Members of Congress and their staff members who struggled to help Americans and their Afghan allies leave Afghanistan before this week’s withdrawal deadline have revealed some of the frantic messages they received from people desperate to leave the last days.
Several outlets, including The Post, reported on the difficulties faced by potential evacuees who tried to reach Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport through a glove of Taliban checkpoints.
Now, the messages obtained by the Washington Examiner show the degree of situation that became in the last days before the last flight took off on August 30th.
An Afghan-American working with Rep. Don Bacon’s (R-Neb.) Office said fighters from the Islamic fundamentalist group “created as much trouble as possible.”
The man recalled that the State Department told him to go to the Interior Ministry in Kabul, where he confronted a Taliban guard. After the man explained the situation, the Taliban fighter replied, “Go and tell the State Department to do it themselves.”
The evacuee said he arrived at the airport pausing during a shootout at a checkpoint on Aug. 27, the day after a suicide bomber killed at least 13 members of the U.S. service. at least 169 Afghans at the airport. Abbey Gate.
“I know it was stupid, but I took my chance,” he said. “I ran towards the soldiers. I had my passport in my hand, shouting that I am an American citizen. The man returns to the United States, along with his wife and four children.
The Examiner reports that lawmakers, officials and aspirants to be evacuated found that the Taliban did not want to let Afghan-Americans pass checkpoints, even when people brandished dark blue U.S. passports.
An Afghan-American woman sent to the office of Representative Mike Garcia (R-California) a video of her sitting in a car at a checkpoint, with her children’s passport and asking him what he could do .
“That’s why you don’t trust the Taliban to be the ones to control the checkpoints,” Garcia told the examiner.
The Biden administration has repeatedly portrayed the Taliban as an equal partner in the evacuation operation. State Department officials said the Taliban had secured safe passage for anyone wishing to leave Afghanistan, despite widespread news that people trying to cross checkpoints were assaulted and beaten.
On Monday, U.S. Central Command Commander General Kenneth “Frank” McKenzie, who reportedly rejected an offer from the Taliban that would have allowed the U.S. military to secure Kabul in recent weeks before the withdrawal deadline, described the Taliban’s conduct as “very pragmatic and very entrepreneurial” to help secure the facility.
Perhaps this was news for an American who contacted Bacon’s deputy chief of staff Felix Ungerman while trying to get to the airport. At one point, a Taliban militant opened fire.
He says, “My God, he’s firing.” And I said, “Please get out of there, go to safety,” Ungerman reminded the examiner. I heard gunshots and I couldn’t contact him again.I tried to call my cell phone every two hours to see if I could get it, I tried an email and sent him a text message.And it wasn’t until [Tuesday] in the morning he actually texted me and said, “Yeah, I’m fine, but now what do I do?”
“I tell myself,‘ You get to a safe place and you’ll stay there until we can; our government can offer some solutions to help you. “
In fact, Garcia said, his office was most successful in getting people out of Afghanistan when “we weren’t necessarily forced or waiting for the State Department.”
“In fact, all of our successes (we ended up getting about 97 people successful), were people we were able to do through our own channels and people on the ground who supported mostly American citizens and SIVs. [Special Immigrant Visa holders] who otherwise would have been arrested by the bureaucracy, frankly, by the State Department, ”he said.
Now that the withdrawal is over, the United States has refused to rule out having any kind of relationship with the Taliban. On Wednesday, General Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, admitted that it was “possible” for the U.S. to coordinate counterterrorism operations with the Taliban targeting the militant group ISIS-K.
President Biden himself, in his various comments on the withdrawal from Afghanistan, has described ISIS-K as an “enemy” of the Taliban, suggesting a common interest between Washington and Afghanistan’s new rulers.