The Biden administration left behind records identifying our Afghan allies and their relatives, rather than destroying those records before we left Afghanistan. Now, the Taliban has those records, and it is using to them to catch, torture, and kill our Afghan helpers. Hot Air observes:
It’s long been known that America’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer left behind a massive trove of more than seven billion dollars worth of weapons and other military equipment. This has made the Taliban one of the most well-armed military forces in the region. But there were other goodies left behind for the terrorists to rummage through. There were countless computers and other data storage devices. Some of these contained all of the personnel records of our Afghan helpers ranging from translators to teachers and general maintenance workers. Those records included all manner of biometric and personal data such as home addresses and the identity of relatives living in the area. Now the Taliban is using that data to track down the helpers that we left behind and imprison or execute them.
The Free Beacon reports:
Congress is demanding answers from the Biden administration following a disclosure that reams of biometric data abandoned by the United States during its bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan are being used by the Taliban to target American allies still stuck in the war-torn nation.
Eight Republican senators led by Sen. Marsha Blackburn (Tenn.) are asking the State and Defense Departments to turn over information related to the evacuation of U.S. troops in Afghanistan that allowed the Taliban to retake control of the country. In addition to leaving behind $7 billion worth of military hardware, the United States abandoned “sensitive data, including biometric data,” on Afghan allies that are now reportedly being used by the Taliban to target those who supported the United States’ 20-year war in the country…
The probe comes just weeks after Human Rights Watch, an advocacy organization, released a bombshell report detailing how the Taliban is using abandoned biometric data to eradicate those who worked alongside the United States.
The records left behind included fingerprints, photographs, and iris scans, as well as names, addresses, next-of-kin, etc. That makes it much easier for the Taliban to track down people even if they are living under an assumed identity. This has led to “targeted killings, torture, and forced disappearances” of the Afghans who assisted America and its NATO allies during the war.
As Hot Air notes, “You might wonder how this was overlooked while we were preparing to depart. After all, had our embassy workers never watched any organized crime movies? The last thing you do when the feds are approaching is to smash all of the hard drives and burn all of your files.”
While leaving our allies behind, the Biden Administration brought to the U.S. 124,000 Afghans between July 14, 2021 and August 31, 2021. These were economic migrants, not refugees, for the most part. The vast majority of these Afghans never worked for the U.S. and were not in danger of being killed if they remained in Afghanistan.
Last July, President Biden claimed that “the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.” But 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.” But 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.
A mere two days after Pentagon spokesman John Kirby claimed there was no imminent threat to Afghanistan’s capital, Taliban officials had taken the city, and were sitting at the desk of President Ashraf Ghani, who fled the country.
Yet even after that, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was still claiming that the government’s handling of Afghanistan was “successful.”
