Taliban reclaims Afghanistan

[old salt]

Lengthy post but interesting exclusive story behind the WSJ paywall :

https://www.wsj.com/articles/afghan-int ... 1633959319

Afghan Interpreter Who Helped Rescue Joe Biden in 2008 Escapes Afghanistan

After a personal plea to the U.S. president, weeks in hiding and a clandestine evacuation, Aman Khalili gets out with his family

An Afghan interpreter who helped rescue then- Sen. Joe Biden in 2008 when his helicopter made an emergency landing in Afghanistan has escaped from the country.

After weeks in hiding, Aman Khalili said he and his family left Afghanistan last week, crossing the border into Pakistan, part of a slow exodus of Afghans trying to avoid living under Taliban rule.

Following a series of demoralizing setbacks and frustrating dead-ends over the past six weeks, U.S. veterans worked with former Afghan soldiers and well-placed Pakistani allies to carry out a clandestine operation to drive Mr. Khalili and his family more than 600 miles across Afghanistan and get them to Pakistan, according to those involved in the effort.

“Aman helped keep me and other Americans safe while we were fighting in Afghanistan, and we wanted to return the favor,” said Brian Genthe, a combat veteran and Purple Heart recipient with the Arizona National Guard who worked with Mr. Khalili in Afghanistan. “He’s a blessing.”

In 2008, Mr. Khalili was part of a rescue team sent to help Mr. Biden, then a Democratic senator from Delaware, and fellow Sens. John Kerry (D., Mass.) and Chuck Hagel (R., Neb.). Two helicopters transporting them had been forced by a blinding snowstorm to land in an Afghan valley vulnerable to a Taliban attack.

After Mr. Khalili’s story appeared in The Wall Street Journal on Aug. 31, in which he was identified for safety reasons by his official first name, Mohammed, U.S. veterans helping him were inundated with offers to aid in the evacuation. White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the government would get him out.

The main drivers of the mission to save Mr. Khalili, his wife and five children were U.S. military veterans from Arizona who worked with the interpreter on the 2008 operation to rescue the stranded senators.

Although an array of high-profile people and U.S. officials said they would try to help evacuate him, it was a group led by an Afghan-American who worked as a linguist with elite U.S. forces in Afghanistan who carried out the ground operation that got Mr. Khalili safely out of the country.

“After 144 hours of driving day and night and getting through so many checkpoints my family was so scared, but right now this is a kind of heaven,” he told the Journal. “Hell was in Afghanistan.”

Mr. Khalili’s plight and the publicity his connection to President Biden generated led to various groups mobilizing to help him, assistance not available to all the at-risk Afghans still hiding in their country and looking for a way to get out. Groups working on their behalf said there are lists with more than 75,000 names.

The U.S. and a collection of Afghanistan war veterans, aid groups and political leaders around the world have had some success in helping those looking to leave since the U.S. pulled out the last of its forces at the end of August. The Taliban have allowed a handful of planes to leave since the U.S. exit, but most Afghans without passports have been unable to fly. Some groups have turned their attention to getting people out across the land borders.

Mr. Khalili said his service with the U.S. began shortly after U.S. forces ousted the Taliban government in 2001. He made his way to Bagram Air Field—then the biggest U.S. military base in Afghanistan—and was hired as a translator.

He spent years working for various U.S. contractors who provided the military with translators, but his application for a special immigrant visa offered to Afghans who worked for the U.S. military was rejected in 2016. The U.S. said he had been denied the visa after being let go by a defense contractor, which didn’t respond to requests for comment. Veterans aiding Mr. Khalili said the rejection was the result of a misunderstanding with the company that hired him as a linguist.

The effort to rescue Mr. Khalili began in earnest in early August, when he sent pleas to U.S. veterans with whom he had served asking for help getting out of the country.

Mr. Genthe stepped in to spearhead efforts as the U.S. began evacuating Americans and Afghans who worked with U.S. forces.

Mr. Khalili joined the throngs of people outside Kabul’s airport at the end of August as they tried to get on the last flights out of Afghanistan before the U.S. and its allies left. Mr. Khalili said he was turned away by U.S. soldiers at the gates who told him he could get inside, but his family members couldn’t.

As the last American forces flew out of Afghanistan, Mr. Khalili spoke to the Journal and made a direct appeal to Mr. Biden for help.

“Hello Mr. President: Save me and my family,” he said. “Don’t forget me here.”

Mr. Khalili went into hiding, and the veterans helping him said they began searching for a safe house for him and his family. One private contractor told them it would cost more than $11,000 to move the family to a safe house, $900 a night to house them and another $11,000 to get them safely to the airport when the time was right. Amed Khan, an American philanthropist who has worked on several successful evacuation operations over the past seven weeks, said he helped move Mr. Khalili and his family at no cost to a safe house in Kabul, while they tried to work on an exit plan.

The veterans were inundated with offers to help—most of which didn’t pan out—and they tried to figure out whom they could trust. Ukraine offered to carry out a special rescue mission if circumstances allowed, they said. U.S. lawmakers tried to get Mr. Khalili on a flight to Qatar. Erik Prince, founder of the military contractor once known as Blackwater, offered to carry out a clandestine operation to spirit Mr. Khalili out of Afghanistan. Mr. Prince said his offer to help was one of many he had made. People working for Glenn Beck, a conservative commentator who chartered planes to fly some Christians and other at-risk Afghans out of the country in late August, tried for weeks to fly Mr. Khalili and his family to safety.

The biggest obstacle was that Mr. Khalili’s wife and four of his five children didn’t have Afghan passports, which the Taliban said were required to leave the country.

During weeks of hiding, expectations were raised and hopes dashed every day. Rescue plans were floated, then scrapped. Mr. Khalili grew anxious as word spread that Taliban forces were searching homes across Kabul for people like him who worked with the U.S.

After about a week of frustrating obstacles, the Arizona veterans decided to turn to Mr. Beck’s team, which drove Mr. Khalili and his family 250 miles from Kabul to Mazar-e Sharif, where they joined thousands of other Afghans trying to get out on charter flights grounded in the northern Afghanistan city. The first rescue charter flight flew out of the city last month, opening a narrow window for some people to get out of Afghanistan.

Day after day, Mr. Beck’s team assured Mr. Khalili that he would be leaving soon, according to messages to the Afghan interpreter viewed by the Journal.

“Today is [the] day we all were hoping to get good news,” Mr. Khalili wrote in a WhatsApp message to the Journal on Sept. 20.

But Mr. Beck’s team was unable to get Mr. Khalili and his family onto a plane.

Rudy Atallah, the chief operating officer for the Nazarene Fund, the nonprofit founded by Mr. Beck that has been working to get people out of Afghanistan, said efforts to get Mr. Khalili out were hampered by everything from bad weather to the former interpreter’s reluctance to leave the country without his family. “We’re helping thousands of people just like him,” said Mr. Atallah.

‘I believe we owe these Afghan people a dignified life’

As efforts by Mr. Beck’s team faltered, the veterans reached out to various groups including the Human First Coalition, a nonprofit group led by Safi Rauf, an Afghan-American who worked as a linguist with U.S. forces in Afghanistan. The group has quietly helped more than 6,700 people, including 1,000 Americans, get out of the country since mid-August, he said.

“When it came to my desk, everybody else had given up on him,” said Mr. Rauf. “We made a promise to these people that if you help us bring democracy to Afghanistan and justice to America we will not leave you behind. I believe we owe these Afghan people a dignified life.”

The group assured the Arizona National Guard veterans that they could get Mr. Khalili and his family out overland to Pakistan. The U.S. veterans were afraid the route was too dangerous, those involved said. With no better options, the veterans decided to give it a try. So the coalition’s teams on the ground in Afghanistan picked up Mr. Khalili and his family in the north and drove two days across the country to the southern border with Pakistan, where they prepared to cross.

On Oct. 3, Mr. Khalili began to have second thoughts about trying to cross by land with his family.

“I am crying,” he wrote to Mr. Genthe in a series of messages viewed by the Journal. “I don’t know how to get home—so dangerous for me and [my] family.”

On Oct. 5, after weeks of disappointment, Mr. Khalili and his family finally made it out of Afghanistan.

Some veterans who worked to rescue Mr. Khalili said the Biden administration hadn’t done enough to help the Afghan interpreter and countless others still asking the U.S. for help.

U.S. officials said their efforts to help Mr. Khalili and others like him were constrained by Taliban restrictions on who could leave Afghanistan.

“People see a compelling human-interest story, and they imagine that there is some special set of things we can do that will enable us all to get that person and family out of harm’s way on an expedited basis when, in reality, there are limitations to what we can do, especially as a government, when compared to some private actors,” a senior Biden administration official said.

Mr. Biden was repeatedly briefed on Mr. Khalili’s case, said a White House official. The Biden administration asked Suzy George, chief of staff to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, to oversee Mr. Khalili’s case. Ms. George helped fast-track Mr. Khalili’s new request for a special immigration visa and the paperwork his family will need to get to the U.S., according to U.S. officials.

Soon after the family arrived in Pakistan, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman flew to Islamabad for two days of previously planned meetings. During the visit, she asked and received Pakistani approval to allow Mr. Khalili and his family to fly on Monday aboard a U.S. military plane bound for Doha, Qatar, according to U.S. officials.

Mr. Khalili said he was thankful to everyone, including the Arizona veterans, who worked to get him and his family to safety.

“If we get the chance, we will greet the president and thank him for his assistance and for his promise,” he said. “We are so grateful to America for completing its promise.”

[Brooklyn]

“If we get the chance, we will greet the president and thank him for his assistance and for his promise,” he said. “We are so grateful to America for completing its promise.”

Biden saved the lives of something like 150,000 Afghans (depends on whose stats you believe). Yet, all we see is criticism from the right wing on Fox and every other right wing fake news media source. If anything these nitwits should be nominating him for the Nobel Prize.

[kramerica.inc]

No, the Taliban really are a peace loving people. But just in case they aren’t:

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/pentago ... rom-dvids/

[Brooklyn]

I wonder ~ who killed more Afghans, the Taliban or Bush's war of imperialistic colonialist terrorism? One thing's for sure, the former have far greater support from the populace than did the invaders.

[kramerica.inc]

What the Taliban’s youngest fighters tell us about the future of the movement

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/as ... story.html

[Brooklyn]

Ready to deliver urgent grain, medicines to Afghanistan: India

India, a week after NSA level dialogue on Afghanistan, has announced that it is ready to deliver urgent humanitarian aid consisting of food grains and medicines to the people of Afghanistan as it underlined that Afghanistan has already seen much bloodshed and violence in recent years and it is in urgent need of assistance.

"Over half of Afghanistan's population is facing a crisis on emergency levels of acute food insecurity, and urgent humanitarian assistance is required to meet the basic foods needs of its people ...

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com//n ... aign=cppst




Bush's Christian crusade failed and we have yet to see any reparations made by the failed imperialist forces. Traitor Bush said they hate us for our freedoms ~ but which ones: the freedom to march into a country and destroy it without accountability? Yeah, I guess that was it.

[youthathletics]

Ready to deliver urgent grain, medicines to Afghanistan: India

India, a week after NSA level dialogue on Afghanistan, has announced that it is ready to deliver urgent humanitarian aid consisting of food grains and medicines to the people of Afghanistan as it underlined that Afghanistan has already seen much bloodshed and violence in recent years and it is in urgent need of assistance.

"Over half of Afghanistan's population is facing a crisis on emergency levels of acute food insecurity, and urgent humanitarian assistance is required to meet the basic foods needs of its people ...

Read more at:
https://economictimes.indiatimes.com//n ... aign=cppst




Bush's Christian crusade failed and we have yet to see any reparations made by the failed imperialist forces. Traitor Bush said they hate us for our freedoms ~ but which ones: the freedom to march into a country and destroy it without accountability? Yeah, I guess that was it.

You just told us that the Afghans wanted the Taliban regime. And now you want to blame a president from 16 years ago . .....of course the piece of the article you left out calls out the Taliban is in charge.

a severe hunger crisis as its economy has come to a virtual standstill since the Taliban took over in August. More than half of the country's nearly 40 million people are likely to face acute food shortage and nine million are already on brink of starvation, according to a recent World Food Program report.

[kramerica.inc]

Don’t waste your time.
He only speaks idiotic, biased cartoon.

[Brooklyn]

You just told us that the Afghans wanted the Taliban regime. And now you want to blame a president from 16 years ago . .....of course the piece of the article you left out calls out the Taliban is in charge.

a severe hunger crisis as its economy has come to a virtual standstill since the Taliban took over in August. More than half of the country's nearly 40 million people are likely to face acute food shortage and nine million are already on brink of starvation, according to a recent World Food Program report.

Yeah but it was your hero traitor Bush's war of imperialistic terrorism that caused the mess. Now he needs to compensate them for it. Those moronic right wingers who supported the colonialist war need to join in on the restitution. And Ghani (the puppet leader) who fled with $169 million needs to return the money to the people.

[youthathletics]

You just told us that the Afghans wanted the Taliban regime. And now you want to blame a president from 16 years ago . .....of course the piece of the article you left out calls out the Taliban is in charge.

a severe hunger crisis as its economy has come to a virtual standstill since the Taliban took over in August. More than half of the country's nearly 40 million people are likely to face acute food shortage and nine million are already on brink of starvation, according to a recent World Food Program report.

Yeah but it was your hero traitor Bush's war of imperialistic terrorism that caused the mess. Now he needs to compensate them for it. Those moronic right wingers who supported the colonialist war need to join in on the restitution. And Ghani (the puppet leader) who fled with $169 million needs to return the money to the people.

We've been there for twenty years supporting and protecting them, and it took less than a week for it to go to hell in a hand basket...Mr. Pro Taliban. Try again

[Brooklyn]

We've been there for twenty years supporting and protecting them, and it took less than a week for it to go to hell in a hand basket...Mr. Pro Taliban. Try again

Yeah, yeah. You pro traitor Bush fan boys did a fine job of turning it into a "Paradise":


https://gdb.rferl.org/67024FE6-8724-4BE ... 3_r1_s.jpg


Small wonder why the Taliban was welcomed with open arms.

[Brooklyn]

https://news.yahoo.com/heartbreaking-im ... 14341.html

Nearly four months since the Taliban seized power and the United States pulled its troops from Afghanistan, the country is facing numerous humanitarian crises, including a critical food shortage that some aid groups say could kill a million Afghan children this winter.

The New York Times reported this week that an estimated 22.8 million people — more than half the country’s population — are expected to face potentially life-threatening food insecurity. According to an analysis by the United Nations World Food Program and Food and Agriculture Organization, 8.7 million people are nearing famine — putting Afghanistan on the brink of a mass starvation. And children are among the most vulnerable.

Afghans waiting in long lines for humanitarian aid.

Afghans wait in long lines for the World Food Program’s humanitarian food aid of oil, lentils and wheat flour along with a supplementary feeding program for children in Kabul, Afghanistan, in November.

The crisis has been triggered in part by an economic collapse since the Taliban takeover, as U.S. sanctions against the militant group have isolated the country and made it harder for international relief organizations to deliver aid.

At the same time, Afghanistan’s health care system is on the edge of collapse, with more than $600 million in health care aid frozen after the Taliban swept into Kabul.


There are, however, several ways to help. In October, the United States issued two general licenses, clearing the way to allow the U.S. government and certain international organizations, like the U.N., to engage with the Taliban to provide humanitarian assistance.





It is time for the Republicon party (the party of morality and Christian values) to pay reparations for the crimes committed against the people and government of Afghanistan.

[Brooklyn]

OK, for this you can blame Biden since he isn't doing enough to reverse the Bush war on innocents:


https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/ ... han-assets

'Let Us Eat': Kabul Protesters Demand Release of Frozen Afghan Assets
"This money belongs to the people and should be freed," one demonstrator insisted.

COMMON DREAMS



Tuesday's protest occurred a day after 46 Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives warned President Joe Biden and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen that the asset freeze and economic sanctions placed Afghanistan at risk of "humanitarian collapse."

"We fear, as aid groups do, that maintaining this policy could cause more civilian deaths in the coming year than were lost in 20 years of war," the lawmakers wrote in a letter.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Treasury Department took a series of steps to enable the flow of humanitarian aid to Afghanistan, issuing three general licenses allowing financial transactions involving the Taliban and the Afghan militant group Haqqani Network if the money is used to meet certain basic societal needs.



Release those funds and force the Republicons to pay reparations for their war. Let's hear an approval from moral Christianity Republicons.

[Kismet]

(AP) reporting sources that US weekend drone strike in Afghanistan killed top al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri. Used an AGM-114R9X, a secret low collateral damage derivative of the AGM-114 Hellfire laser missile which carries no explosive warhead but rather uses deployed razor sharp blades on the target. Apparently, they nailed him on a balcony of a residence in Kabul without killing any of his family who were in the same building or any others in the vicinity.

Uncle Joe addressing the nation at 7:30PM tonight.

[DocBarrister]

(AP) reporting sources that US weekend drone strike in Afghanistan killed top al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri.

Uncle Joe addressing the nation at 7:00PM tonight.

(CNN)The United States killed al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter.

Zawahiri, who just turned 71 years old, had remained a visible international symbol of the group, 11 years after the US killed Osama bin Laden. At one point, he acted as bin Laden's personal physician.

The US government has not yet confirmed his death. President Joe Biden will speak at 7:30 p.m. ET on "a successful counterterrorism operation" against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, the White House said Monday.

https://www.cnn.com/2022/08/01/politics ... index.html

Not only did President Biden finally end the endless American war in god-forsaken Afghanistan, he is crushing Russia slowly in a proxy war and just exterminated al Qaeda’s scumbag leader.

DocBarrister

[NattyBohChamps04]

(AP) reporting sources that US weekend drone strike in Afghanistan killed top al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri.

Uncle Joe addressing the nation at 7:00PM tonight.

Quite the contrast study, with the potential 2024 Republican candidate schmoozing with the Saudis, saying stupid stuff like Nobody’s gotten to the bottom of 9/11, unfortunately as we're taking out the current head of AQ, another key 9/11 plotter.

[old salt]

Remember the Cole !

[Typical Lax Dad]

Remember the Cole !

Remember Grenada!

[cradleandshoot]

(AP) reporting sources that US weekend drone strike in Afghanistan killed top al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri. Used an AGM-114R9X, a secret low collateral damage derivative of the AGM-114 Hellfire laser missile which carries no explosive warhead but rather uses deployed razor sharp blades on the target. Apparently, they nailed him on a balcony of a residence in Kabul without killing any of his family who were in the same building or any others in the vicinity.

Uncle Joe addressing the nation at 7:30PM tonight.

I bet his extended family will be completely understanding of the assassination of their family member. FTR, despite the sorry ass pathetic Joe Biden address to the nation, he actually, for once in his life, made the right decision. I only hope that when Joe wakes up his underlings can give him props for doing so. FTR, why is Joe shuffling across the screen like my old grandfather use to do?

[cradleandshoot]

Remember the Cole !

Remember Grenada!

FTR, my former paratroopers in the 82nd Airborne participated in the invasion of Grenada. Some of them died... Why don't you make fun of them???? You should be more particular in posting about topics that make you look more stupid than you already are.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/ ... 176804283/

Maybe TLD, you should do some research before you make an ASS of yourself??

DO YOU EVEN REMEMBER WHY WE INVADED GRENADA?????????????????????????????????????? Probably not, you were probably still chiting yellow in your diapers if you were even born yet.

FTR... my former battalion of the 2/508 airborne infantry was part of the invasion of Grenada. So you don't think this is personal to me???