dagblog - Comments for "Of course the Taliban will let us leaVe unmolested... "

White House spokeswoman Emily

artappraiser — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 09:23:08 +0000

White House spokeswoman Emily Horne confirmed the Kabul to Doha flight and said that "the Taliban have been cooperative in facilitating the departure of American citizens and lawful permanent residents on charter flights from HKIA."https://t.co/isdeK1WUKL axios
— Dr. Joseph Frusci (@JFrusci) September 9, 2021

artappraiser — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 17:43:33 +0000

In reply to Of course the Taliban will let us leaVe unmolested...

Taliban members escorted Americans to gates at Kabul airport in secret arrangement with US

By Barbara Starr, CNN Pentagon Correspondent, Updated 1:10 PM EDT, Tue August 31, 2021

Caveat: anonymous sources. However, Starr's record on those is far better than most; she has lots of experience telling wheat from chaff.

(CNN)The US military negotiated a secret arrangement with the Taliban that resulted in Taliban members escorting groups of Americans to the gates of the Kabul airport as they sought to escape Afghanistan, according to two defense officials.

One of the officials also revealed that US special operations forces set up a "secret gate" at the airport and established "call centers" to guide Americans through the evacuation process.

The officials said Americans were notified to gather at pre-set "muster points" close to the airport where the Taliban would gather the Americans, check their credentials and take them a short distance to a gate manned by American forces who were standing by to let them inside amid huge crowds of Afghans seeking to flee.

The US troops were able to see the Americans approach with their Taliban escorts in most cases in an attempt to ensure their safety.

The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the arrangements, which have not been disclosed until now because the US was concerned about Taliban reaction to any publicity as well as the threat of attacks from ISIS-K if its operatives had realized Americans were being escorted in groups, the officials said.

Throughout the evacuation, Biden administration officials stressed that the Taliban was cooperating and senior officials stated they had committed to provide "safe passage" for Americans.

The Taliban escort missions happened "several times a day" according to one of the officials. One of the key muster points was a Ministry of Interior building just outside on of the airport's gates where nearby US forces were readily able to observe the Americans approach. Americans were notified by various messages about where to gather.

"It worked, it worked beautifully," one official said of the arrangement. As of Monday when the US completed its withdrawal, more than 122,000 people in total had been airlifted from Hamid Karzai International Airport since July and more than 6,000 Americans civilians evacuated. However, 13 Americans service members and more than 170 Afghans were killed in a suicide blast at the airport last week.

It is not clear if the Taliban who were checking credentials during these efforts turned away any of the Americans. There have been numerous reports that some Americans with passports and US green card holders were turned away from Taliban checkpoints close to the airport [....]

p.s. here's the first of many

artappraiser — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 14:06:46 +0000

In reply to Very curious that there was

p.s. here's the first of many good replies to Shackleford's thread:

@RichardEngel here is the context you never gave in your hysterics. @jimsciutto here is what you miss explaining in your drive for sensationalism. @jaketapper ditto to all the above for you.
— Milenaac (@milenaac) August 31, 2021

Very curious that there was

artappraiser — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 14:01:38 +0000

In reply to Of course the Taliban will let us leaVe unmolested...

Very curious that there was so little coverage of this other withdrawal in 2013-2014 (NOT from what I recall about me and I a fellow moderator at a news site trying to get people interested in Sudan while the Iraq war was hot and heavy. It is simply very hard to interest American news junkies in anything to do with Africa to this day!)

Clearly, Ms. Shackleford does have an agenda here, to 'splain how the State Dept. works under a sane president. And of course YMMV depending upon what you think of that, you may think of it as "CYA" or "this is the best one can do in such a situation". Whatever the case, worth a read

As U.S. Embassy's sole consular officer in #SouthSudan 2013-2014, I've been at the airport running #evacuations out of a country at war. Risk & scale differed from #Afghanistan, but some challenges on the ground were similar. A thread to share things I learned on the ground. 1/17
— Elizabeth Shackelford (@lizzyshackelfor) August 30, 2021

There is no graceful way to evac vulnerable people from a country at war. There are better ways & worse ways, but none look good from the outside (or inside). Things could have gone much better, but they also could have gone worse, and many challenges were inevitable. 2/17
— Elizabeth Shackelford (@lizzyshackelfor) August 30, 2021

The hardest part of evac'ing from a warzone is reaching the exit – airport in this case. USG didn’t control Kabul so it had few options to help and all put our people at risk. In South Sudan, we had some success moving a few people to the airport from inside Juba... 3/17
— Elizabeth Shackelford (@lizzyshackelfor) August 30, 2021

...but opportunities were ltd. Even harder beyond the capital. We aborted an attempted evac from another town when our aircraft came under fire with serious injuries to US service members. Deciding when and how much to put our people at risk is hard. 4/17
— Elizabeth Shackelford (@lizzyshackelfor) August 30, 2021

Next, someone must decide who gets in. These are life and death decisions, made 100s-1000s of times a day. Mil and civ officers do so with vague guidelines from Washington. Who counts as a family member? How do you prove they are? 5/17
— Elizabeth Shackelford (@lizzyshackelfor) August 30, 2021

How do you prioritize among hundreds when no one’s documents are complete? Many don’t grab their passport and other docs when fleeing for their lives on short notice. 6/17
— Elizabeth Shackelford (@lizzyshackelfor) August 30, 2021

Answers are subjective. Doing it at volume is hard, making decisions among 1000s or more. USG could have taken steps earlier to reduce some numbers (see below), but none of that applied once evac began. It was always going to be a crush. Why? 7/17
— Elizabeth Shackelford (@lizzyshackelfor) August 30, 2021

Americans and our allies aren't the only ones trying to leave, and our departures aren't other people's priorities. 8/17
— Elizabeth Shackelford (@lizzyshackelfor) August 30, 2021

Most at the gates probably weren’t USG priorities (Americans, Afghan allies) but USG had no way to control/limit crowding without law enforcement authority. Expanding the perimeter would have just pushed the same problem out further. 9/17
— Elizabeth Shackelford (@lizzyshackelfor) August 30, 2021

If more Americans and allies had left sooner, we would have had fewer to evac. USG had control over one but not the other. 10/17
— Elizabeth Shackelford (@lizzyshackelfor) August 30, 2021

Not much USG could do to get more Americans out sooner b/c many chose not to go. USG has warned Americans for yrs not to travel to Afghanistan and specifically urged Americans to leave since 2020 deal was signed. Thousands stayed b/c they’re usually there for a reason. 11/17
— Elizabeth Shackelford (@lizzyshackelfor) August 30, 2021

For family, business, humanitarian or other conflict-related work. Some work in security. Most want to be on last safe flight out possible. All had good reasons, but you don't know when the last one will be, it won’t likely be safe, and only has so many seats. 12/17
— Elizabeth Shackelford (@lizzyshackelfor) August 30, 2021

I saw it in South Sudan, urging people to leave as soon as they had a chance, but many opted to delay, hoping things wouldn't get worse. But they did. 13/17
— Elizabeth Shackelford (@lizzyshackelfor) August 30, 2021

Where we could and should have done better is Afghan allies. But this required fixing a broken special immigrant visa (SIV) program years ago–not just starting evacs a few weeks earlier. #Trump admin intentionally clogged the system... 14/17
— Elizabeth Shackelford (@lizzyshackelfor) August 30, 2021

But it was already a 14-step process with unnecessary, difficult bureaucratic steps, particularly hard to complete from Afghanistan. Had Congress, Defense, and State fixed it years ago, 10,000s of our #AfghanAllies would be in the US already. 15/17
— Elizabeth Shackelford (@lizzyshackelfor) August 30, 2021

As many criticize the evac process, surely plagued by inefficiencies and interagency contradictions, remember the mil and civ on the ground charged with 1000s of these life and death decisions, in dangerous circumstances, doing the best they could with limited information. 16/17
— Elizabeth Shackelford (@lizzyshackelfor) August 30, 2021

They deserve immense gratitude but will live with the weight of these choices forever, and what their decisions meant for the ones they didn’t choose. I wish them peace of mind, to be proud of the work they did, know they did their best, and that their service saved lives. 17/17
— Elizabeth Shackelford (@lizzyshackelfor) August 30, 2021

four days ago . kinda amazing

artappraiser — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 13:19:00 +0000

In reply to Of course the Taliban will let us leaVe unmolested...

from four days ago . kinda amazing!

NEW: Governor Ralph Northam’s office just told me as of 7 am this morning 14,000 Afghan refugees had arrived at Dulles Airport since 12 days ago.
Nine more flights were scheduled to arrive today, 15 tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/JUxUOtznRv
— Tom Roussey (@tomroussey7news) August 27, 2021

Who's who in the Taliban

artappraiser — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 13:13:24 +0000

In reply to Taliban helpful when we

Who's who in the Taliban leadershiphttps://t.co/GJGfXZbYkl #AFPgraphics pic.twitter.com/2J7qAk0ClJ
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 31, 2021

Taliban special forces.@AFP's Wakil Kohsar photographs Taliban Badri special forces fighters at the main gate of Kabul airport on August 31, after the US pulled its troops out of Afghanistan to end a 20-year war - one that started and ended with the hardline Islamists in power pic.twitter.com/kOHanYsYkY
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 31, 2021

#UPDATE: The Taliban's top spokesman congratulates Afghans on their victory after 20 years of US military intervention.

"Congratulations to Afghanistan... this victory belongs to us all," Zabihullah Mujahid said from Kabul airport.

Taliban special forces secure the airport pic.twitter.com/N3xWiJgznE
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 31, 2021

#BREAKING Taliban want good diplomatic relations with US: spokesman pic.twitter.com/rgzXMH7cYN
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 31, 2021

The US military disabled scores of aircraft and armored vehicles as well as a high-tech rocket defense system at the Kabul airport before it left Monday, a US general said https://t.co/xpnjxvFAHN
— AFP News Agency (@AFP) August 30, 2021

IS-K & Taliban not BFFs

PeraclesPlease — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 04:26:23 +0000

In reply to Taliban helpful when we

IS-K & Taliban not BFFs

Read my new piece in @IndiaToday:

Explained: Why Islamic State-Khorasan and Taliban are at loggerheads with each other in Afghanistan? #ISKP #IEA #ISIL #Kabul #KabulAirport https://t.co/AEHadpD5lu
— FJ (@Natsecjeff) August 28, 2021

Taliban helpful when we

PeraclesPlease — Tue, 31 Aug 2021 04:23:41 +0000

In reply to Of course the Taliban will let us leaVe unmolested...

Taliban helpful when we closed down" CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said the Taliban were "helpful and useful when we closed down operations." #Afghanistan https://t.co/FgfxWVnkMt
— FJ (@Natsecjeff) August 31, 2021

- Formation of govt.

- The power struggle between a variety of states - including regional - to fill the vacuum.

- Panjshir & rebellion in Daikundi.

- Cross border issues between Afghanistan and Pakistan.

- The reconstruction process. Who's in, who's out?

So let's watch.
— FJ (@Natsecjeff) August 31, 2021

American University of Afghanistan is denying a NYT story that said the university president said the US military shared a list of names and passport info with the Taliban. "The Times report is false. AUAF’s president made no such a statement," statement says, asking for correx.
— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) August 30, 2021

heh, being a lefty you might

artappraiser — Sun, 22 Aug 2021 02:10:27 +0000

In reply to Of course the Taliban will let us leaVe unmolested...

heh, being a lefty you might not find it as funny, but Karl made me laugh:

https://t.co/sicCmp7rXU
— Zaid Jilani (@ZaidJilani) August 21, 2021

David Ignatius goes over the

artappraiser — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 03:15:55 +0000

In reply to Of course the Taliban will let us leaVe unmolested...

David Ignatius goes over the magical thinking he saw and, he realizes now, helped enable, while reporting on the U.S. military policy in Aghanistan from Jan. 2008 thru June 2011, titled Good intentions and seductive illusions: Scenes from Afghanistan’s long descent (yesterday @ WaPo.)