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The Guardian - US
The Guardian - US
World
Maanvi Singh (now) and Joan E Greve (earlier) in Washington

Biden says ‘I stand squarely behind my decision’ after insurgents take Afghan capital – as it happened

Today's politics recap:

  • Joe Biden defended his decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan, even after Taliban forces took Kabul and the world saw images of desperate Afghans attempting to flee the country. “I stand squarely behind my decision,” Biden says. “After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces.”
  • At least seven people were killed amid the chaos at Kabul International Airport today, according to the AP. Videos widely shared on social media showed desperate Afghans trying to cling to a US military plane as it departed Kabul and then falling to their deaths.
  • Administration officials have continued to defend Biden’s strategy in Afghanistan, even in the face of rebukes from Democrats and Republicans over how the troop withdrawal has been executed. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said this morning, “What the president kept saying over and over again is that it was not inevitable Kabul would fall. And it was not inevitable. There was the capacity to stand up and resist. That capacity didn’t happen.”
  • The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield said at the emergency security council meeting today that other countries should Afghanistan becoming a base for international terrorism again. “We must all ensure Afghanistan cannot ever, ever again be a base for terrorism,” she said in New York.
  • The publishers of the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times asked Joe Biden to move journalists to the US military-protected side of the airport in Kabul, as they evacuate.“Brave Afghan colleagues have worked tirelessly to help The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal share news and information from the region with the global public. Now, those colleagues and their families are trapped in Kabul, their lives in peril,” the publishers said in a joint statement.

– Joan E Greve and Maanvi Singh

The South Carolina Republican senator Lindsey Graham called Joe Biden after his victory over Donald Trump to tell the president he only joined attacks on his son, Hunter Biden, as a “bare minimum” to satisfy Trump supporters.

The detail was included in a lengthy profile of Graham and his Washington manoeuvres published by the New York Times. It said the call, intended to “revive a friendship damaged by [Graham’s] call for a special prosecutor to investigate the overseas business dealings” of Hunter Biden, was “short, and not especially sweet”.

Graham was a longtime friend and ally of John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential nominee who, like Biden, was an influential voice on foreign affairs while in the Senate.

McCain opposed Trump’s takeover of the Republican party. So initially did Graham, who in 2015, while running against Trump for the presidential nomination, famously called him “a race-baiting, xenophobic bigot” who “doesn’t represent my party”.

Once Trump did represent the Republican party, Graham executed what the former Clinton aide turned historian Sidney Blumenthal has called a “reverse ferret”, to become one of Trump’s most fervent supporters and a frequent golf partner.

But Graham did so as a long-term friend of Biden, once saying: “If you can’t admire Joe Biden as a person, then you got a problem. You need to do some self-evaluation. ’Cause what’s not to like?”

To the Bidens, returning Graham’s gaze, it seems the answer is now “quite a lot”.

Full story:

‘The US should be held accountable’: Guantánamo survivor on the war on terror’s failure

hen a shackled Mansoor Adayfi was lumped on to a heap of shivering, naked bodies in the pitch black, a hood over his head and muffs around his ears, he assumed he was going to die. He had just been conducting research in Afghanistan, and was expecting to begin university at the end of the year. Instead, he was accused of being an al-Qaida leader, kidnapped by Afghan warlords and handed over to the CIA.

He was kept in a prison camp in Afghanistan, then shipped to Guantánamo Bay. He remained hopeful. Aged 18, coming from a tribal area of Yemen with no electricity or running water, Adayfi did not know much about US values, but he assumed some principles held true in most of the world: that every person should be innocent until proven guilty; that if you have nothing to hide you should tell the truth; and that all humans, regardless of who they are, have rights.

He also believed common sense would prevail. After all, how could an 18-year-old from Yemen be an Egyptian al-Qaida leader when he couldn’t even speak the language captives accused him of speaking?

Unfortunately, his assumptions were wrong. This was the beginning of 20 years of hell for Adayfi, who was held captive in Guantánamo until 2016. His new memoir, much of it written while chained and shackled to the ground with cameras and guards watching him (“I was like, I’m going to make it, my friend!” he laughs) is a harrowing account of the injustices detainees faced.

“At the beginning, we had no rights. We could not talk, we could not stand, we could not pray, we could not even look at the guards – you had to follow orders 24/7,” he says, describing the value system there as “what’s wrong is right, and what’s right is wrong”.

But his book and its message remains hopeful. Heartwarming, even. “They tried to break us, to prove that we were animals. Instead we were proving we were human,” he says. “Even through the hardship, the torture, we created a strong bond, a brotherhood with each other.”

Read more:

Swift Taliban takeover proves US and UK analysis badly wrong

Joe Biden could not have been clearer: a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was “not inevitable”, the US president said on 8 July. Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, was equally confident – “there is no military path to victory for the Taliban” – he told MPs earlier that day, five weeks ago.

The president said he trusted “the capacity of the Afghan military”, who were better trained, better equipped and “more competent in terms of conducting war”. The prime minister agreed: “I do not believe that the Taliban are guaranteed the kind of victory that we sometimes read about.”

The high-speed collapse of the Afghan government and armed forces, and the fall of Kabul, a city of more than 4 million people, with barely a shot fired, demonstrates how badly wrong these assessments were. Yet they were not just the over-optimistic statements of politicians seeking to justify an exit made for domestic political reasons.

They were echoed by military and intelligence planners, even as the Taliban were making rapid advances across the Afghan countryside, in preparation for the well-telegraphed US-led withdrawal.

“It is unlikely that the Taliban would ever get to full authority if it chose to fight to the end over the whole of Afghanistan,” Gen Sir Nick Carter, head of the British armed forces, said on the same day, highlighting a range of other possible scenarios, including the survival of the Kabul government – whose president fled over the weekend – or a negotiated deal between it and the Taliban.

It was an opinion to which the leading British general stuck, even as the provincial capitals began to fall. Just over a week ago he argued in the Times that the ousted government’s “military strategy is to achieve a stalemate” and that the key was to hold cities such as Herat and Kandahar, both of which fell within days. “There are increasing signs that moderate Afghans in support of the government and its security forces are beginning to show the sort of defiance that’s needed,” the chief of defence staff added.

US intelligence sources were not quite as sure, but even their judgments were still more optimistic than what transpired.

Read more:

‘There are no women in the streets’ – the day life changed in Kabul

Guardian reporter in Kabul and Emma Graham-Harrison:

The streets of Kabul were emptied of women on Monday, the first full day of Taliban rule across Afghanistan, as Taliban gunmen patrolled in cars seized by police, confiscated guns from security guards and urged shopkeepers and government employees back to work.

Chaos unfolded at the airport, where troops used guns and helicopters to clear the runways, and several people died in frantic last-minute attempts to escape by clinging to departing planes.

But in the rest of the city people who felt they had no hope of fleeing abroad were weighing up whether they should go into hiding, or assessing the shape of their new lives under the Taliban’s hardline rule.

The change was reflected on TV, where news and soap operas from India and Turkey gave way to religious programming without advertisements, even on the leading Tolo channel which won a reputation for hosting popular shows that would be anathema to the Taliban, such as the talent competition Afghan Star.

Most businesses were shuttered, even though the Taliban had urged people to return to work and normal life, with just a few bakeries, grocery shops and restaurants open so people could feed themselves.

Fighters consolidated their hold on the city, visiting compounds to collect weapons from private security guards, and celebrating their victory by parading outside the now-abandoned US embassy.

But insurgent leaders – keen to project an image of a government-in-waiting – visited the national power company and hospitals, where they said women healthcare workers should stay in post.

Read more:

State Dept spokesman Ned Price gave a briefing moments after Joe Biden addressed the nation from the White House. The news was ominous.

He said that US citizens who currently remain in Kabul should not travel to the airport. There have been scenes of pandemonium, injury and death at the airport in Kabul, which is now the only route out of Afghanistan as the Taliban controls all land border crossings.

The Taliban also now controls access to the approaches to the airport from the city, although the airport itself is under the control of the US military right now. Price said Americans in Kabul should “shelter” and wait for further instructions.

The situation is evolving quickly, and we will communicate information to US citizens as rapidly as possible,” he said, adding: “We are asking US citizens to shelter and not to travel to the airport until they hear otherwise from the Department of State.”

Updated

The publishers of the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times asked Joe Biden to move journalists to the US military-protected side of the airport in Kabul, as they evacuate.

“Brave Afghan colleagues have worked tirelessly to help The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal share news and information from the region with the global public. Now, those colleagues and their families are trapped in Kabul, their lives in peril,” the publishers said in a joint statement.

The airport today was overrun with desperate civilians fleeing Kabul after the Taliban’s seized the city. Seven died amid the chaos.

.

Today so far

  • Joe Biden defended his decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan, even after Taliban forces took Kabul and the world saw images of desperate Afghans attempting to flee the country. “I stand squarely behind my decision,” Biden says. “After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces.”
  • At least seven people were killed amid the chaos at Kabul International Airport today, according to the AP. Videos widely shared on social media showed desperate Afghans trying to cling to a US military plane as it departed Kabul and then falling to their deaths.
  • Administration officials have continued to defend Biden’s strategy in Afghanistan, even in the face of rebukes from Democrats and Republicans over how the troop withdrawal has been executed. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said this morning, “What the president kept saying over and over again is that it was not inevitable Kabul would fall. And it was not inevitable. There was the capacity to stand up and resist. That capacity didn’t happen.”
  • The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield said at the emergency security council meeting today that other countries should Afghanistan becoming a base for international terrorism again. “We must all ensure Afghanistan cannot ever, ever again be a base for terrorism,” she said in New York.

– Joan E Greve

Botched Afghanistan withdrawal gives Biden biggest crisis of his presidency

Joe Biden was facing the biggest crisis of his presidency on Monday after the stunning fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban caught his administration flat-footed and raised fears of a humanitarian catastrophe.

Recriminations were under way in Washington over the chaotic retreat from Kabul, which one Biden opponent described as “the embarrassment of a superpower laid low”.

Bowing to pressure, officials said the president would leave his country retreat, Camp David, to address the nation from the White House on Monday afternoon.

The Taliban swept into Kabul on Sunday after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, ending two decades of a failed experiment to import western-style liberal democracy. Diplomatic staff were flown to safety but thousands of Afghans who worked with US forces were stranded and at risk of deadly reprisals.

As harrowing scenes played out on television – including desperate Afghans clinging to a US transport plane before takeoff – the White House scrambled to explain how the government collapsed so quickly.

Last month Biden, pointing to the Afghan military’s superior numbers and technology, predicted: “The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”

Unrepentant, the president issued a statement on Saturday, insisting the sudden withdrawal had been the only possible choice.

But the response by Biden, who ran for election promising unrivalled foreign policy credentials after 36 years in the Senate and eight as Barack Obama’s vice-president, was jarring to many. A headline in the Washington Post read: “Defiant and defensive, a president known for empathy takes a cold-eyed approach to Afghanistan debacle.”

Read more:

Joe Biden acknowledged that his decision to continue with the Afghanistan withdrawal mission would be criticized by many, and he pledged he would not “shrink from my share of responsibility for where we are today”.

“I am president of the United States of America, and the buck stops with me,” Biden said.

“I’m deeply saddened by the facts we now face, but I do not regret my decision to end America’s warfighting in Afghanistan,” the president added. “I cannot and will not ask our troops to fight on endlessly in another country’s civil war.”

After concluding his prepared remarks, Biden left the East Room without taking any questions from reporters. He will soon return to Camp David.

Joe Biden warned that the US would carry out a “swift and forceful” response if the Taliban attacked US citizens or attempted to disrupt evacuation efforts in Kabul.

“We will defend our people with devastating force, if necessary,” Biden said.

The president said that, once all evacuation efforts have been successfully completed, the US will move forward with wrapping up its withdrawal mission and “end America’s longest war”.

“The events we see now are sadly proof that no amount of military force would ever deliver a stable, united, secure, Afghanistan,” Biden said.

“I am now the fourth American president to preside over war in Afghanistan. Two Democrats and two Republicans. I will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth president.”

Joe Biden argued that Afghan troops’ failure to defend their country demonstrates why it was the correct course of action to move forward with the US troop withdrawal.

“It is wrong to order American troops to step up when Afghanistan’s own armed forces would not,” Biden said.

Echoing his message from earlier this year when he announced the planned withdrawal, Biden added, “How many more generations of America’s daughters and sons would you have me send to fight Afghanistan’s civil war when Afghan troops will not?”

'I stand squarely behind my decision,' Biden says after Taliban takes Kabul

Joe Biden continued to defend his decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan, even after Taliban forces took Kabul and the world saw images of desperate Afghans attempting to flee the country.

“I stand squarely behind my decision,” Biden says. “After 20 years, I’ve learned the hard way that there was never a good time to withdraw US forces.”

Biden said he and his national security team were “clear-eyed about the risks” of leaving Afghanistan, and he argued that the events of the past week demonstrate how America’s continued military involvement could not have ultimately propped up the Afghan government.

The US president criticized Afghan government leaders for fleeing the country and Afghan troops for refusing to properly defend their country.

“The truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated,” Biden said.

Updated

Biden acknowledges 'rapid collapse' in Afghanistan after Taliban takes Kabul

Joe Biden is now delivering an update on the situation in Afghanistan, a day after Taliban forces took control of Kabul.

The president said he and his national security team have been “closely monitoring” the situation on the ground in Afghanistan, even though Biden has not delivered on-camera remarks about the issue in several days.

Biden acknowledged that the world is now seeing a “rapid collapse” of the Afghan government, but he insisted the US mission in Afghanistan was “never supposed to be nation-building”.

Reporters are now set up in the East Room of the White House, where Joe Biden will soon deliver remarks on the situation in Afghanistan, a day after Taliban forces entered Kabul.

Joe Biden was scheduled to start his remarks on Afghanistan about ten minutes ago, but he appears to be running late -- as he so often is.

The Guardian’s Daniel Strauss reports:

The office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a congresswoman from California, distributed a set of talking points to members of Congress on the unfolding crisis in Afghanistan. The talking points, obtained by the Guardian, are below. They were sent out around noon on Monday.

White House Talking Points on Afghanistan


TOPLINE:

  • The President was not willing to enter a third decade of conflict and surge in thousands of more troops to fight in a civil war that Afghanistan wouldn’t fight for themselves.
  • It’s clear from the past few weeks that would have been necessary – more troops for an indefinite amount of time.
  • The administration knew that there was a distinct possibility that Kabul would fall to the Taliban.
  • It was not an inevitability. It was a possibility.
  • POTUS said in July that the Afghan military had the capability to fight the Taliban. But they had to demonstrate the will. Sadly, that will did not materialize.
  • The administration planned for every possibility. We had contingency plans in place for any eventuality -- including a quick fall of Kabul. That’s why we had troops pre-positioned in the region to deploy as they have done.
  • We are focused on safely evacuating US Embassy personnel, American citizens, SIV applicants and their families, and targeted Afghans. We have deployed 6000 US military to Afghanistan to secure the airport and ensure that those evacuation flights, as well as commercial and charter flights can safely depart.
  • But indefinite war was and is unacceptable to the President.


SIV Applicants

  • The administration has deployed 6000 US military to Afghanistan to secure the airport and ensure that evacuation flights, commercial and charter flights can safely depart.
  • Chairman Miley [sic] and Secretary Austin are working to restore order at the airport so those flights can take place.
  • Many have asked why we did not evacuate more Afghanistan civilians, sooner. Part of the answer is that many did not want to leave earlier: many Afghans to whom we gave visas to come to the US chose to stay in their country, still hopeful.
  • Nearly 2000 SIV applicants and their families are in the United States, and the administration is prepared to evacuate thousands of American citizens, SIV applicants, and targeted Afghans.


Was this an intelligence failure

  • The Administration knew that there was a distinct possibility that Kabul would fall to the Taliban.
  • It was not an inevitability. It was a possibility.
  • And the administration planned for every possibility. There were contingency plans in place for any eventuality -- including a quick fall of Kabul. That’s why there were troops pre-positioned in the region to deploy as they have done.
  • The President said in July that the Afghan military had the capability to fight the Taliban. But they had to demonstrate the will. Tragically, that will did not materialize.
  • Here’s what the President was not willing to do: enter a third decade of conflict and surge in thousands of more troops to fight in a civil war that Afghanistan wouldn’t fight for themselves.
  • When Trump made the Doha agreement, there were 13,000 US troops in Afghanistan. When POTUS took office – Trump had drawn down troops to 2500. It’s clear from the past few weeks that would have been necessary.
  • The President was unwilling to send US men and women back to Afghanistan for an indefinite war.


Counter-Terrorism

  • The United States face terrorist threats in countries around the world including Syria, Libya and Yemen. We don’t have boots on the ground in those countries. We have over the horizon counter terrorism capabilities. And, that’s what we’ll do in Afghanistan – prevent, detect and disrupt terrorism threats with over the horizon capabilities.
  • And, we’ll hold the Taliban accountable to not allowing Al Qaeda a safe haven. if they do, there will be consequences that we’ll pursue.

Two points stand out. One is the emphasis put on the collapse of the Afghan government being a possibility, rather than an inevitability. The second is that the Biden administration is now focused on evacuating personnel, including American embassy staff and the special immigrant visa holders who helped American troops while in Afghanistan.

The talking points come as Democratic lawmakers emphasize throughout the day that American military forces must secure and retain control of the airport out of Kabul to evacuate people.

Updated

Maryland governor Larry Hogan said his state is already slated to welcome at least 180 Afghan citizens through the special immigrant visa program, and the Republican leader said he is “ready and willing” to receive more immigrants.

“The chaotic and heartbreaking scenes out of Afghanistan over the last several days—with innocent civilians running for their lives in fear of the Taliban—is the result of a rushed and irresponsible withdrawal,” Hogan said in a video message.

“Many of these Afghan citizens—our allies—bravely risked their lives to provide invaluable support for many years to our efforts as interpreters and support staff, and we have a moral obligation to help them.”

Hogan encouraged anyone who is in need of assistance, or knows someone who is, to immediately contact the state’s Office of Refugees and Asylees.

“I ask all Marylanders to continue to pray for the safety of every American and all of our allies who remain in harm’s way,” Hogan said.

Updated

German Chancellor Angela Merkel acknowledged that she and other global leaders had “misjudged” the Afghan government’s ability to withstand attacks from the Taliban.

“This is an extremely bitter development. Bitter, dramatic and terrifying,” the German chancellor said as the Taliban took control of Kabul, per DW News.

“It is a terrible development for the millions of Afghans who want a more liberal society.”

Merkel also noted that her misjudgment had been “widespread,” alluding to the incorrect calculations by other leaders, such as Joe Biden, about how long the Afghan government would be able to stand once US troops withdrew from the country.

Now that the Taliban is taking control of Kabul, one of the group’s cofounders, Abdul Ghani Baradar, is poised to become the next leader of Afghanistan.

As the Guardian’s Julian Borger reports, Baradar is the political chief of the Taliban, and he was said to be making his way to Kabul from Doha last night.

Baradar was freed from a Pakistani jail on the request of the US less than three years ago, and the Taliban leader met with then-secretary of state Mike Pompeo last September to “welcome the launch of Afghan peace negotiations”.

A photo of Pompeo standing next to Baradar has been widely shared on social media since Taliban forces entered Kabul yesterday:

After the Taliban took Kabul, Pompeo shared a statement on Twitter criticizing the Biden administration for allegedly failing to maintain the “deterrence” achieved during Donald Trump’s presidency.

Of course, there were public reports as early as March 2020 that the Taliban had no intension of adhering to the terms of its agreement with the Trump administration.

And Trump himself acknowledged that the Taliban might seize power once all US troops were withdrawn from Afghanistan.

“Eventually countries have to take care of themselves,” Trump said in March 2020. “You can only hold someone’s hand for so long.”

Asked at the time whether he thought the Taliban might take control of Afghanistan, Trump said it’s “not supposed to happen that way, but it possibly will”.

Secretary of state Antony Blinken has spoken to Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, according to a new readout from the state department.

Spokesperson Ned Price said, “Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken spoke today with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov about developments in Afghanistan, including the security situation and our efforts to bring U.S. citizens and vulnerable Afghans to safety.”

Ambassador to UN tells security council meeting Afghanistan must never be a terrorism base again

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, told the emergency security council meeting this morning, essentially, that countries other than Afghanistan need to prevent Afghanistan becoming a base for international terrorism again.

“We must all ensure Afghanistan cannot ever, ever again be a base for terrorism,” she said in New York.

She reiterated Joe Biden’s demand that the US must be able to take US citizens and Afghan support staff and their families out of the country safety.

“President Biden has made clear that any action that put US personnel or our mission at risk will be met with a swift and strong military response,” she said.

She said that the US promised to be “generous” in resettling Afghans in the US and that she was pleased to see other countries indicating likewise but that all needed to do more on that front.

Thomas-Greenfield called for journalists in Afghanistan to be protected - it was not clear by whom. In previous times of control the Taliban has not allowed an independent media to function at all. Working women, in particular, including female journalists, in Afghanistan are in peril.

The ambassador further begged the Taliban to allow humanitarian organizations to continue to work in Afghanistan.

“In addition to the violence, the Afghan people are suffering acutely from the effects of Covid-19 and drought,” she said.

She added: “Humanitarian personnel and agencies must have safe, unhindered access to provide life-saving assistance to the increasing numbers of Afghans in need.”

There are hundreds of tons of humanitarian food aid held up at land borders right now, which are all controlled by the Taliban.

“Every Afghan should be able to live in safety, security and dignity,” she said.

Updated

Third Bob Woodward Trump book will also focus on Biden

The great Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward’s third book about Donald Trump will be called Peril – completing a trilogy begun with Fear and Rage – and will also include sections on the start of Joe Biden’s presidency.

Woodward rose to fame in the 1970s, working with Carl Bernstein on the Watergate story which brought down Richard Nixon. Peril is another co-production, with Robert Costa, also of the Post.

Announcing the title of the new Trump book, which will be published on 21 September, Simon & Schuster said it would “reveal for the first time” that Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and other issues made for “far more than just a domestic political crisis”.

The authors of a rash of other Trump books which came out this summer and dominated bestseller lists may disagree – not least the Washington Post reporters Carol Leonnig and Philip Rucker, who also co-wrote their hit, I Alone Can Fix It – but Woodward is undoubtedly a heavyweight in the field.

His new book with Costa, Simon & Schuster said, is based on more than 200 interviews, producing 6,000 pages of transcripts, as well as diaries, secret orders, phone call transcripts, emails and other government records, all producing “a spellbinding and definitive portrait of a nation on the brink”.

“This classic study of Washington takes readers deep inside the Trump White House, the Biden White House, the 2020 presidential campaign and the Pentagon and Congress with vivid, eyewitness accounts of what really happened.”

Regarding Woodward and Costa’s reporting on Biden, the publisher said the book would provide “the first inside look at Biden’s presidency as he faces the challenges of a lifetime: the continuing deadly pandemic and millions of Americans facing soul-crushing economic pain, all the while navigating a bitter and disabling partisan divide, a world rife with threats, and the hovering, dark shadow of the former president”.

Here’s David Smith’s interview with Woodward, from the time of Rage:

Today so far

Here’s where the day stands so far:

  • Joe Biden will deliver remarks on the situation in Afghanistan at the White House this afternoon. The president was originally expected to stay at Camp David today, but the White House announced Biden would instead return to Washington and address the American people, following bipartisan criticism over his lack of any formal comments since Taliban forces entered Kabul yesterday.
  • At least seven people were killed amid the chaos at Kabul International Airport today, according to the AP. Videos widely shared on social media showed desperate Afghans trying to cling to a US military plane as it departed Kabul and then falling to their deaths.
  • Administration officials have continued to defend Biden’s strategy in Afghanistan, even in the face of rebukes from Democrats and Republicans over how the troop withdrawal has been executed. National security adviser Jake Sullivan said this morning, “What the president kept saying over and over again is that it was not inevitable Kabul would fall. And it was not inevitable. There was the capacity to stand up and resist. That capacity didn’t happen.”

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

Joe Biden has departed Camp David and is expected to arrive in Washington shortly, according to the latest White House pool report.

The president is scheduled to deliver his remarks on Afghanistan at 3:45 pm ET, as evacuation efforts continue in Kabul.

Biden had been expected to stay at Camp David but changed his plans after members of both parties called on him to deliver a formal response to Taliban forces entering Kabul yesterday.

Updated

Jeanne Shaheen, a Democratic member of the Senate foreign relations committee, is calling for parts of the special immigrant visa application process to be waived for Afghans who assisted the US military and are now trying to flee the country.

“Over the weekend, the world watched as Kabul fell, with images of Afghan civilians at the airport pleading to be evacuated seared into our minds. Dire conditions on the ground persist today and without swift, decisive action from the administration, Afghan civilians will suffer or die at the hands of the Taliban,” Shaheen said in a new statement.

She added, “To start, our Afghan partners – SIV applicants – who stood shoulder-to-shoulder with American troops on the battlefield must be immediately evacuated to safety – that means waiving parts of the SIV process that can no longer be feasibly conducted in Afghanistan due to the Taliban takeover.”

The New Hampshire senator also called for “an immediate expansion of the refugee program for Afghan women seeking asylum,” out of concern over how the Taliban might roll back some of the rights that Afghan women have gained in the past 20 years.

“As we continue the evacuation, we cannot forget our Afghan partners and other vulnerable civilians whose lives are in danger, due in part to the precipitous withdrawal of U.S. and NATO forces,” Shaheen said. “We know what will happen if we abandon them – we cannot leave them to die.”

The Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, who was shot in the head by the Taliban for publicly advocating education for women and girls, has said she is in “complete shock” that the group has taken control of Afghanistan.

The 24-year-old said she was “deeply worried about women, minorities and human rights advocates” and called for more intervention from world leaders.

“We watch in complete shock as Taliban takes control of Afghanistan. Global, regional and local powers must call for an immediate ceasefire, provide urgent humanitarian aid and protect refugees and civilians,” she said in a post on Twitter.

Yousafzai was forced to flee Pakistan’s Swat Valley when it was taken over by the Taliban in 2008 and girls were banned from going to school. She spoke out publicly about the importance of female education and was subsequently shot by a masked Taliban gunman on her way home from school in October 2012 when she was 15.

National security adviser Jake Sullivan defended Joe Biden’s strategy in Afghanistan, even as the president weathers bipartisan criticism for how the troop withdrawal has been carried out.

Interviewing Sullivan this morning, “Today” show anchor Savannah Guthrie pressed the national security adviser on why Americans have seen frantic helicopter evacuation flights from the US embassy in Kabul, when Biden specifically promised that would not happen.

“Well first, Savannah, to be fair, the helicopter has been the mode of transport from our embassy to the airport for the last 20 years,” Sullivan said.

When Guthrie noted that the last-minute scramble to get out of Afghanistan is alarming many Americans, Sullivan said, “It is certainly the case that the speed with which cities fell was much greater than anyone anticipated, including the Afghans, including many of the analysts who looked hard at this problem.”

And yet Sullivan continued to defend Biden’s strategy, telling Guthrie, “What the president kept saying over and over again is that it was not inevitable Kabul would fall. And it was not inevitable. There was the capacity to stand up and resist. That capacity didn’t happen.”

At least seven killed amid chaos at Kabul airport – report

At least seven people have reportedly been killed amid the chaos at Kabul international airport, as desperate Afghans tried to cling onto US military planes leaving the country after Taliban forces entered the capital city.

The AP reports:

Thousands of Afghans rushed onto the tarmac of Kabul’s international airport Monday, some so desperate to escape the Taliban capture of their country that they held onto an American military jet as it took off and plunged to death in chaos that killed at least seven people, U.S. officials said.

The crowds of people rushing the airport came as the Taliban enforced their rule over the wider capital after a lightning advance across the country that took just over a week to dethrone the country’s Western-backed government. While there were no major reports of abuses, many stayed home and remained fearful as the insurgents’ advance saw prisons emptied and armories looted. ...

Residents raced to Kabul’s international airport, where the ‘civilian side’ was closed until further notice, according to Afghanistan’s Civil Aviation Authority. The U.S. military and other Western forces continued to organize evacuations.

Videos have circulated on social media showing several Afghans falling to their deaths after attempting to gain access to the US military jets taking off at the Kabul airport.

Updated

French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are also expected to deliver remarks today on the situation in Afghanistan, as evacuation efforts continue in Kabul.

Biden to deliver remarks on Afghanistan this afternoon

Joe Biden will deliver remarks this afternoon on the situation in Afghanistan, the White House has just announced in an update to the president’s schedule for the day.

According to the updated schedule, Biden will return to the White House from Camp David at 1 pm ET and then deliver remarks at 3:45 pm.

The announcement comes after Biden received criticism from members of both parties for not planning any kind of formal address on the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.

Biden will be speaking one day after Taliban forces entered Kabul and as frantic evacuation efforts continue at the city’s airport, with desperate Afghans trying to board planes leaving the country.

Updated

US tells Taliban not to interfere with evacuation efforts - report

The head of Central Command, Gen. Frank McKenzie, has reportedly met with Taliban leaders and told them not to interfere with ongoing evacuation efforts at Kabul International Airport.

The AP reports:

A U.S. defense official says the head of Central Command has met face-to-face with senior Taliban leaders to urge their fighters not to interfere with the U.S. military’s evacuation operations at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan.

The official said that in the meeting on Sunday in Doha, Qatar, Gen. Frank McKenzie won Taliban agreement to establish a ‘deconfliction mechanism’ — an arrangement by which evacuation operations at the airport can continue without interference by the new rulers of the country.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive talks not yet announced publicly. The official said McKenzie urged the Taliban not to interfere with the evacuation and said the U.S. military would respond forcefully to defend the airport if necessary.

Deputy national security adviser Jonathan Finer delivered a similar message this morning, telling CNN, “The United States has communicated to the Taliban in no uncertain terms that they are not to interfere with the safe passage of Afghans to the airport, who are looking to depart the country.”

Customers agents have seized more than 3,000 counterfeit Covid-19 vaccination cards, meant to mimic well known index cards distributed by vaccination centers and bearing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) insignia.

“These vaccinations are free and available everywhere,” said Michael Neipert, area port director in Memphis, in a statement. “If you do not wish to receive a vaccine, that is your decision. But don’t order a counterfeit, waste my officer’s time, break the law, and misrepresent yourself.”

Neipart said he is “committed” to seizing such cards. “But just know that when you order a fake vaxx card, you are using my officers’ time as they also seize fentanyl and methamphetamines.”

To date, officers in the Port of Memphis have seized 121 shipments of more than 3,000 fake vaccination cards, all originating in China and of poor quality.

People who buy, sell or use fake vaccination cards could be charged with a federal crime for unauthorized use of an official US government agency seal, because the counterfeits bear the CDC’s insignia.

Updated

Robert Gibbs, who once served as Barack Obama’s press secretary, argued that it was “imperative” for Joe Biden to speak to the American people about the situation in Afghanistan.

“He must lay out again the reasoning behind his decisions, how he sees the future of this region & what must be done to prevent another safe haven for al-Qaeda to plan attacks,” Gibbs said on Twitter.

As of now, there are no updates to Biden’s official schedule. The president is expected to remain in Camp David today and is not scheduled to make any public appearances.

Allison Jaslow, an Iraq war veteran who previously served as a communications aide in the Obama administration, said Joe Biden should address the American people today about the situation in Afghanistan.

“The country can’t wait another day not directly hearing from its Commander in Chief on #Afghanistan,” Jaslow said on Twitter.

“The tragic fact that this doesn’t touch enough Americans shouldn’t be an excuse to hold off. There are lives on the line.”

As of now, Biden has no public events scheduled for the day. The only event on his official schedule is receiving the President’s Daily Brief at Camp David this morning.

Updated

A US official told the Wall Street Journal that US troops shot and killed two armed men at Kabul International Airport as terrified Afghans attempt to board flights leaving the country.

The Journal reports:

The armed men, who numbered at least two, approached U.S. troops deployed to the airport to provide security and assist Americans and other individuals in a safe departure from Afghanistan, the official said. Few details were available about how things transpired between the U.S. troops and the armed men, who weren’t identified.

Witnesses reported seeing three prone, bloodied bodies lying on the ground just outside the terminal building. The reason for the discrepancy wasn’t known.

One witness had told Reuters that they saw five bodies being transported to a vehicle at the airport, but it was unclear how those people had died.

Footage appears to show Afghans falling from plane after takeoff

The Guardian’s Ben Doherty and Luke Harding report:

Desperate Afghans clung to the side of a moving US military plane leaving Kabul airport on Monday, with at least three people apparently falling to their deaths from the undercarriage immediately after takeoff.

Video footage shows hundreds of people running alongside the plane as it trundles along the runway of Kabul international airport. A number hang on to the side of the C-17A aircraft, just below the wing. Others run alongside waving and shouting.

As it soars above the Afghan capital, several people appear to plunge from the plane, one by one. Horrified onlookers point to the sky. A second video shows the bodies of three people – two men and a woman – lying on the ground in the airport complex.

The chaotic and tragic scenes at the airport after the fall of Kabul to the Taliban are likely to become a defining symbol of the west’s failure in Afghanistan.

They follow the evacuation by helicopter on Sunday of the US embassy, and other diplomatic missions, in images reminiscent of the 1975 fall of Saigon.

Five killed at Kabul airport – reports

At least five people were killed at Kabul airport this morning as desperate Afghans tried to forcibly enter US planes leaving the country, according to reports.

Reuters reports:

One witness said he had seen the bodies of five people being taken to a vehicle. Another witness said it was not clear whether the victims were killed by gunshots or in a stampede.

U.S. troops, who are in charge of the airport, earlier fired in the air to scatter the crowd, a U.S. official said.

US working to make Kabul airport 'safe and secure', senior official says

Greetings from Washington, live blog readers.

People around the world have now seen the alarming images coming out of Kabul international airport, as terrified Afghans seek to flee the country after Taliban forces entered the capital city.

Speaking to CNN this morning, Joe Biden’s deputy national security adviser, Jonathan Finer, acknowledged that the pictures are “very serious”, and he said the US military is working to make the airport “safe and secure”.

Asked about the safety of people trying to reach the airport, Finer said, “The United States has communicated to the Taliban in no uncertain terms that they are not to interfere with the safe passage of Afghans to the airport, who are looking to depart the country.”

Finer was also pressed on why Biden has not delivered any kind of on-camera statement since Taliban forces entered Kabul yesterday. According to his official schedule, Biden will make no public appearances today.

Finer insisted Biden has been “deeply engaged in all of the policy conversations” regarding Afghanistan and will “speak to it again soon”. He offered no timeline for when that might happen.

The blog will have more coming up, so stay tuned.

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