the taliban is ruling according to their conception of islamic law. the most literal fundamentalist conception that you can possibly imagine. the taliban regime was ruthless. there wasn t anything that they wouldn t do. there were eight individuals arrested in afghanistan. all eight were in shelter now international. under islamic law, the crime for proselytizing was death. after we were arrested, they walked us into this compound, and they opened the door, there standing in front of us were about 35 to 40 afghan women. and that was the first time i broke down and cried. in 2001, i was the cia station chief in islamabad, pakistan. where i had responsibility for all intelligence gathering operations in both pakistan and afghanistan.
so no sooner did i start calling the number, and i turned around, and he was gone. and i never saw him again. we called the number, and on the other end was the chief officer from the u.s. embassy in islamabad, pakistan, and he said, tonight, we re coming with helicopters to get you. we know that the best extraction point for the hostages is this airfield close to ghazni. so we said, you need the get out to this airfield. so we started grabbing a few things, and started heading out towards where the helicopters with coming.
there had been complete tension. we had the expectation we re about to save them. suddenly it looked as though everything was lost, and now suddenly, they were safely in the helicopter. it was complete relief. once we hit pakistan we were transferred to a c-130 that took us to islamabad. and it was the back of the c-130 opened, standing in the middle of the runway was my father. were you happy when you found out that the hostages had been rescued? absolutely. very, very happy.
islam s holiest sites. saudi officials rush tanks and troops to mecca surrounding the shrine. eyewitnesses say as many as 10,000 pilgrims are still inside the grand mosque, and sniper fire was heard all day in mecca. broadcasts from iran today blame the united states for the assault on the grand mosque in mecca, the muslim holy city in saudi arabia. those broadcasts were heard in islamabad where a mob stormed the american embassy, killed a marine guard and trapped about 100 americans in the embassy. the mob was screaming kill the american dogs in islamabad. as they stormed the u.s. embassy in islamabad. this is the third major event in the muslim world in the last 24 hours. in tehran this morning, millions of people are shouting death to the shah, death to carter. that is followed by the cry god is great. these groups are very hard to dissuade.
you re going to be just fine. there had been complete tension. we had the expectation we re about to save them. suddenly it looked as though everything was lost, and now suddenly, they were safely in the helicopter. it was complete relief. once he hit pakistan, we were transferred to a c-130 that took us to islamabad. and it was the back of the c-130 opened, standing in the middle of the runway was my father. were you happy when you found out that the hostages had been rescued? absolutely. very, very happy. but he sacrificed so much because of these issues. it s spread out all over the world.