Mediaboss Marketing

To most Americans, foreign policy is not something they think about on a daily basis. But when the needle moves, its often because of gripping footage that finds its way to our screens.

In Afghanistan, videos of American allies clinging to and falling from our military planes as we left the country in chaos caught the attention of millions of Americans. News footage of those trapped outside the Kabul airport and images of a blown-up Toyota Corolla once full of innocent civilians have kept the story alive.

Compelling as those images are, what concerns me even more are the far reaching consequences of our botched departure that remain unclear.

Top military leaders testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee this week that they advised President BidenJoe BidenFrance (and Britain) should join the Quad Election denialists smacked down by Idaho secretary of state Under Biden, the US could fall further behind in the Arctic MORE against withdrawing all troops from Afghanistan.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd AustinLloyd AustinDefense & National Security Afghan evacuee flights to restart soon Troops move to block Pentagon vaccine requirement in court Suicides up 15 percent among US troops in 2020 MORE said that the Biden administration never considered that the Afghan government would collapse in a mere 11 days. And Secretary of State Antony BlinkenAntony BlinkenFrench ambassador back in the US Is Australia's nuclear submarine deal a distraction from international climate action? Macron says Europe must assert independence from US MOREs recent testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has left us with more questions than answers about how this disaster occurred and who is responsible.

Congress rigorous oversight of the Afghanistan failure must continue and we must godeeperto understand the devastating and far-reaching costs that have yet to surface.

I can think of at least four areas where the costs of our dreadful exodus will continue to mount: diplomacy, intelligence, foreign influence and our military superiority.

If the orderly, conditions-based withdrawal President TrumpDonald TrumpNigerian president to lift Twitter ban if certain conditions are met Grisham calls Kushner 'Rasputin in a slim-fitting suit' Federal court orders FEC to rule on NRA shell entity campaign allegation MORE agreed to and President Biden articulated support for had been implemented, we would have been able to maintain a strategic toehold within the country through our embassy.

That diplomatic presence would have enabled the United States to provide essential consular services for American citizens and Afghan allies. And our enduring presence would have enabled the United States to monitor threat streams and provided us with access to critical human intelligence to respond to threats facing our nation.

The Biden administration has claimed that it will be able to conduct intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions remotely or over-the-horizon.But mistakes like the tragic drone strike in Kabul are avoidable only when we rely on multiple kinds of intelligence to find, fix, and finish targets.Simply put, relying exclusively on over-the-horizon capabilities will only increase the risk to civilians on the ground in Afghanistan and increase the risks to the United States by missing critical details through gaps in the intelligence available.

Our nations intelligence community is immensely capable but they must have access to as many resources as possible if they are going to provide a complete and accurate picture to the appropriate decision makers.

Further, given the distance from which various platforms must now travel to Afghanistan, the amount of time they will have over the target area will be extremely limited.

Beyond the tactical considerations, our withdrawal has also provided us with a strategic setback vis-a-vis the Chinese Communist Party.

As the U.S. Embassy in Kabul closed and shifted to Doha, Qatar, the Embassy for the Peoples Republic of Chinahas remained open for business.

While the relationship between the Taliban and the Chinese Communist Party will be complicated, China will undoubtedly do whatever they can in pursuit of Afghanistansvast, untapped natural resources.

Beyond the strategic threat with China, we have seen other challenges emerge as U.S. military equipment, originally provided to the Afghan National Security Forces,has now crossed the border into Iran.

It is now inevitable that experts from Russia, China, and Iran will use the equipment to test, research, and reverse engineer. Our equipment now serves as a laboratory for conducting tests to counter Americas defenses.

It is critical that Congress continue to conduct rigorous oversight to understand the many facets of this failure, hold leaders accountable, and ensure that the United States is properly positioned to respond to new threats as they emerge.

Ultimately, I expect that the American people will hold Joe Biden accountable for his calamitous withdrawal that left 13 American service members killed, left Americans and Afghan allies behind, and was a strategic and diplomatic failure for the United States.

President Biden may wish to be done with Afghanistan but it is clear Afghanistan is not done with us.

Todd YoungTodd Christopher YoungHow to fix the semiconductor chip shortage (it's more than manufacturing) Senate Democrats try to defuse GOP budget drama The 19 GOP senators who voted for the T infrastructure bill MORE is the senior senator from Indiana and is a member of the Foreign Relations Committee.

See the original post:
The unseen problems in Afghanistan | TheHill - The Hill

The Biden administration is doing its best to pretend thousands of green-card holders, legal US residents, didnt get left behind in Afghanistan and is even quieter on the fate of the far larger number of Americas Afghan allies.

Fox News foreign correspondent Trey Yingst warns that the State Department is underestimating the number of legal permanent residents trapped in Afghanistan, noting Monday that a senior State official claimed that around 100 US citizens and legal residents are still waiting to get out, when Yingst noted, Ive personally met dozens.

Indeed, independent estimates put the total of green-card holders in the thousands before US forces bugged out at the end of August, and State doesnt claim more than a few hundred made it out.

Not to mention the tens of thousands of Afghans who could qualify for Special Immigrant Visas, since they publicly supported US forces over the last two decades and are now targets for Taliban vengeance.

So much for President Joe Bidens vow of Aug. 20, Were making the same commitment to Afghan allies to evacuate them along with US citizens and legal residents. After the bugout, the administration basically stopped talking about these people, instead only giving totals of citizens (and, sometimes, of legal residents) evacuated by the Qataris and independent groups.

This mans word is worthless.

View original post here:
Team Biden tries to erase the tens of thousands we left behind in Afghanistan - New York Post

Demetria Charlifues work on the U.S. State Departments Afghanistan Task Force reflects her desire to serve the vulnerable in crisis situations.

Courtesy photo

Demetria Charlifue began her shift as an intern at the U.S. State Departments Bureau of Consular Affairsby skimming through hundreds of field reports from the ground in Afghanistan.

She had just 30 minutes to complete the task. At the end of her 12-hour shift, Charlifue had five minutes to compose a shift report, preparing the person who occupied the post next for whatever the day required.

I felt very prepared, said the second-year Master of International Affairs student at Texas A&M Universitys Bush School of Government and Public Service, referring to the technical demands of her appointment. Professors at the Bush School assign stacks of complicated reading to students each week, reflective of the real demands placed on individuals in public service careers. Im grateful to have had two semesters of that reading load under my belt.

The Bush School requires that all students in theInternational Affairs program pursue either an internship or language immersion in the summer between their first and second year. But for Charlifue, beginning a virtual Pathways internship with theU.S. State Departmentin summer 2021 meant more than just fulfilling a degree requirement.

A desire to serve the vulnerable through diplomacy has motivated her long before beginning her graduate studies. She worked the visa window at the U.S. consulate in Frankfurt during the peak of the Syrian refugee crisis in 2016.

I got to see the plight of these people coming to the U.S. Embassy at their most vulnerable moments, Charlifue said. That image remained with Charlifue as she applied and was accepted into the program, which allows participants to transition into a civil service appointment upon fulfilling a yearlong internship.

Initially, the bureau stationed her in the Office of Childrens Issues, where she assisted in policymaking and implementation to support the departments interests regarding childrens welfare issues, such as inter-country adoption and parental abduction. Her duties involved providing communications services to mediate between the office and other stakeholders, such as Congress, the Department of Homeland Security, and other consular offices overseas.

When the opportunity arose to participate on the Afghanistan Task Force to facilitate the U.S. withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, Charlifue put the skills she learned at the Bush School to the test.

The Afghanistan mission was deeply personal to me. It was something that I wanted to give back to support our Afghan allies and American citizens abroad, Charlifue said. Her parents, both career Foreign Service officers, previously served at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul.

For anyone in the Foreign Service community, assisting in lifesaving missions is not a requirement, but an expectation, according to Charlifue. Nearly the entire Office of Childrens Issues, consisting of roughly 100 people, stepped up. Charlifue said she volunteered not knowing that it would mobilize into the huge conglomerate that it did.

After the United States withdrew its forward military presence in Afghanistan and shut down its embassy, the Taliban overcame the Afghan Armed Forces and swept into Kabul. Thousands of American citizens and Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) holders were endangered.

According to Charlifue, the Afghanistan Task Force had begun making arrangements for potential mass mobilization of personnel and qualified individuals from Afghanistan since it was formed in mid-July, before the first provincial Afghan capital fell to the Taliban.

The stepping stones were in place, she said. People forget that the department did a mass repatriation during COVID-19 to help repatriate American citizens who were abroad, so a lot of my colleagues were very well versed in what crisis management looked like from that effort. We were ready to step in.

On Aug. 14, the bureau issued the mandate to commence emergency evacuations from Afghanistan. Charlifue said the task force anticipated a chaotic, unpredictable and at times dangerous exit, which turned out to be the case.

The security situation was so fluid that we had to redirect at a moments notice, she said. And when the circumstances on the ground shifted, guidance from top officials about how to conduct the evacuation would change along with it. The information coordination channels had to be almost picture perfect to manage that really fluid timeline.

For example, Charlifue described how the task force had issued guidance to approved individuals regarding which airport gate was safe to pass through. The information leaked within hours to the throngs of Afghans who had fled to the airport in hopes of escaping.

People were crowding the gates and then nobody could get through, she said. We had to quickly reconnect and issue new guidance.

Charlifues desk at the Department of State in Washington, D.C.

Courtesy photo

Working 12-hour shifts through the night, Charlifue supported the congressional team of the task force. Much like in her function in the Office of Childrens Issues, Charlifue was charged with liaising between the task force and Congress, relaying critical information minute-by-minute.

Others in her office coordinated with embassies in other countries to organize and staff call centers for evacuating endangered individuals and expedite processing to get them into the United States or lily pads, which are temporary sanctuaries in third countries.

It was a mass effort, Charlifue said. It was a huge, commendable effort and a testimony to how quickly we had to mobilize once the situation really gained momentum.

Charlifue recalled photos of unaccompanied Afghan children that circulated on news and social media platforms. While most Americans could only watch events transpire from afar, Charlifue had the opportunity to influence the fate of many Afghan refugees, including some of those children.

We would always get emails whenever those children had landed in Dulles airport, or wed get pictures of them sometimes, she said. And youd recognize certain cases you had seen, and youd see those kids get reunited with family overseas or be at Dulles airport with caregivers who would assist them now in moving forward. Those tugged at your heart strings and made all the other 12-hour shifts feel really important.

Not only was the world watching Afghanistan, but it was also watching and often criticizing the actions of the U.S. State Department, where Charlifue served.

The workload was really intense, and the expectations were really high the expectations for career folks to rise to that occasion and to do so at a very high-profile level, she said. Youre talking to people who are at their most vulnerable moments. It was very difficult to separate yourself from the chaos in Kabul in order to do the work and to continue doing the work. So I think everybody who has had to serve in a crisis has a crisis mentality a front they put up.

Charlifue said she and her colleagues will have to learn how to build resiliency and process the pressure that comes from high-stakes assignments.

Her participation on the Afghanistan Task Force ended Sept. 3, but her internship extends until May 2022. She plans to move to Washington, D.C., in December to work at her internship full-time in the spring while taking evening classes at the Bush Schools D.C. campus.

Crisis moments are what define diplomats, said Charlifue. I am just so in awe of our consular officers who were working out of an embassy in Kabul one moment and then were working out of an airfield. I am constantly thinking back to the resiliency they must have had and how I can mirror that in my own way.

See more here:
Aggie Aids In Afghanistan Evacuation Efforts - Texas A&M Today - Texas A&M University Today

The plane carrying US citizens and permanent residents had been temporarily prevented from departing for the US.

A group of United States citizens and Afghan evacuees have been permitted to travel to the US from the United Arab Emirates after being temporarily held up for vetting, according to the Gulf states foreign ministry.

The 117 passengers had been stuck at Abu Dhabis international airport after arriving from Kabul, a lawyer who had been working to relocate the passengers told Al Jazeera on Wednesday.

In an email on Thursday to Reuters news agency, the UAE foreign ministry said the processing of those passengers has been completed and they have already departed for the United States on a commercial aircraft (Etihad) this morning.

Stan Bunner, a lawyer working with the passengers, told Al Jazeera that all the evacuees were US citizens, permanent legal residents, or special immigrant visa applicants. They included 59 children under the age of 18.

Bunner, who is part of an ad hoc group of US veterans called Project Dynamo that formed to help Afghans flee after the Taliban took control of the country on August 15, said US Customs and Border Patrol had repeatedly denied the plane permission to enter the US.

He said that the groups organisers believed they had full US landing permissions when the Kam Air flight they had chartered took off from Kabul.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson previously told Al Jazeera all passenger manifests of US-bound flights must be verified before departure to the US to ensure all passengers are screened appropriately.

A State Department spokesperson said on Wednesday that embassy staff in the UAE were vetting the passengers paperwork.

The US completely withdrew its troops from Afghanistan on August 30, stepping up a chaotic evacuation operation in the final weeks after the Taliban swept to power.

Defence officials have since acknowledged the US was surprised by the Talibans rapid takeover of Kabul, with the Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman, General Mark Milley, telling a Senate Committee on Tuesday the withdrawal was a strategic failure.

While the US and its allies airlifted about 120,000 people out of the country, officials have acknowledged that hundreds of US citizens and permanent residency holders likely remain in Afghanistan.

Rights groups, meanwhile, say tens of thousands of Afghans who had worked for the US government, and are eligible for special visas to relocate to the US, have been left behind.

Here is the original post:
UAE allows blocked Afghanistan evacuation flight to depart for US - Al Jazeera English

When the Taliban took control of Afghanistan in a sweeping offensive last month, they promised a "general amnesty" to all Afghans, including those who had worked for the previous government or with foreign forces.

Despite their promises, multiple sources told Insider that Taliban fighters have been going door-to-door hunting for former government officials to carry out revenge killings.

Judges, in particular, are targeted because of the role they previously played in imprisoning the militants.

"I feel hopeless, abandoned and alone," Abdul,* a former judge who is in hiding in Afghanistan, told Insider.

"I'm in hiding. I change my location every 24 hours. Even my wife and children don't know where I am."

Abdul, 42, was formerly a judge in the public security and anti-corruption department in Kabul.

He told Insider that Taliban fighters went to his house looking for him and searched the homes of his family, friends, and colleagues.

They found his contact information through paperwork left behind in government buildings and called and threatened him.

"Yesterday, the Taliban called me two times, and they told me that we will tie your leg to a car and drive, and we will kill you," he said.

After the Taliban took control of the country, the world watched in horror as thousands of Afghans crowded at Kabul airport, with several deaths in the desperate stampedes to secure a place on an evacuation flight.

Abdul could not secure a place on an evacuation flight. Despite many attempts to get a visa from any country that would take him, he has not been able to escape Afghanistan.

"I never thought that I would leave my country," Abdul said. "I have served this country, and I wanted my children to serve this country. But now, 100% if I stay here, my life and my family's lives are under threat. They will kill us if they catch us."

But he is not hopeful that he will ever get the chance to leave. The UK government is currently facing legal action after it rejected the visa applications of 35 mostly female judges.

Abdul said that if he senses that the Taliban are closing in, he plans to pour fuel on himself and set himself alight rather than risk capture.

Last week in Nangarhar, a former member of the National Directorate of Security was beheaded and his dead body thrown in a river, Abdul said.

After the body was found, the Taliban claimed that their fighters were not responsible, according to Abdul.

"There are three groups involved; the Doha team, the Taliban in Kandahar, and also the Haqqani network. The leadership doesn't have control over all of the networks and some of them are seeking revenge," said Abdul.

Since the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, reports have emerged of competing factions.

The head of one branch is the Taliban co-founder and interim deputy prime minister Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who signed the Doha agreement on the withdrawal of US forces on behalf of the Taliban.

Other Taliban leaders, including the group's elusive leader Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, are based in the city of Kandahar, described as the de facto capital of the Taliban.

Another offshoot group is the semi-autonomous Haqqani network, which is allied with the Taliban.

Reports said that earlier this month, Taliban leaders brawled after arguing over who did the most to kick the US out of the country.

Mohammad*, 47, another judge, told Insider he went into hiding as soon as the Taliban took over the country.

"I have worked for almost 12 years in different provinces as the chief judge of the appeals court. I have imprisoned thousands of them. I have a lot of enemies right now," he said.

Mohammad said that Taliban fighters have also freed criminals from jails, including drug dealers and weapons smugglers he previously imprisoned, who could also seek revenge.

Along with personal vendettas, Taliban fighters also take issue with former judges because they enforced a Western legal system, which they say is against Sharia law, Mohammad said.

Since taking over the country, the Taliban have said the new legal system will operate based on their strict interpretation of Islamic law.

During their previous rule, this manifested in harsh punishments for minor infractions and the persecution of vulnerable groups, including women and LGBTQ people.

The group has already said it plans to bring back executions and the cutting off hands as punishments, and last week displayed the hanged bodies of alleged kidnappers in Herat.

Mohammad said that after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan, his life changed overnight.

"I am now jobless. I have no source of income. I haven't gone home since the Taliban came to power," Mohammad said.

"The places where I'm hiding are not places for a human to live. These are very bad places. We don't have access to basic things."

Mohammad said that he does not go outside unless it is to change locations, which he sometimes does multiple times in a day.

He said he is well-known in the community and easily recognized, and so he wears dirty clothes and disguises his appearance before moving locations.

Taliban fighters searched his home while looking for him, he said, and took his cars and the weapons of his security guards.

Mohammad said that now his main priority is trying to get his children out of the country. He said that his two sons are suffering from mental health problems, afraid for their futures, and unsure when they will see their father again.

"I want to ask the international community to just help us, just help our children to get out of here. Because their future, their everything is ruined," Mohammad said.

*Insider has given the judgespseudonyms to protect their identity.

Read the rest here:
Afghanistan: Taliban hunt down the judges who imprisoned them - Business Insider