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CNN Sunday Morning

Reporter's Notebook: Nic Robertson Discusses Covering the War

Aired January 20, 2002 - 08:17   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.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: For many journalists, the war on terrorism has been the story of a lifetime.

CATHERINE CALLAWAY, CNN ANCHOR: And our Nic Robertson has been CNN's lifeline to what's been going on in Afghanistan. Nic has reported from the front lines and shown us the tragedy and the triumphs of the war in Afghanistan. And Nic is joining us right now to share his experiences from the war.

And I know you recently went to New York as well but, first, let's start with Afghanistan. You were actually in Kabul on September 11, weren't you?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We were covering the trial of the Christian aid workers, and we were there September the 11th. It was about 6:00 p.m. our time, and I had called into the international desk just over here when the whole story was breaking, and it was quite incredible. And as soon as the second plane hit the World Trade Center, it was clear to me, at some point, the story was going to come right back to where we were. It was just a matter of waiting for the dust to settle, so to speak.

O'BRIEN: Boy, that realization must have been interesting. At that point, did you feel as if you were in a bit of danger? It must have been kind of tenuous.

ROBERTSON: We knew that there were going to be problems, obviously. The Taliban -- first of all, Taliban officials started coming to us, CNN, in the hotels. There's no television there, so they'd come in to us to find out what's going on, and then they respond. You know, they send out the foreign minister to put a statement out. And it was clear that they were afraid already. And once they become afraid then, clearly, that reflects on our situation. And they were implying to us that things could get quite ugly.

CALLAWAY: And when things started turning toward it looked like there was going to be some type of military action from the U.S., did that change the way you covered the story at all?

ROBERTSON: The Taliban effectively threw us out of the country. They told us progressively, "You're not going to be safe." We tried to chase down more and more important and influential people to ensure that we could stay. And eventually the word came, "No, just get out of the country." So we were just excluded and had to watch from the sidelines in Pakistan once it began to unfold.

The great advantage that we had of being in there, we had a network of people. We had people in Kabul and Kandahar and Jalalabad and Herat who could get to us on the phone. We distributed a number of satellite telephones. And so when the war began to unfold, we had people there who could tell us what was happening blow by blow.

O'BRIEN: And nobody else can match that.

CALLAWAY: No.

O'BRIEN: I know it must be a blur to you right now. I hope you kept a journal just to remember all of this. But was there any particular moment that you felt most in peril?

ROBERTSON: There were moments where your local staff are telling you that the situation is incredibly precarious, that your life is perhaps in danger. You don't see that; there's no indicators around you to show that. But when people that are close to you, who you've come to trust for a long time, tell you that, that does make you worry. And then when they leave you, as they did, that makes you just a little bit more concerned.

But, you know, you quickly find other people...

O'BRIEN: You're in danger, and we're out of here. That's not a good thing.

ROBERTSON: That was the picture for a while.

CALLAWAY: Certainly, when you're covering the story, I guess it's sometimes easy to forget. Now tell us, when you first returned back -- when you were able to get back into Afghanistan, how were things different?

ROBERTSON: There was a completely different atmosphere. It was -- it was still a very dangerous situation, if you will, because there was suddenly a lot of different elements. The Taliban did have very firm control over the country, and there were very few guns on the streets during their reign on power.

However, after that, when the tribal forces took over, you didn't know what inter-tribal conflicts were going on. There were a lot of flags for the king flying around the country. But a lot of different feelings beneath those flags on who they really supported on the ground. But it was very interesting; there was a great mood on the streets. People were very happy to see us as international correspondents coming into the country. So there was a good feeling. But at the same time, you knew behind that there lurked some danger, there lurked some problems.

O'BRIEN: Years and years of tribal animosities that you have to contend with all of a sudden. Nic, I'll tell you what, let's talk about New York and your return to -- your visit to Ground Zero, I should say. I want to take a look at your "Reporter's Notebook" and then we'll talk about it. Let's just look at the tape first. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERTSON (voice-over): To come here and be a journalist, who's so much, in many ways, out of his element in New York. To come here and not to know the city, not to know the landmarks, not to know the features; but to know Afghanistan, to know the other end of it and to try and bring the two together and make sense out of it.

I had seen the images of September 11. I had heard so much over how -- over the months -- over how New Yorkers had developed, had sort of come along with the idea of what had happened on September 11. So, yes, in some ways, I did have a notion of what I might expect.

(on camera): It's surprising that some people are only still now just coming down here to take a look, even though they live in the city. You get the impression from outside that everyone in New York would have been here already and want to come and see it. But a lot of people still really yet to come to terms with it in many ways. And coming down just to look at the tributes is still a hard process for a lot of people. It's understandable.

(voice-over): You know, as soon as I stepped to the edge, the thing that I wasn't expecting was all the sound of all the machines down there, of all the diggers. You see the pictures of it so many times. You get here and there's all this noise that fills the air. And that's in a busy city.

I think, firstly, the thing that impacted me on the boat was, here was finally a picture of the New York skyline that I could recognize from so many photographs. And this was a skyline and the photographs I had seen still had the World Trade Center there. To see it without those two tall towers was when it impacted me that they were missing from the skyline. For most New Yorkers, and many other people, they would see it when they were, you know, in other areas of the city.

For me, it impacted me when I saw it from the water and I was looking at the city as a whole. And I really -- I could see it and I could feel that something was missing from that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think there's a sense of just shock and disgust.

ROBERTSON (on camera): Do you miss them?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, I do. Every time I come down here and I look, I just get an eerie feeling that something's missing.

ROBERTSON (voice-over): It's strange, because in some ways there's no comparison to from what I've seen in Afghanistan to what I'm seeing here. I'm seeing something here that's very much after the event. I'm seeing something here that's been reported a lot already. And what I strived to do in Afghanistan is to be there when the event happens and to report it as it happens, or to be the first person to report in and to explain it to people. Now I'm moving into an environment that has already been incredibly well reported and documented. It's an environment that's alien to me, but I'm trying to make sense of it through my experiences in Afghanistan, which are in many ways, very, very connected with what happened at the World Trade Center, what happened on September 11.

I'm also struck by the unity of people's views on what must be done to stop this happening in the future.

(on camera): Are you not inquisitive yourself? I mean, to see that sight of it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I would, obviously. Yeah, I'd love to go over there.

ROBERTSON: They want to know about where I've been, about Afghanistan. They want to know about that country, about the people, are they getting the right information from there, are they being -- are we, the media, the press, the journalists, properly informing them? And these are ideas and things that I'll take back with me when I go back again.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

O'BRIEN: Nic Robertson, now live pictures of Ground Zero. The shafts of morning light peeking through and casting rays on that terrible, terrible site.

And you know Nic, what's been said time and again and it's almost become trite, is the scale of it. And how when you see it and you realize that there's this huge, huge hole, and until you actually get there in person and have a sense of it, it's very difficult to understand it. Were you struck by that as well?

ROBERTSON: I was. And when you stand there, you try to imagine just the space that the building would have filled. And you try and gauge how high you would have to look up. And you have to go way beyond the tops of the other buildings. They were absolutely huge buildings, as everyone knows. But it's not only that, it was in such a concentrated area. So much destruction and so many people's lives -- so many people who lived close by and worked close by. So many people affected.

CALLAWAY: Now you were in Afghanistan, obviously, when you got the word of what happened. And I can't imagine how you imagined what it looked like. And how was it different?

ROBERTSON: That's a very, very difficult question to answer. I think in Afghanistan, we were so much focused on what was going to be happening there. We weren't trying to imagine what was happening at the World Trade Center. I think the pictures that impacted me most were just the scale and the emotion of what was happening to people in New York.

CALLAWAY: People were getting a notion on your visit there, right? ROBERTSON: Still, it's many ways understandable, but perhaps for me that was one of the more surprising things. I wasn't as bowled over, I suppose, as I might have expected to be, by the physical destruction, but more by the fact that people are still having a hard time coming to terms with this. Many professional people like us, who still go about their daily lives, still pursuing careers -- feverishly, if you will -- but yet still can't steal themselves to go down there and take a look. That shows you how close it is to people's hearts.

O'BRIEN: Yes. I think it's worth going down. I've talked to people about this, and they'll tell you, "That sounds ghoulish." But there's something about seeing it, if nothing else, as a testament to history and a testament to the lives that were lost there, I think is worth while. You know, I'm struck by the fact that you can't think of two places on the planet that can be more polar opposites than New York City and Afghanistan. It must be hard to connect the events.

ROBERTSON: It is. And Afghanistan is a country that's so much, perhaps, in the middle ages is the best way to describe it. I mean, people still go about on horse and carts and it's a very feudal society.

It could not be more different. They do not have a sense there of the financial complexities of what happens in New York. How complex and busy people's lives are there. It's a very laid-back existence. So trying to bring these two stories together and take experiences there on September 11 in Afghanistan and bring an understanding of that side of the story to New York, it's a very, very difficult thing to do. It's a big journalistic stretch.

CALLAWAY: Well, you know, we just can't say enough about the coverage that you've given us while you've been in Afghanistan and Pakistan. And I know that everyone else feels that way as well. And how has it been -- all of the attention that you've received for your work?

ROBERTSON: For me, it's a very, very strange and new and different experience. I'm used to being out there in the field and doing my job and sending my stories back and continuing day by day. So this is a very new experience for me to get used to this idea that people are paying extreme attention to what you're doing. And I hope that we can continue to explain and explore different parts of -- different regions in the world for people, so people can better understand them.

O'BRIEN: All right, Nic. What's next for you?

ROBERTSON: Perhaps back to Afghanistan. We've seen the transitions, now I'd really like to see the trends that are going to be established there so we can see what's going to happen to this story as it goes down the road.

O'BRIEN: All right. Thanks for dropping by.

CALLAWAY: Thank you, Nic. O'BRIEN: Nic Robertson.

ROBERTSON: Thank you.

O'BRIEN: We appreciate your efforts.

CALLAWAY: Nice to meet him after all these times of talking to him out there in the field.

O'BRIEN: In the flesh.

For more on Nic's trip to Ground Zero and his perspective as well, we invite you to log on to CNN.com/U.S. for Nic Robertson, eyes on Ground Zero. Worth checking out.

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