's a ruthlessly cold calculation going on here, as well. Which is that, look, as painful as these images are, as much suffering as we are going to see among the Afghan people, Americans don't care.

GLASSER: Well, that I think, is -- is the political calculation, certainly, that undergirded Biden's original decision back in February to -- sorry, in April, to withdraw American troops.

I do think that what I've been surprised by is that Biden is normally, like, his brand is empathy as a politician, as a president, almost performative displays of caring about others. And I believe a lot of that is genuine on his part.

And yet we -- first of all, we haven't heard or seen him at all, essentially, as this disaster unfolded yesterday.