The U.S. gave the names of Afghan allies to the Taliban, and evicted them from a plane to make way for useless war trophy, leaving them stranded in Afghanistan, according to a report in Red State. Meanwhile, it brought to the U.S. 124,000 Afghans between July 14 and August 31, the vast majority of whom had not worked with the U.S. and were not in great danger if they remained in Afghanistan.
As Red State notes,
During the last hours of the evacuation, according to troops under his command and as documented by photographs and witness statements, [Major General] Donahue ordered all of the passengers aboard a C-17 transport plane to disembark so he could have a souvenir loaded onto the plane. That souvenir, or “war trophy,” was an inoperable Taliban-owned Toyota Hilux…Once the Hilux was loaded passengers were allowed back on the plane, but, of course, there wasn’t room for all of them. According to troops on the scene, at least 50 people and perhaps as many as 100 people were left at Kabul to make room for the Hilux.
It is believed that many of those left behind have been or will be killed by the Taliban, in part because of information allegedly provided to Taliban commanders by Donahue himself….“[O]ne of the last things [Donahue] did before leaving was talk to the Taliban commander that he had been coordinating with about the time that we were going to leave just to let them know that we were leaving.”
Multiple sources within the military and the intelligence community have revealed to RedState that Donahue’s coordination with the Taliban that day included more than simply letting them know that we were checking out early. These sources say that Donahue provided the Taliban with a full manifest of passengers aboard the flights including passport information, photos, and biometric information for those passengers. The flights included US troops, Afghans who were employed by the Department of Defense, key human intelligence (HUMINT) assets, and other SIV applicants and their families.
One military intelligence source, who requested anonymity, told RedState:
“Some of those on the last planes out were key HUMINT assets. At least 50, likely as many as 100 were left behind after being removed from the flight. But the 50 were bonafide personnel that should have been evacuated. They will likely never be heard from again. The Taliban was given literally everything that would prevent any of those people from hiding or escape and evasion, and we know that there are a lot of ‘disappearings’ going on.”
While leaving U.S. allies to die — at least 90% of U.S. allies were left behind during the evacuations — the Biden Administration brought over 100,000 Afghans to the U.S. who did not work for the U.S., and in most cases, had no ties to the U.S. whatsoever. As the Center for Immigration Studies notes, “Most [of the 124,000] evacuees were not interpreters/translators or ‘allies’, i.e. those who worked for or on behalf of the U.S. government and who faced a serious threat as a result of that employment and are eligible for Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs). The Biden administration did acknowledge that only a small share of those admitted in the United States qualified through the SIV program.” And a “number of Afghan evacuees have shown up on terror watchlists.”
Some non-U.S. allies likely wanted to leave Afghanistan so that they could engage in unsavory practices that are sternly forbidden by the Taliban, such as bacha bazi, a practice involving the sexual abuse of boys by adult men.
While bringing a useless trophy to the U.S., valuable U.S. weapon systems were left behind. For example, “two Counter-Rocket, Artillery, Mortar (C-RAM) systems were left at the Kabul airport” at the very same time that the inoperable Toyota Hilux was being transported out of Kabul.
The U.S. left more than 2,000 armored vehicles and dozens of aircraft to the Taliban, notes Reuters. That includes U.S.-supplied Humvees and Black Hawk helicopters. In their abrupt and disorganized departure, U.S. troops left behind billions of dollars worth of military equipment that was seized by the Taliban. For example, Julian Röpcke reports that the Taliban “not only seized” around “a hundred U.S. humvees” and armored personnel carriers in the city of Kunduz, but also valuable drones. “Billions of U.S. taxpayer dollars going to Islamist extremists, thanks to the administration’s hasty withdrawal….Now every Taliban fighter gets his own Ford, Toyota, humvee” or armored personnel carrier.
The Biden administration consistently made false claims during the fall of Afghanistan. In July, President Biden claimed that “the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.” But less than a month later, the Taliban had seized control of almost all of Afghanistan, including the capital city and the presidential palace.
Biden also claimed that “there’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of the embassy of the United States from Afghanistan.” Soon, just that happened — people fled in helicopters as the Taliban closed in on our embassy. A news story reported, “U.S. Helicopters Rush In To Evacuate Americans At Embassy In Kabul: ‘This Is Joe Biden’s Saigon.’”
“Rarely has an American president’s predictions been so wrong, so fast, so convincingly as President Biden on Afghanistan,” notes Axios, a center-left publication.
On August 26, Politico reported that “U.S. officials in Kabul gave the Taliban a list of names of American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies…The decision to provide specific names to the Taliban, which has a history of brutally murdering Afghans who collaborated with the U.S. and other coalition forces during the conflict, has angered lawmakers and military officials.” Politico quoted an unnamed defense official saying that “Basically, they just put all those Afghans on a kill list.” Politico noted that the “Taliban has gone door-to-door in search of Afghan interpreters and others who helped U.S. and Western forces.”
