Behind Enemy Lines

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'TALIBAN'
Tonight Saturday & Tomorrow Sunday
8:00 PM ET

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CNN
Anderson Cooper in New Doc: ‘Taliban’

By Molly Stark Dean on December 11, 2010 -- 1:54 PM


Anderson Cooper hosts the new CNN documentary ‘Taliban,’ which exposes the lives and motives of the Taliban face-to-face and airs tonight at 8pmET.

In the new doc, Cooper follows Norwegian journalist Paul Refsdal about his groundbreaking work behind enemy lines in Afghanistan, where Cooper has traveled to many times before.

The Norwegian journalist is the first Western journalist to have spent a significant amount of time with the Taliban, with as unlimited access. Refsdal accounts his escape from being kidnapped by the Taliban.

The official CNN press release is after the jump…

CNN’s ‘Taliban’ Exposes Lives and Motives of Fighters

Documentary Debuts Saturday, Dec. 11 at 8:00pm ET & PT on CNN/U.S.

CNN’s Taliban takes you behind enemy lines, and face-to-face with the men our troops are fighting. The Taliban are a violent enemy that have killed hundreds of American troops in Afghanistan since 2001. Despite a nearly ten-year war with the Taliban, most Americans know little about how they fight and live – until now.

In Taliban, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper debriefs Norwegian journalist Paul Refsdal about his unprecedented filming behind enemy lines in Afghanistan. No Western journalist has ever spent as much time with the Taliban, with as unrestricted access, as Refsdal.

CNN’s Taliban reveals the enemy at war – preparing weapons, planning attacks, and interacting with their families and fellow fighters. Refsdal risked his life to capture these never-before-seen images, and ended up being kidnapped. His harrowing escape is also documented in the film.

Cooper presses Refsdal about why he put his life in jeopardy to film the Taliban. Refsdal said, “The problem has been with the – the people [journalists] who meet the Taliban, they stay for one hour, and they ask the Taliban to…go around arranging some kind of training…And you have one commander with his face covered…to see the real Taliban, you have to stay for a while…”

The one-hour documentary, Taliban, debuts Saturday, Dec. 11 at 8:00p.m. ET and PT on CNN. It will air on CNN International in late December.

A multimedia report including historical timelines of the Taliban and the country of Afghanistan, video excerpts from the documentary, and an interview with journalist and Guerilla Reporter author Paul Refsdal can be found at www.cnn.com/taliban after Wednesday, Dec. 8.

Taliban was produced and filmed in Afghanistan by Paul Refsdal, produced for CNN by Jennifer Hyde and Ken Shiffman, and edited by Cliff Hackel. Bud Bultman is managing editor for this production. Scott Matthews is the director of CNN’s Special Investigations and Documentaries unit.

CNN Worldwide, a division of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., a Time Warner Company, is the most trusted source for news and information. Its reach extends to nine cable and satellite television networks; one private place-based network; two radio networks; wireless devices around the world; CNN Digital Network, the No. 1 network of news Web sites in the United States; CNN Newsource, the world’s most extensively-syndicated news service; and strategic international partnerships within both television and the digital media.