‘Furious and Disgusted’: CIA, Pentagon Officials Frustrated Leaving Afghan Helpers Behind
“A defense official said he grew nauseated as he considered how many Afghan allies would be left behind.”
President Joe Biden ticked off everyone when he caved to the Taliban and chose to stick with the August 31 withdrawal deadline. People are talking to the press to vent their frustration over Biden’s incompetency.
That means the U.S. will leave behind many Afghans who helped our military during the 20-year war.
NBC News divulged the frustrations:
“People are furious and disgusted,” said a former U.S. intelligence official who declined to be quoted by name. A defense official said he grew nauseated as he considered how many Afghan allies would be left behind.
At the CIA, “officers feel a real sense of obligation, moral obligation and personal obligation” to the Afghans they supported and trained, said former CIA Director John Brennan, an NBC News national security consultant.
However, a senior administration official said the government would continue to evacuate vulnerable Afghans after the military leaves on August 31: “This will remain an around-the-clock, 24/7 effort, both to get those who wish to leave out of Afghanistan and then to continue processing paperwork so Afghans at risk can continue on to the U.S. and to other nations for permanent resettlement.”
Military officials corroborated the senior official. They will do what they can “for as long as they can” to get people out of Afghanistan.
The official did not say how this will happen. The Taliban stated they would not give the U.S. an extension. The U.S. will also face the consequences if we do not meet the deadline.
Who do we blame? Everyone is pointing fingers at…everyone:
Two senior Department of Homeland Security officials familiar with internal administration discussions expressed anger at the State Department for not having acted sooner to ramp up the vetting of Special Immigrant Visa applicants.
A spokeswoman for Customs and Border Protection, or CBP, which is part of DHS, said it is conducting biometric and biographical screening and vetting of Afghans in coordination with other agencies.
One of the DHS officials said their State Department counterparts didn’t act sooner because they were hesitant to start a mass evacuation before the Afghan president left, worried that it would show a lack of confidence in Afghan leadership.
This part confuses me: “There has also been continued frustration that some U.S. government databases weren’t immediately compatible between agencies.”
How is that possible?
Therefore, the vetting process has slowed down in Qatar. CBP wants to have 42 people in Doha between Saturday and Tuesday.
Of course, people blame President Donald Trump. State Department dragged Congress across the floor:
Asked why more vulnerable Afghan citizens hadn’t finished the Special Immigrant Visa process sooner, the State Department has pointed fingers at the Trump administration, noting that the agency under Biden started with a backlog of more than 17,000 applicants. State Department officials have also blamed the complex 14-step process mandated by Congress, which was only further complicated by the Covid pandemic and Covid outbreaks at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.
“The Biden administration has demonstrated, in the face of significant challenges, its sacrosanct commitment to the thousands of brave Afghans who have stood-by-side with the United States over the course of the past two decades,” a State Department spokesperson said.
The non-governmental organizations in Afghanistan cannot believe that American citizens have done more for Afghan citizens than the U.S. government. A leader of one NGO said it shows “the failure of the U.S. that private citizens are having to step in to do what the government with all its billions and trillions has failed to do.”
Thank you for making my libertarian argument!!
Why Trump or Biden ever thought they could negotiate any peace with the Taliban boggles my mind.
I thought it was silly Trump “negotiated” with the Taliban. You cannot negotiate with a terrorist group. It’s impossible.
Biden blames Trump, but I have news for him. You’re president now, bro!
The old man had over seven months to script a plan. Biden never had one because he thought it was unlikely the Taliban would take over Afghanistan.
The military did not even have a plan in case a quick Taliban takeover took place. They all claim no one saw it coming.
It does not help that Biden continues to act like everything is sunshine and rainbows in Afghanistan. Everything this just fine and dandy!
Biden sure sounds like he wants to play footsy with the Taliba because, man, he relies on them for everything.
We have not learned from Korea, Vietnam, and the numerous South American countries we infiltrated in the old days.
Remember when former President Barack Obama sent Iran buckets of money in the middle of the night? Why couldn’t Biden’s administration do that with people starting in February?
We know it can be done. CIA Director William Burns took a secret trip to negotiate with the Taliban. We just found out two congressmen took a trip to Kabul.
We know our government can do anything in secret.
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“Talking to the press” is not going to do much for the Americans left behind, or for the Afghani collaborators, or for America, as she gets destroyed day by day by a fraudulent and illegitimate administration.
A senior official said “They will do what they can for as long as they can to get people out of Afghanistan”.
What good goes it do, to do all you can, when you waited until it’s too late? Why didn’t they start doing all they can before they pulled out the military when it would have made a difference? Now it’s just rhetoric.
“This will remain an around-the-clock, 24/7 effort, both to get those who wish to leave…”
Wish to leave? Why in the would would anyone that? That’s like firemen saying, “We will get anyone out of this burning building who wish to leave.” Or life guards saying, “We will jump in and save anyone who wishes to be rescued.”
It reminds me of those restaurants who changed their signs from “All-You-Can-Eat” to “All-You-Care-to-Eat” because their customers were eating too much.
How much of this fiasco is the CIA’s doing in the first place?
All of it.
Gotta make up a good story to justify to the clueless why you’re getting rid of dementia Joe!
The CIA/military must have hoped Biden would forget about the withdrawal.
When he said go ahead, they dragged their feet.
This looks like one of those ways the IC gets presidents that don’t obey.
This is one of the drawbacks of letting presidents declare war.
Databases from different agencies being incompatible isn’t uncommon. In fact that’s pretty standard. The medical record database for the DoD and the VA aren’t compatible despite nearly two decades of effort.
How is this possible? Turf wars. Each agency demands the other incorporate their data to fit the other. Neither will do so. Then they agree to a new system that will supposedly be backwards compatible with both agencies data. Which results in tax dollars wasted on a dead end and continuing data incompatibility.
They rinse and repeat this boondoggle every five to eight years. It would be cheaper and more effective to have simply had both agencies hire a bunch of data entry clerks and hand jam the data into a functional system. Unfortunately that limits the opportunity to grift off the contracting system so that’s not an option DC tolerates.
Then resign.
Cowards.
F the CIA and IC folks.
We are witnessing a repeat of history. The Taliban act the same as Mohammad and his men did when Islam was created. They were the terrorists of the day and killed many people.
Afghanistan is similar to the way Saudi Arabia was structured at the time. There was no central government. The country consisted of tribes that fought constantly.
Well, the CIA and Pentagon worked for four years to remove the most competent president we have had in any of our lifetimes and replace him with a an incompetent buffoon who made a living selling his office, and who abused his powers by spying on the incoming administration and supporting a seditious “Resistance” within our own government.
They don’t get to act surprised now that their guy has screwed everything up.
Right!
Do you think any of them are angry enough at this situation, have the guts enough to be whistleblowers on what’s really going on? What’s been going on?
Likely not.
That’s because a fall from the top floor of the Willard, with two .22 shorts to the back of the skull and then an ice pick through the left ear lacks appeal.
Oh, and, it’s a suicide.
Trump didn’t ‘negotiate’ with the Taliban. He gave them strict guidelines as to how badly he would destroy them if they tried anything against Americans.
You honestly think this shitshow would be happening with Trump in charge?
Trump would have ordered strikes months ago when the Taliban were testing to see what the US would do as they ramped up their attacks (answer – not a goddamn thing).
Even in this situation they have now. Biden sent the CIA director to beg them to please let them have a few more days. Trump would be delivering ultimatums that if he got information a single American was prevented from getting to the airport he’d blow up the palace and everybody in it – and they’d let the Americans leave because they knew Trump WOULD DO IT.
The Taliban would have eventually taken over the government, but that ship sailed 15 years ago when we enabled the corruption and incompetence of the Afghan government. I’ve been saying for years that Afghanistan was just a wasteland of fraud and corruption and the second the gravy train ended it would collapse.
But Trump would sure as hell have had the common sense to not abandon US civilians there, and the second the Taliban threatened that he would have ordered strikes on them.
We are in this insane position because of the pathetic cowardice of the Biden administration, who are such weaklings and cowards they are literally begging the Taliban to please let them leave. There were multiple points LONG before this Kabul shitshow happened to stop it, and they took none of them because they were such fucking cowards.
“You honestly think this shitshow would be happening with Trump in charge?”
Yep …
I disagree. I think Trump would have done several things differently: one, he would have pulled out before the Taliban fighting season (Biden only extended the withdrawal for a photo op on Sept. 11th); two, Trump would have got civilian Americans out first; three, he would have extracted (or destroyed) the billions in American equipment currently in Taliban hands; four, he would have left Bagram open for these withdrawals and (likely, though not surely) would have left some air and com backup for the Afghan government/military.
He would not have sanctioned a dead-of-night withdrawal without at least notifying our allies (and the Afghans, themselves–left in the dark by Biden until they showed up the next morning and America was gone). I don’t think Trump would have left our allies at loose ends tidying up his mess and trying to get as many of their people as possible on an impossible timeline.
He would never in a million years capitulate to the Taliban on any point, ever. This we know for a fact based on his record of ordering strikes on key targets when the Taliban (or any enemy of America) stepped out of line. This happened over and over while he was CIC, and the Taliban would never have dared issue orders to America if Trump were in the WH. That’s just fact.
The only thing that I see Trump doing differently is perhaps with regard to our Afghan allies. I don’t believe he would prioritize their evacuation over that of American citizens, so yes, this would cause the American media to go nuts . . . maybe with good reason. The difference, here, though, is that Trump would likely have engineered their evacuation after public outcry . . . to third countries, not the U.S.
Ultimately, this is mostly speculation, but not all, since we know what Trump planned and how he had put the fear of God (Allah?) into the Taliban and our enemies the world over. The Taliban would never ever dare issue ultimatums and “red line” warnings to America if Trump were in charge. That’s just fact. He would have taken them out from the top down, one by one, and we know this because he did it to numerous terror groups over and over.
No, this shitshow would absolutely NOT be happening if Trump were still in charge. Some other shitshow may have happened in the minds of the TDS-deranged, but, no, not this. Not anything close to this.
Biden’s innocence is not unproven. The Democrat congress in DC (district of corruption) should pursue impeachment just in case. Another 16 trimesters of witch hunts and warlock trials is both prudent, socially forward, and consistent to their character.
Some may complain about those left behind [Americans and Afghanis] for now, but each and every one will work as hard as he/she/(it) can to impose a dictatorship on Americans at home.
Subotai Bahadur
We can measure the level of ‘disgust’ pretty soon by all the soon to happen resignations at the CIA, Pentagon and State Dept…… que the Jeopardy music.
Hope and change.