As the repercussions of the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan continue to be realized, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) revealed over the weekend that Afghan interpreters who were stranded in the country by the Biden administration are now facing execution from the
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As the repercussions of the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan continue to be realized, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) revealed over the weekend that Afghan interpreters who were stranded in the country by the Biden administration are now facing execution from the Taliban.
“There are also reports that the Taliban is now carrying out mass killings of former Afghan government officials, former Afghan defense forces,” Fox News anchor Chris Wallace said to McCaul. “Can you shed any light on that?”
“Yes. You know, executions are taking place. We’re getting videos coming in, stories of interpreters being, you know, blocked by the Taliban,” McCaul said. “Remember, they had a perimeter around the airport itself. The interpreters couldn’t get through that perimeter. Most Americans did. Some got blocked by our own U.S. government at the airport. The State Department wholly failed in this evacuation and we had to rely on groups like Operation Task Forces like Pineapple and Dunkirk, who I implore the State Department to work with, to help get these Americans and interpreters left behind out.”
“But the retaliation has been severe, Chris,” he continued. “You have stories of interpreters being taken home to their families and watching, you know, their wives and families being beheaded, executed before they execute the interpreter. This is not a new and improved Taliban. This is the same old Taliban. They’re reverting back to the same brutal practices.”
“And, you know, there was reports also — I was on the phone last weekend with top officials at DOD and State trying to get 250 orphaned girls, Afghan orphaned girls, from the university — from the music — you know, they’re musicians, out of the country, had visas, and our own U.S. government would not open the gate to let them in,” he added. “Now they’ve returned and now they’re under — in Taliban’s enslavement. And we know that they marry off young women as young as 12, many times 14-years-old. It’s a very sick culture, and they treat women like property. I worry about the women left behind as well.”
Democrat President Joe Biden reportedly pressured Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and offered aid during a phone call in late July to “project a different picture” than the reality of the Taliban’s advances in the country, according to a transcript of the call reviewed by Reuters.
“In the call, Biden offered aid if Ghani could publicly project he had a plan to control the spiraling situation in Afghanistan,” Reuters reported. “The U.S. president also advised Ghani to get buy-in from powerful Afghans for a military strategy going forward, and then to put a ‘warrior’ in charge of the effort, a reference to Defense Minister General Bismillah Khan Mohammadi.”
“In much of the call, Biden focused on what he called the Afghan government’s ‘perception’ problem,” Reuters said.
“I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban,” Biden reportedly told Ghani. “And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”
In response, Ghani warned President Biden that Afghanistan was “facing a full-scale invasion, composed of Taliban, full Pakistani planning and logistical support, and at least 10-15,000 international terrorists, predominantly Pakistanis thrown into this.”
Reuters further reviewed a second call that took place the next day with top officials in the Biden administration, including National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, and U.S. Central Command Commander General Frank McKenzie.
“The perception in the United States, in Europe and the media sort of thing is a narrative of Taliban momentum, and a narrative of Taliban victory,” Milley told Ghani. “And we need to collectively demonstrate and try to turn that perception, that narrative around.”
As Reuters explained, “In a little over two weeks after Biden’s call with Ghani, the Taliban captured several provincial Afghan capitals and the United States said it was up to the Afghan security forces to defend the country… On August 11, U.S. intelligence reports indicated Taliban fighters could isolate Afghanistan’s capital in 30 days and possibly take it over within 90. Instead, the fall happened in less than a week.”
Almost 100 generals and admirals wrote a letter calling for the resignations of Secretary of Defense (SECDEF) Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) Mark Milley after the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“The hasty retreat has left initial estimates at ~15,000 Americans stranded in dangerous areas controlled by a brutal enemy along with ~25,000 Afghan citizens who supported American forces,” the letter said. “What should have happened upon learning of the Commander in Chief’s (President Biden’s) plan to quickly withdraw our forces and close the important power projection base Bagram, without adequate plans and forces in place to conduct the entire operation in an orderly fashion?”
“As principal military advisors to the CINC/President, the SECDEF and CJCS should have recommended against this dangerous withdrawal in the strongest possible terms,” the letter continued. “If they did not do everything within their authority to stop the hasty withdrawal, they should resign. Conversely, if they did do everything within their ability to persuade the CINC/President to not hastily exit the country without ensuring the safety of our citizens and Afghans loyal to America, then they should have resigned in protest as a matter of conscience and public statement.”
“The consequences of this disaster are enormous and will reverberate for decades beginning with the safety of Americans and Afghans who are unable to move safely to evacuation points; therefore, being de facto hostages of the Taliban at this time,” the letter added. “The death and torture of Afghans has already begun and will result in a human tragedy of major proportions. The loss of billions of dollars in advanced military equipment and supplies falling into the hands of our enemies is catastrophic. The damage to the reputation of the United States is indescribable. We are now seen, and will be seen for many years, as an unreliable partner in any multinational agreement or operation. Trust in the United States is irreparably damaged.”
The letter warned that America’s primary adversaries would be strengthened by the withdrawal. “China benefits the most followed by Russia, Pakistan, Iran, North Korea and others,” the letter said. “Terrorists around the world are emboldened and able to pass freely into our country through our open border with Mexico.”
In a newly released video, the Taliban blamed the United States for the 9/11 attacks, which were done by al Qaeda at a time when the Taliban was connected with al Qaeda.
“The nearly 40-minute film, which was broadcast on Afghanistan’s national RTA television station, is intended to commemorate the Taliban’s victory over the U.S.-backed government and Western forces. The Taliban describes America as the true ‘terrorist’ party, while blaming the U.S. for the 20-year war,” Long War Journal reported. “The September 11, 2001 ‘attacks were the result of the United States’ policy of aggression against the Muslim world,’ the narrator says. Reenactments and archival footage of the 9/11 hijackings are shown on screen as the narrator faults America and the West for al Qaeda’s deadliest day.”
The film, titled “Victorious Force 3,” further claims the U.S. and its allies “launched a military invasion without considering the reasonable stance of the Islamic Emirate on the issue.” It claims an old Taliban conspiracy theory that the war was actually intended to topple the Taliban’s Islamic government.
The United States “invaded Afghanistan and deprived Afghans [of an] Islamic system,” the film says. It adds that the West “inflicted on Afghans the most notorious type of democracy, [with] the most infamous faces in modern history.” The U.S. supposedly “insisted on changing the intellectual and ideological boundaries of Afghans, and did not refrain from any kind of cruelty and atrocities to force Afghans to accept their aggression.”
The Long War Journal points out that the “Taliban has never accepted responsibility for harboring and working with al Qaeda prior to 9/11. The two remain intertwined to this day.”
Beginning within weeks of the 9/11 terrorist attack when Taliban founder Mullah Omar, who would not hand Taliban ally Osama Bin Laden over to America, said in an interview, “America has created the evil that is attacking it,” adding this “evil will not disappear even if I die and Osama [bin Laden] dies and others die.”
The Long War Journal added, “In mid-2019, for instance, the Taliban claimed that 9/11 was a ‘heavy slap on their dark faces,’ adding it ‘was the consequence of their interventionist policies and not our doing.’ … In more recent weeks, the Taliban’s spokesman has claimed that there is ‘no proof’ Osama bin Laden was even responsible for 9/11. This is an obvious lie, as al Qaeda itself has repeatedly boasted of its responsibility for the hijackings.”
The Biden administration reportedly refused an offer from the Taliban for the United States to take over control of Kabul while evacuating Americans and American allies.
The Taliban offered to let the United States take over control of Kabul while the terrorist organization would wait on President Biden’s self-imposed withdrawal deadline of August 31. The United States refused the offer, and instead just maintained control of the Kabul airport. according to The Washington Post.
The Washington Post reported, “In a hastily arranged in-person meeting, senior U.S. military leaders in Doha — including McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command — spoke with Abdul Ghani Baradar, head of the Taliban’s political wing.”
“‘We have a problem,’ Baradar said, according to the U.S. official. ‘We have two options to deal with it: You [the United States military] take responsibility for securing Kabul or you have to allow us to do it,’” the Washington Post continued. “Throughout the day, Biden had remained resolute in his decision to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan. The collapse of the Afghan government hadn’t changed his mind.”
“McKenzie, aware of those orders, told Baradar that the U.S. mission was only to evacuate American citizens, Afghan allies and others at risk. The United States, he told Baradar, needed the airport to do that,” the Washington Post added. “On the spot, an understanding was reached, according to two other U.S. officials: The United States could have the airport until Aug. 31. But the Taliban would control the city.”
The news comes as the Biden administration has completed withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan, leaving hundreds of Americans stranded in the country in the hands of the Taliban.
