The Emotional Reunion of Afghan Interpreter and American Vet

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: From that forgotten horror of the Syrian war to another stain on the West’s conscience, and that is Afghanistan, as we just discussed. As thousands of Afghans scrambled for safety during the U.S. withdrawal, interpreter Abdul Qader Zaman was evacuated thanks to a friendship formed in battle with the retired U.S. Master Sergeant Terry Best. Hari Sreenivasan was there the moment they reunited for the first time in a decade.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARI SREENIVASAN: First of all, we witness something yesterday.

BEST: The house of my brother.

ZAMAN: Oh, my God.

BEST: I love you, brother.

ZAMAN: I love you, too, brother.

SREENIVASAN: And just to put it in context for our audience, what was it like to see each other in person again?

ZAMAN: Our good memories, now friendship, and each other’s love.

SREENIVASAN: Terry?

BEST: Yes. For me, it was kind of surreal, because I remember us being together the last time was 10 years ago. And where you try to guard your emotion, the emotions just came out seeing my brother again. And I always promised him that he would be here. And he always told me he would be here. And, yesterday, it happened. And so the emotions were happiness, sadness and success.

ZAMAN: I feel I’m like brother, because we — our past life was him in Afghanistan, when he being there in Afghanistan. I feel him my brother. He feels me his brother. So that’s what I’m feeling.

SREENIVASAN: Terry, where is that bond from?

BEST: I was placed as an embedded tactical trainer with the Afghan National Army. And Abdul, I was his mentor, he was my mentor from the Afghan National Army side. And, from that first day, we drank chai. And then, within a week, we began to mission-plan. And when we mission-planned, it wasn’t just the buy- in of myself and my other American. It was the buy-in of the entire Afghan fighting element that Abdul commanded. We would go in and talk to village elders together in Ashura. And in those events, I was the sole American. And he was my voice. And very soon, within a couple of weeks, when we were shot at the first time, Afghan soldiers, you have one opportunity to make a first impression. And if they buy in, you will never be alone again. And it’s at that point that our brotherhood began. That’s why I love him, because I have been able to enjoy three daughters and six grandkids that I never would have seen without the love, the support, and the fighting spirit of Abdul and all those Afghan soldiers that he brought to my life.

SREENIVASAN: Did he save your life?

BEST: He did on more than one occasion. But we had one specifically in Nuristan province. We were in Kamdesh. The soldiers that Abdul commanded, there were three soldiers who then began to plot that they were going to kill me. And when Abdul found that out, Abdul separated them from the company. Abdul took their clothes, took their weapons, and he sent them walking from Nuristan, which, if you know anything, there’s no roads. It’s the most dangerous place in Afghanistan, Nuristan province, specifically Kamdesh. And Abdul sent them on their way. And that event right there was but one example of the lifesaving events that he’s done for me.

SREENIVASAN: Do you feel like you were trying to save his life?

ZAMAN: Of course, yes.

SREENIVASAN: U.S. soldiers, they come and go. Why was it important for you to risk your own life with your troops?

ZAMAN: Because I felt that the U.S. soldiers are in Afghanistan to help Afghans and fight for peace for Afghans, not there to take Afghanistan from us. So, probably many people was thinking that they’re there to fight with Afghans. No one feel that they are fighting for Afghans, and when I was feeling that they are fighting for Afghans, not fighting with Afghans.

SREENIVASAN: If you stayed in Afghanistan, would your life be in danger because you worked with the Americans?

ZAMAN: Yes. Yes. And the last days, when the peace talking was going, between politics — in politics in Afghanistan, I was feeling that, when Taliban come to Afghanistan, and slowly they will kill the people who help Americans. So that’s why I try to leave Afghanistan and come to United States. And in the last days, when I evacuated, I saw that what were — what I was feeling, so many people killed by Taliban. And we were in very — our life were in very high risk.

SREENIVASAN: So, tell me about those — the images that we started to see on TV, most of us, that essentially the Kabul is falling, that something is happening. You had been working on trying to get your friend out for seven months. What goes through your head?

BEST: As a soldier who did multiple tours there, there’s a lot of disgust, because you put your life at risk for an entity that you believe in. And I served 31 years. So I believe in the American military and the American process. When I see that it can so easily be usurped and slapped away in less than a 30-day time province by province by providence across Afghanistan, it saddened me. And then it disgusted and angered me when friends that I had suddenly fell into real danger. Then it became a different mission altogether. There was no mission HERE

BEST: — suddenly fell into real danger. Then, it became a different mission altogether. There was no mission in place by anybody to safely remove those that helped us. Those that we promised as soldiers, we didn’t have that ability to speak, Dari, Pashto, Urdu. We went in and we were told, find people, do your best job to vet them, make sure they’re safe, and then, we’d pull them in, and then they’d work with us, and we’re to promise them that when this is all done, we’ll look out for your safety and you’ll come to America. And then, in seven months’ time, I can’t get a simple piece of paperwork processed. He does everything by the rules and can’t get it done. It doesn’t give you great belief. So, I went to what I knew, and that is I’m a soldier. You mission plan, and you do that with other veterans. You do that with several civilian entities that instantly stood up and decided we were going to be good on our word. And those people helped. And that’s what we did. That’s why we’re sitting here together is because some people have values, some people have commitment and those people stepped up.

SREENIVASAN: But — I mean, what was the — just getting to the airport.

ZAMAN: That was very hard. In the first day, we just lost the gear that they showed us and a bunch of people were in front of the gate. And we were just going like — by push of people only a few inches in every hour. And (INAUDIBLE), we just get close to that gate. Then Taliban try to push us back and they are beating us. Beat my son as well. I tried to stop him and then, he marked the Ak-47 to me and he said, if you try to stop us to beat people, they’re going to kill you. And we just left there and we just lost our suit bag over there with our clothes and things. And I tried to just go back home. Then, I’ve got a call from —

BEST: It’s all right. It’s all right.

ZAMAN: I try — I got a call and I heard that he said, don’t give up.

SREENIVASAN: Don’t give up.

ZAMAN: Keep going to the front. Go back.

SREENIVASAN: So, you tried again?

ZAMAN: Yes.

SREENIVASAN: And when you get that — getting there, there’s Taliban checkpoints?

ZAMAN: Many checkpoints, yes.

SREENIVASAN: Different every day?

ZAMAN: Every — yes.

SREENIVASAN: And what are they looking for? What happens if they think you have worked with Americans?

ZAMAN: Yes. They were looking for people who working with Americans or Afghan military. They were looking for those people just to capture them and take them, punish them or kill them, whatever they want.

BEST: I had him moving with three phones, I had him moving with two powerpacks to recharge phones. But at some of those checkpoints, they took one of those phones. One of the checkpoints, he lost a suitcase. At another checkpoint, they lost some documents but I had had him photographed and send them to me. But then, that meant that the people were going to assist in moving him from outside to inside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul needed to have those proofs. They needed to have photos. And so, it was that type of a complicated process that we went through.

SREENIVASAN: There’s a photo of you —

ZAMAN: Yes.

SREENIVASAN: — with a t-shirt.

ZAMAN: Because I leave home, Terry just text me and he gave me a word (INAUDIBLE) and he said that right on my white color t-shirt when you go to the — and they call you and come out to find you, you just show that sign and they will know you are Abdul. Then I did that. And he said, just be — just hide that t-shirt somewhere, don’t anyone see or Taliban don’t see it. As soon as you get to the gate and see American soldiers, just show them that sign and they will know who you are. But there was a canal between the gate and the side we were. It was a big canal. And we were in the other side of canal. The U.S. soldiers was to the side of canal, to the airport side of the canal. And I showed that sign. He just said, yes, I’ve got you. And I jumped into the canal.

SREENIVASAN: You jumped into the canal.

ZAMAN: Yes.

SREENIVASAN: What’s in that canal? What was the water in there?

ZAMAN: That’s also a very dirty water in that canal. I’ve taken my kids. My wife gave me the kid. I take them to the other side.

SREENIVASAN: So, you went back and forth in the canal?

ZAMAN: Back and forth in the canal. Take the kids from my wife. Give to the soldier, take them and give to soldiers. And the last, my wife jumped into the canal. She crossed. Yes. Then myself.

SREENIVASAN: What was that feeling like?

ZAMAN: Like, as soon as I have crossed the canal and I went inside of the airport, I just felt that I’m just born.

SREENIVASAN: That you were born?

ZAMAN: Yes. I just felt that I’m in the United States now. I told my kids that we got it, we arrived. That’s it. Then I received a call from Best and he asked me, hey, what happened? Where are you? And as soon as I told him that I’m inside of the airport, and he started crying in the phone. And that was just the last time — last talking of us that time because the phone battery dead while we were talking.

SREENIVASAN: When you get that first call, Terry, that says he’s in the airport —

BEST: For me, it was like being trapped in an avalanche and suddenly, the wind blows the snow off and you’re free because that whole seven months, if it was that way for me, I know. We talked every step of the way. It was like freedom and freeing to know and to not have that, but then, you could only be happy for a short period because then I had no contact with him for 16 days.

SREENIVASAN: Abdul, not everybody has a Terry Best looking out for them. There are many of your friends, your relatives still in Afghanistan —

ZAMAN: Yes

SREENIVASAN: — who do not have somebody who’s working on their paper work, who’s making phone calls on their behalf, who’s telling you how to get there. How do you feel for that part of your country?

ZAMAN: Yes. I feel very sad for them. And I hope someone comes to their life like Terry Best and just saves them from that risk. I always pray for them and I’m sad for those people who don’t have Terry Best and I pray for them to have someone as Terry Best.

SREENIVASAN: Terry, what about those left behind? We’re fortunate here to have this conversation with Abdul but —

BEST: And I agree. As Abdul can share, I’ve still not given up. There’s still people — I embedded multiple times and I still am communicating and having contact. Abdul is my closest relationship and friendship because we worked together multiple times during multiple trips there and it’s been the longest lasting. But I still work and I still believe. The easy thing is to say, well, they blew up the abbey gate. So, now, there’s no way. But that’s not true. We have fighters and entities in many locations that are still actively working to bring the same honor that Abdul deserves and receives for them, for it to happen to them. But if we go to sleep and we forget about them, then, yes, you’re right. They will die. And eventually, they will just by attrition.

SREENIVASAN: What do you want to do in the United States?

ZAMAN: The first thing, as Terry Best said, my point is to make — educated my kids.

SREENIVASAN: To educate your kids?

ZAMAN: That’s the only thing I will support my kids here to be educated, my wife to be educated, and I will support them financially, work hard for them.

SREENIVASAN: What kind of jobs are you looking at? What do you want to do?

ZAMAN: Actually, I have experience in security job or risk management or military. But in begun, whatever the job, I will do it. I will accept any job offered to me. I will accept. I’m sure, truly, I will find my way.

SREENIVASAN: Abdul, Terry, thanks so much for joining us.

BEST: Thank you.

ZAMAN: Thank you.