Afghan Translator Who Can’t Get Out of Kabul Shows His Actual Green Card to CNN’s Clarissa Ward
Clarissa Ward kept her cool while interviewing an Afghan translator as gunshots could be heard on the streets of Kabul in both a stunning and enlightening live report Wednesday afternoon for CNN’s New Day.
Doing live shots from a wartorn or unstable location on the other side of the planet is a relatively new thing brought about by technology, but the greater wonder is how Ward kept her cool amidst the apparent chaos and gunfire.
Early in the shot, viewers could hear the shots and see Ward understandably flinch as the gunshots appeared to be close by. But as Ward explained, she understood the Taliban were firing weapons in the air as means of crowd control and not firing into crowds. Nonetheless, as she explains, firing above a crowd is when people get hurt.
She then featured two Afghan men, both of whom spoke English, who explained in painful detail their current frustration with trying to seek refuge by evacuating the wartorn and now extremist-run nation.
The first individual explained his frustration and shared this message to CNN’s viewers: ‘Our message to America, we help the American people. So that’s their job to help right now, here. This is a very bad situation.’
The second individual showed an image of his green card on his smartphone to viewers, before explaining how the Taliban currently protecting the perimeter of the Hamad Karzai Airport were not allowing him to exit the war-torn country.
“So did you try to get into the airport?” Ward asked, and after he affirmed that effort, she asked “What did the Taliban say?”
“The Taliban said we don’t know. Just go. We don’t want to try to let you in,” he replied. “And they say we don’t have flights.”
“Everybody here has got a story,” Ward said to co-anchors John Berman and Briana Keilar. “People worked for the Americans. One man has a green card, he already has his flights booked. Now they’re pressing in. They want desperately to tell their stories. They want the Americans to know because they’re not able to get past those checkpoints. They’re not able to get past the Taliban fighters.”
Watch above via CNN.
