Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Hundreds of Afghans Flood Tarmac as Planes Take Off in Kabul; Interpreter Pleads with U.S. to Save His Family from Taliban; Biden expected to address U.S. on Afghanistan in Next Few Days. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired August 16, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm John Berman with Brianna Keilar.

And the breaking news, scenes of chaos in Afghanistan as the government there has collapsed. The Taliban has taken control of the capital after a stunningly rapid sweep through the country. It happened much faster than the Biden administration predicted or promised. And it has led to heart-breaking images like this, this morning, at the airport in Kabul. Hundreds of people flooding the tarmac, desperate to leave, literally chasing a plane.

At this moment, U.S. embassy officials are warning Americans who are still in the city not to travel to the airport because it's unsafe, but as of now, it's the only way to get out. The U.S. has dispatched 1,000 more combat troops to secure the perimeter at the airport and help get American diplomatic personnel and others safely evacuated, if they can. The U.S. embassy has been evacuated, other countries at this moment rushing to do the same.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN NEW DAY: Now, President Biden has been monitoring the situation from Camp David over the weekend but has largely been absent as his administration's plan collapses for getting Americans and Afghans out of the country. The White House defending its decision to proceed with the withdrawal of all U.S. troops despite this clear miscalculation about the length of time that they had, the strength, or lack of, of the Afghan military and the strength of the Taliban. The president expected to address the nation in the next few days, we're told, on this stunning fall of Afghanistan.

So let's go live to CNN's Clarissa Ward on the ground in Kabul. I will say that response from the White House, Clarissa, is sort of overshadowed by just how big a development this is in Kabul, in Afghanistan. Tell us what you're seeing there on the ground.

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Brianna, it's pretty rare as a reporter that you feel like you're watching history in the making, but this is truly one of these stories. Day one of reporting now in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, you can see a lot has changed. The dress code, what I'm wearing, behind me Taliban fighters manning a check point. They are all over the city now. They're here they say to make sure that there isn't a power vacuum, that there isn't chaos and anarchy.

And I will say that here in the center of the city, it does feel relatively calm, eerie, scary, but relatively calm. At the airport, though, as you mentioned, those harrowing images tell a different story. My colleague, Nick Paton Walsh, was just up right on the edge of the airport and described absolutely chaotic, harrowing scenes, people desperately trying to get into that airport.

The Americans we now know have put razor wire all around the airfield to try to stop a repeat of what we saw in those social media videos, those extraordinary images people flooding the runway, holding on physically to U.S. Air Force carriers with their bare hands. So great is their desperation to get out of this country.

But here in the city center, it's a different story. We were out all morning witnessing, talking to Taloban fighters. There's another convoy of them going past me right now. Take a look at what we saw.

(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 this city of 6 million people in a matter of hours, barely firing a shot.

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

What's your message to America right now?

America already spent enough time in Afghanistan. They need to leave, he tells us. They already lost lots of lives and lots of money.

[07:05:00]

People come up to them to pose for photographs.

They're just chanting death to America, but they seem friendly at the same time. It's utterly bizarre.

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: They've just told me to stand to the side because I'm a woman.

Outside, ordinary Afghans clamor 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: 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 minutes right now. So that's why I don't know what will happen tomorrow, and what will happen after.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WARD (on camera): and that's really what it feels like on the ground, honestly, John and Brianna. It's anyone's guess as to what the situation on the ground will look like in two hours, let alone two days two months. And that profound sense of anxiety, I think, you may not see it on the streets but it's the people who aren't on the streets today that, in some ways, are the real story, the people that are hiding in their homes, who are petrified to go out, who are worried about being targeted, who fear for their lives, who are too scared to tell their stories. But their stories must be told because in this moment their fear and their desperation is so real as we saw with those extraordinary images coming from the airport that I don't think any of us will be able to forget any time soon, John and Brianna.

BERMAN: Clarissa, talk more about that. Who is on the streets and who isn't and what happens if someone does want to try to go to the airport at this point and get out?

WARD: So, mainly, on the street, I would say it's Taliban, and it's hard to show you but they're literally everywhere. They're over there, they're over there, they're over there. They're everywhere. And that's how they're able to implement force, implement security because people are so scared of them. No one is going to fight the Taliban. Then you have some men on the streets. You have some kids. I have seen a few women.

But I will say I have seen far fewer women than I would ordinarily see walking down the streets of Kabul. And the women that you do see walking down the streets of Kabul tend to be dressed more conservatively than they were walking down the streets of Kabul yesterday. I see more burqas today than I had seen in a while. Obviously, I am dressed in a very different way to how I would normally dress to walk down the streets of Kabul.

So there's a lot of children as well. I think they are more curious than anything else. And it's important to remember as well the Taliban does have, to many people, this bizarre sort of mystique, John. People are intrigued by them. Some people here genuinely see them as heroes. So it's a very odd cocktail that you fine on the streets of Kabul with so many people hiding and other people peeking out to see what comes next and nobody really knowing what on earth to expect.

KEILAR: We're understanding -- you know, it's hard to see how those folks who are holed up can get out even if they are perhaps, you know, candidates for getting out, Clarissa. Some of them may qualify for P1 or P2 visas. I know personally of people who are awaiting status checks on those applications and it appeared that they would be able to get out of Kabul. But now Kabul has fallen.

It doesn't appear that there's a plan for the U.S. government to provide safe passage for many of those people from their homes where they're holed up to the airport. Can they get out without that, Clarissa?

WARD: The problem you have now, there's definitely no plan in place to try to evacuate these people safely. The U.S. is really barely able to keep a hold on the situation at the airport right now, let alone trying to extend some kind of corridor for people to leave through. So that is simply out of the question.

The other problem you have is that there's this crush of humanity descending on the airport, vehicles clogging both lanes of traffic, scenes of people firing in the air to stop sort of stampede almost. People have been shot by stray bullets. It's absolute pandemonium at the airport.

And if you don't have you visa ready, if you don't passport ready, because a lot of people were trying to prepare for this moment, Brianna, we saw it yesterday, long lines outside the passport office, but no one imagined that it would happen this quickly, that they would have a matter of hours to pack up their lives, get together their paperwork, book a ticket, get to the airport.

[07:10:12]

I mean, it's completely unfeasible for the vast majority of Afghans.

And so they are now left in this desperate situation, petrified for their lives. They are being assured officially by the Taliban that there's a blanket amnesty even for people who worked with the government, even for people who worked with security forces but it doesn't take a genius to realize that for a lot of people, they're too scared to believe that. They have huge reservations.

And so, they are now hunkered down waiting for more clarity, waiting for more guidance from the U.S. as to how their paperwork will be expedited, how they can get safely out of the country. And in this moment, there's not a huge amount of information coming through to them. So it's a desperate situation. And that's what you don't see on the streets. That's the story that's happening behind closed doors.

KEILAR: It's terrifying. It is terrifying to hear what folks are going through there. Clarissa Ward, reporting for us live from Taliban-held Kabul, you're our eyes and ears on the ground. And we'll continue to check in with you as things develop there. Thank you.

BERMAN: Joining us now, retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Mark Kimmitt. He was a former assistant secretary of state for political and military affairs under George W. Bush. General Kimmitt, always a pleasure to speak with you. There's a lot to talk about in terms of how we got here and what went wrong. But I also think there are a lot of immediate questions with what is happening now. It's in an urgent life and death situation for thousands and thousands of people. There are now going to be 6,000 U.S. troops stationed at the Kabul airport. What will they do? How can they keep that airport running and get the people out?

BRIGADIER GEN. MARK KIMMITT, U.S. ARMY (RETIRED): Well, the first responsibility for the American troops that are over there is to ensure the security of the people that they're bringing on to the airport, particularly the diplomatic personnel and the U.S. personnel.

6,000 troops is a lot of troops to protect an airport, so I'm pretty confident that there won't be at least for the American diplomats and the American passport holders any security risks as we continue to fly planes in and out. And it also doesn't seem at this point that the Taliban are going to stop that flow.

BERMAN: That's a really interesting point and one Clarissa made on the ground also. There's almost, she knows, tacit approval of the U.S. presence at the airport, at least now, from the Taliban, but how much does their depend on the good graces of Taliban? What if the Taliban changes its mind tomorrow?

KIMMITT: Well, first of all, I think 6,000, troops, on- third of a division is enough to take care of any direct assault at the airport. They do need to be worried about indirect fire, mortars firing on that area.

Well, look, the Taliban have really refined their strategic communications campaign over the years. And they are not going to start out their new rule with attempting to stop innocent diplomats and innocent citizens from getting out of the country. In fact, the last thing they want to do is start a fight because the best thing for them would be to get everyone out of the country so they can reestablish control.

BERMAN: Look, they basically took Kabul without a fight. They basically walked in and the government melded away.

One point on the Taliban here, I want to play some sound from you, because our Nic Robertson spoke with a Taliban spokesperson who seemed to be saying exactly the kinds of things you were just talking about. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUHAIL SHAHEEN, TALIBAN SPOKESMAN: They should trust. When we signed, I believe, with them building from the beginning up to now, we have not attacked the American forces. Not a single American soldier has been held because of our promise and commitment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Trust us, says the Taliban general. Your thoughts? KIMMITT: My thoughts are that the Taliban 2.0 are no different than the Taliban 1.0. They just have a much better public relations campaign. Look what they did down in Doha showing themselves as moderate and open to negotiations and then look what happened on the ground. They're just masters at deception or masters of propaganda, they're masters at psychological warfare. They caused entire Afghan units to melt away simply by convincing them and the village elders to lay down their arms. So let's not fool ourselves by the propaganda. In six months, this will be Taliban 1.0 pre-2001.

BERMAN: Can I just ask one final. You said they convinced these governments and the military to melt away. I mean, honestly, the Taliban was able to take over this country so quickly, largely because the Afghan military didn't fight and the political structure, the governmental structure, just quit, just folded shop and left.

[07:15:07]

There is an argument that some are making that that just proves that it wasn't worth the U.S. effort, the blood and treasure, to prop it up if it was able to fold so quickly. How do you respond to that?

KIMMITT: Well, two things. I think we could have left in a less expeditious manner. We could have had the over the horizon forces in place to give some backbone to the strategic forces on the ground. We could have left a small contingent of Americans in there to continue to fight with them and provide advice.

But at the end of the day, John, it's very simple. For all the money we spent, for all the years we've been there, for all the equipment we provided, you can't buy courage, you can't buy commitment.

BERMAN: General Mark Kimmitt, I appreciate you coming on and talking to us this morning. Thank you very much for your insight.

Brianna?

KEILAR: The Biden administration is cutting back on the number of flights to the United States for Afghans who worked alongside the U.S. They're prioritizing the evacuation of American personnel from the country. Although we are getting word that that may be changing and that there's an expectation that they could be evacuating up to tens of thousands of Afghans, including -- tens of thousands including Americans and Afghans. We will bring you those details next.

My next guest was an Afghan interpreter with coalition forces and U.S. Special Forces for more than seven years and he was able to immigrate from Afghanistan to the United States. He says that the U.S. needs to get the interpreters out of Afghanistan before this becomes a blood bath.

His family is there as well. He's been having trouble getting a hold of his family these last few days, and Mike Sahak is joining us now to talk about this. Mike, thank you so much for being here. I know that your heart is heavy as you're trying to figure out what to do with your family. You served as a translator. You went on hundreds if not thousands of combat missions with U.S. troops. Tell us that's something that puts your family in danger. What is their plight right now?

MIKE SAHAK, FORMER AFGHAN INTERPRETER FOR COALITION FORCES AND U.S. SPECIAL FORCES: Absolutely. When I talked to my family, they're very much scared. They're in a state of shock. I think, in general, the Afghans have lost the capacity to think two steps ahead and my family is no different. So I'm trying to get them prepared for the scenarios. What are you guys going to do? Do you guys have food? Do you guys have shelter or anything in place? They can answer some questions but they don't have the capacity to think that far because they're just scared. They're in fear. They're in lockdown. They're staying at home. They're not trying to get out. They're not trying to draw attention. So, it's -- they're just in a state of shock and in a state of fear at this point.

KEILAR: It's a real possibility that the Taliban starts knocking on doors.

SAHAK: Right.

KEILAR: Right? We know that that's happened in provincial capitals. That seems expected to happen in Kabul. What would that mean for your family? And to be clear, we're talking about your sisters, your brothers-in-law, your nieces and your mom, right?

SAHAK: Right, yes. So, my family had to relocate quite a few times. I don't want to get into what city they're living in but they had to relocate quite a few times. They had to burn pictures. They had to burn memories and everything. So, at this point, they keep trying to relocate, but, yes, I mean, that's what their status is at this point.

KEILAR: How desperate are they if they don't have guaranteed safe passage to a place where they could get out with the assistance of the U.S. government?

SAHAK: That is a very tough question. And dealing with the situation that I'm dealing, I actually don't have the answer to that.

KEILAR: Have you been contacted by American service members that you worked with? Can you tell me about that?

SAHAK: Almost every team, almost every team commander that I worked with contacted me. And they've offered help. But I don't have an answer to them how they can help. I think it's out of their hand. The best they can do is write a letter of recommendation. But at this point, that is not useful for people who are stuck, for my family that's stuck in Afghanistan. I think at this point, it's up to the policymakers to be realistic about the situation and be very clear on what they're going to do about thousands of translators and their families that are stuck in Afghanistan.

KEILAR: What do you want the Biden administration to do?

SAHAK: I think the videos in the pictures that we see, everything screams for more planes to get in there, pack people up and get them out safely.

KEILAR: You gave a lot. I mean, how do you see this? Do you see this as the U.S. just giving you the protection that you afforded some Americans as well?

[07:20:03]

SAHAK: This entire situation is very personal on so many levels. I've lost friends. I've lost brothers in arms. And I've seen people lose limbs. And seeing where the country goes is just unfortunate. And I think at the time it was okay given the situation it was okay just to evacuate translators, but where the country is right now and where it's gone, the families who enabled the translators to do what they did are in grave danger. So, they had to get out too.

KEILAR: Yes. Look, I know you're worried about your family, Mike. We're going to keep tabs on this along with you. I hope the best. I know this is a very difficult situation to watch. Mike Sahak, thank you so much for coming on.

SAHAK: Thank you for allowing me to speak about this.

BERMAN: The emotions that his family must be going through right now, Brianna, unimaginable.

KEILAR: Yes. I mean, this is the reality for so many Afghans at this point in time. It doesn't appear at this point in time that there is a plan, right, that the sort of escape routes have been largely cut off. And it's really just a matter of waiting to see what happens and they're desperate.

BERMAN: If you'll allow me, can I ask you, I know this has been a hard weekend in your house. It's one thing for the rest of us who may know people or have covered different aspects of this to see what's going on there, it's very different for the hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops who have served there and lived it, and gave so much over the years and their families and that's your family right now.

KEILAR: Yes. This was a terrible weekend. And I've been speaking since Biden made the administration to withdraw from Afghanistan, I've spoken with a lot of military families about how they feel about it. And the thing is, John, so many say it is time to go. Even there are some who want -- who agreed with keep a small force. But there are a lot of people who said it is time to go. And I think showing just how much the U.S. really was just holding its finger in the dam here may back up sort of their opinion of what was going on.

But at the same time, I have heard from those families that this isn't how they wanted to do it. This is botched. This is them having served alongside Afghan soldiers as brothers and sisters in arms. And they are feeling that they're being abandoned.

You heard from Mike saying he's been -- so many people have reached out to him who are American service members, and that's -- I mean, how the weekend at my house went. I knew of my husband and his friends trying to get in touch with people who worked for NGOs or their private planes, you know, are they chartering planes? What can be done? Trying to locate people who are holed up in Kabul, what can be done? You know, the answer is that in almost every case it was inconclusive.

And I think it's really heart-breaking for so many veterans. Because even as they consider, and I heard so many say this, what was it for? And Jake Tapper spoke to this yesterday on when he was anchoring. And I thought he gave a very good answer to that, which was these are service members, American service members who answered the call, even in retrospect, you questioned the policy that they were there to execute, they executed it, right? They executed it. They kept people around them safe.

Now I think the question for many of them that I'm watching is them experience the moral injury of abandoning Afghans who helped them.

BERMAN: A lot of people sacrificed a lot for this and they need to know that we are grateful to them no matter what we're seeing on the ground now.

KEILAR: Yes. It has been almost 24 hours since the fall of Kabul, still no public remarks from President Biden. What we are learning about the evolving strategy inside the White House this morning.

BERMAN: Plus, new images of the devastation in Haiti, where powerful earthquake has killed over 1,000 and that number is rising. CNN is live on the scene.

KEILAR: And an unvaccinated COVID patient who spoke with CNN about her regrets from inside the hospital has died. We'll have her story ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

BERMAN: Breaking news. President Biden is set to be briefed at Camp David today on the rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. I mean, the Taliban has taken over. A senior administration official tells CNN the president is planning to address the nation in the coming days.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is live at the White House with the latest here. You're there, Arlette, notable the president is not and notable that we're told he will brief the country in the coming days but not, as far as we know, today or this morning. What's the explanation here?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, it's been nearly a week since President Biden stood here at the White House and answered questions on Afghanistan. And it's still unknown just exactly how soon he might speak to the issue again. The president -- a senior administration official told us that he does plan to address and speak to this in the coming days, but discussions are still under way about when and where exactly that will take place.

The president is waking up once again in Camp David, where he is currently scheduled to remain until Wednesday. There is no update yet on whether the president might be returning back to the White House early.

But while he has been at Camp David over the weekend, the president was receiving regular briefings from his national security team on this deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.