Taliban Taking Over Afghanistan - Does anyone care?

[Franklin Pierce]

FIRST ON FOX: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is taking a break from her duties at the same time as controversy surrounds the silence of President Joe Biden, who is on vacation while the Taliban quickly seizes control of Afghanistan.

Fox News sent questions to Psaki's White House email address Sunday morning and received an auto-reply. Hours later, on Sunday evening, Fox News attempted once again to reach the White House spokeswoman. The same auto-reply, stating that the voice of the White House would not be available for the next week, was sent.

"I will be out of the office from August 15th-August 22nd," read the email returned to Fox News. Instead, Psaki's reply directs the press to reach out to other press officers in her absence.

Jen Psaki 'out of the office' as Biden remains silent on Taliban takeover of Afghanistan

 

[Impossible Girl]

The President, CIA and National Security advisors are all to blame. There should be mass resignations and firings over this. No excuse for not planning for worst case scenario with multiple contingency plans and the lack of intelligence on Taliban movement. They’ve sealed the fate of the Afghan people.

On July 8 Joe stated this would not happen. It took less than a month and the country is completely taken over by the Taliban. Biden? What a complete fraud. Anyone but Trump, right?

 

[VolnJC]

 

[C1500]

FIRST ON FOX: White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki is taking a break from her duties at the same time as controversy surrounds the silence of President Joe Biden, who is on vacation while the Taliban quickly seizes control of Afghanistan.

Fox News sent questions to Psaki's White House email address Sunday morning and received an auto-reply. Hours later, on Sunday evening, Fox News attempted once again to reach the White House spokeswoman. The same auto-reply, stating that the voice of the White House would not be available for the next week, was sent.

"I will be out of the office from August 15th-August 22nd," read the email returned to Fox News. Instead, Psaki's reply directs the press to reach out to other press officers in her absence.

Jen Psaki 'out of the office' as Biden remains silent on Taliban takeover of Afghanistan

Was she ever really there?

 

[AM64]

I blame Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Obama, Trump, Biden and a whole bunch of people around them. This should have ended when Al Queda was routed.

Seems like the more positive thing to do would have been to own up to failing to protect the country from a bunch of second rate terrorists and fix the issues here instead of going on a decades long revenge trip in the ME. But sabre rattling and going for revenge is better publicity than admitting you screwed up to an unhappy country.

 

[tnmarktx]

 

[RDU VOL#14]

Hardened Taliban, al Qaeda Killers Released

Afghan officials estimated that the U.S. left about 5,000 to 7,000 prisoners in the air base when the Americans left, according to Axios.

The Pul-e-Charkhi prison, the largest in Afghanistan, contained a maximum-security cell block for al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners. Afghan government troops surrendered control of the base without a fight.

I said earlier today that I would’ve had zero issue if we’d rounded up every high level al Qaeda operative and just put a bullet in their head before we left if they were just going to be released altogether. How does this happen? If they are specifically high ranking al qaeda officials on what planet does the CIA let them walk ? And if they no longer hold any value for intelligence, the only value they hold would be to either be put back in the terrorist world planning, staging or executing acts of terrorism for our enemies or they should have a bullet in their head and move on to the next one. I’m leaning execution.

 

[Ernest T. Vol]

When both CNN and MSDNC are heavily criticizing Biden on Afghanistan, you know it's really really bad.

They will be, desperately, trying to change this losing narrative soon. I bet some strange things are on deck.

 

[Franklin Pierce]

Exclusive — Anthony Sabatini: Biden Should Not Accept Refugees from Afghanistan

President Joe Biden should reject refugees from the future humanitarian crisis emanating from the Taliban’s conquest of Afghanistan, U.S. House candidate and Florida State Rep. Anthony Sabatini (R) told Breitbart News exclusively on Sunday.

“Under no circumstances should America accept a single ‘refugee’ from Afghanistan due to Biden’s disorderly withdraw,” Sabatini stated regarding the refugee policy enacted by Canada in fear of Taliban reprisals against Afghans. “We cannot afford to further contribute to the hundreds of thousand of ‘refugees’ no matter where they come from — South America, Middle East, or Asia.”

Anthony Sabatini: Biden Should Not Accept Refugees from Afghanistan

 

[Electric Orange]

 

[Vol737]

I gotta say, with all the reports coming out of Afghanistan, I can’t believe Turkish Airlines ops even dispatched that flight to Kabul. Complete lack of situational awareness.

 

[Electric Orange]

 

[05_never_again]

I said earlier today that I would’ve had zero issue if we’d rounded up every high level al Qaeda operative and just put a bullet in their head before we left if they were just going to be released altogether. How does this happen? If they are specifically high ranking al qaeda officials on what planet does the CIA let them walk ? And if they no longer hold any value for intelligence, the only value they hold would be to either be put back in the terrorist world planning, staging or executing acts of terrorism for our enemies or they should have a bullet in their head and move on to the next one. I’m leaning execution.

I'd imagine it is a lot like Gitmo and most of them are just young men that got picked up on a battlefield. Could be totally innocent, could know something that was going on but uninvolved, or could be involved in something. I'd say most of the high value detainees have been dealt with in one way or another and these folks are people who they have no idea who they are, have yielded nothing of value intelligence-wise, and they have no idea what to do with.

 

[05_never_again]

Just landed in Kabul.

 

[red butler]

Chaos at Kabul Airport: Thousands of Afghans Gather At CLOSED Terminal - which is Now Guarded by US Troops - as Fighting Breaks Out Between People Desperate To Get Out while non-military flights are grounded

Thousands of desperate Afghans are gathering at Kabul airport in chaotic scenes after the Afghan capital fell to the Taliban who have announced a new 'Islamic Emirate'.

US troops are guarding the airport but all non-military flights are grounded after gunfire was heard nearby and while American personnel take over air traffic control.

Video from Kabul showed panicked stampedes to the gates of the airport, while some passengers were forced to get off their commercial flights when departures were stopped.

Hundreds of passengers were filmed thronging the tarmac by Afghan businessman Shoaib Barak who said he was forced to get off his KamAir flight after boarding and heard gunfire.

The speed of the Taliban advance has taken almost everyone by surprise and Afghans who had booked commercial flights to escape the Taliban face being forced to remain in Afghanistan.

Westerners will be evacuated by their home nations on military flights but the Taliban has said that it will not allow Afghan citizens to leave.

Tens of thousands of interpreters and officials who helped the Western-backed Afghan government are desperate to escape the country for fear of reprisals by the Taliban.

A NATO official said all commercial flights had been suspended and only military aircraft were allowed to operate. The alliance said it was helping to keep the airport running (pictured: Scenes at Kabul airport)

Chaos at Kabul airport as dozens clamour for space on military planes | Daily Mail Online

My concern now is that we have to kill a lot of Afghan civilians in order to get US persons out. The Afghans that helped us are desperate and they know this airport is their only means of avoiding a terrible fate. What happens when they flood the tarmac?

 

[AM64]

The limp d!ck UN lol

Hey, now the UN has an opening to really deflect attention from the WHO/China covid problem ... this is one they can really sink their teeth into. Come to think of it, our intelligence agencies weren't much use there either.

 

[kiddiedoc]

My concern now is that we have to kill a lot of Afghan civilians in order to get US persons out. The Afghans that helped us are desperate and they know this airport is their only means of avoiding a terrible fate. What happens when they flood the tarmac?

No doubt: it's a terrible disaster and will likely be an unimaginable tragedy before all is said and done. Totally avoidable.

 

[Electric Orange]

 

[Electric Orange]

It's a sad situation. We never should've been there in the first place.

 

[Electric Orange]

 

[RDU VOL#14]

I'd imagine it is a lot like Gitmo and most of them are just young men that got picked up on a battlefield. Could be totally innocent, could know something that was going on but uninvolved, or could be involved in something. I'd say most of the high value detainees have been dealt with in one way or another and these folks are people who they have no idea who they are, have yielded nothing of value intelligence-wise, and they have no idea what to do with.

I’m guessing you’re probably right. I’m hoping youre right. This whole situation has given me a lot of doubts on what exactly is being done competently over there. I will say that I view the al Qaeda label differently then I do that of the Taliban. If any of these guys were legit players in a network in the previous decade I have problem letting them walk.

 

[Vol737]

Hmmm, wonder where Taliban funding came from? But Trump! But Russia!

My concern now is that we have to kill a lot of Afghan civilians in order to get US persons out. The Afghans that helped us are desperate and they know this airport is their only means of avoiding a terrible fate. What happens when they flood the tarmac?

Hell, how do we not fly in a hundred or so
C-17s, control the airport militarily and get everyone out? It’s as if zero planning went into this withdrawal. Oh wait…
Buncha damn amateurs that can’t find their @$$ with both hands.

 

[05_never_again]

I’m guessing you’re probably right. I’m hoping youre right, this whole situation has given me a lot of doubts on what exactly is being done competently over ther. I will say that I view the al Qaeda label differently then I do that of the Taliban. If any of these guys were legit players in a network in the previous decade I have problem letting them walk.

Some of them probably are legit players in a network - the article said there were 5-7k of them there. There's no way that, to a person, all of them are babyfaces.

However I bet most of them are people they had no idea who they really were, happened to be in the area during/after a battle, and so they were holding them.

 

[AM64]

Cargo Compartment: length, 88 feet (26.82 meters); width, 18 feet (5.48 meters); height, 12 feet 4 inches (3.76 meters)

1584 sq ft = 17"x17" per passenger

Unless they double decked it, that doesn't sound doable. Also, Flightradar showed the C-17 at a runway intersection and not the end of the runway, and it didn't appear to use a whole lot of runway getting off the ground.

 

[AM64]

Did it land yet? I would like to see the video of that many people getting off that thing.

Wonder if Biden had pallets of cash flown in on the inbound leg.