During an event in which Joe Biden presided over the bodies of fallen US Marines during the dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base, the President appeared to check his watch, drawing national outrage as many viewed the move as inconsiderate and selfish given the circumstance and setting.

In the middle of a dignified transfer ceremony for the fallen US Marines that were recently killed in Afghanistan, Joe Biden appeared to check the time on his wrist watch, drawing outrage from many who viewed the move as incentive, inconsiderate, and selfish.

BIDEN APPEARS TO CHECK HIS WATCH DURING THE DIGNIFIED TRANSFER CEREMONY AT DOVER AIR FORCE BASE. PIC.TWITTER.COM/OMSBEFNMFS

— BENNY (@BENNYJOHNSON) AUGUST 29, 2021

THIS MAKES MY BLOOD BOIL, WHAT A SELFISH BASTARD. PIC.TWITTER.COM/0EQ0X9EWRW

— ALEX JONES WAS RIGHT (@ALEXJONESWS) AUGUST 29, 2021

“Biden checking his watch at the ceremony of our fallen heroes is the most disrespectful thing I have ever seen. Are they an inconvenience to you POTUS? I want an explanation,” tweeted one Twitter user. “Joe Biden checking his watch after removing his hand over his heart so disgusting…our government hates us,” tweeted another. “Utter disrespect. He looks at his watch during the ceremony of 13 fallen American heroes killed in Afghanistan. Their ages were less than half of Biden’s time in politics! Biden voters will call this “edited video” because they are brainless. #BidenMustGo,” tweeted third Twitter user.

This would not be the first time Americans slammed Biden over his apparent lack of sympathy with regards to his Afghanistan Disaster. Just one day before the 13 Marines were killed, Biden smirked when reporters asked him about the situation in Afghanistan. The smirk outraged the heartbroken mother of Rylee McCollum, a fallen US Marine who tragically died as a result of the bombing in Afghanistan, who ultimately condemned Biden and Democrat voters over the death of her son on a radio show hosted by Andrew Wilkow, as National File previously reported.

“MY SON IS GONE, AND I JUST WANT ALL YOU DEMOCRATS WHO CHEATED IN THE ELECTION, OR WHO VOTED FOR [BIDEN] LEGITIMATELY, YOU JUST KILLED MY SON…WITH A DEMENTIA-RIDDEN PIECE OF CRAP WHO DOESN’T EVEN KNOW HE’S IN THE WHITE HOUSE, HE STILL THINKS HE’S A SENATOR,” SAID MCCOLLUM, WHO LATER NOTED THAT “I WANTED MY SON TO REPRESENT OUR COUNTRY, TO FIGHT FOR MY COUNTRY, BUT I NEVER THOUGHT THAT A FECKLESS PIECE OF CRAP WOULD SEND HIM TO HIS DEATH AND SMIRK ON TELEVISION WHILE HE’S TALKING ABOUT PEOPLE DYING, WITH HIS NASTY SMIRK. THE DEMENTIA-RIDDEN PIECE OF CRAP NEEDS TO BE REMOVED FROM OFFICE. IT NEVER WOULD HAVE HAPPENED UNDER TRUMP.”

(VIDEO: Joe Biden Slumps Over, Appears To Fall Asleep During Meeting With Israeli PM)

In related news, the US military has relieved Marine Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller from duty after he released a heartfelt video critiquing the tragic Afghanistan withdrawal following the Kabul bombings that killed up to 13 American service members. “My chain of command is doing exactly what I would do…if I were in their shoes. I appreciate the opportunities AITB command provided. To all the news agencies asking for interviews…I will not be making any statements other than what’s on my social platforms until I exit the Marine Corps,” explained Scheller. However, Scheller appears to be optimistic about his future aspirations, despite being relieved of duty.

NO RUSH: Biden Checks His Watch While Receiving Bodies Of Slain Marines At Dover Air Force Base – Conservative War – Breaking Political News

The suicide attack that killed 170 people including 13 U.S. troops provides the crowning disgrace for President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and the military leadership going all the way up to Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. This disaster in Afghanistan is worse than Benghazi, worse than Jimmy Carter’s hostage crisis, because those were inept responses to an external situation. By contrast, this is a disaster that Biden and his inept team themselves created.

I remember well how Carter’s hostage crisis ended. It ended on the very day that Ronald Reagan was inaugurated in January 1981. Reagan had pledged that he would take very strong action against Iran, without specifying what that action might be. Evidently the terrorists, who had the backing of the Khomeini regime, decided it was not a good idea to test Reagan’s resolve. They let the hostages go.

The current catastrophe in Afghanistan seems to have proceeded in reverse. While Donald Trump was in office, the Taliban continued its war, but neither they nor other Islamic radical groups, from al Qaeda to ISIS, had the capacity to inflict massive damage on U.S. forces. The moment Biden got into office, however, the Taliban and the other terrorists all realized it was time to get going. They exploited their opportunity to seize Kabul. They were emboldened to launch a suicide attack that was the most successful strike against America since 9/11.

The blame, of course, starts with Biden. He’s primarily responsible for this self-inflicted wound. Yet Biden has done his best to shift the blame to his predecessor, Trump. Biden’s position seems to be that he was merely carrying out a withdrawal that Trump agreed to. Yet Biden has reversed Trump’s policies in innumerable areas, so he was hardly obliged to follow in Trump’s tracks here. Moreover, there’s a huge difference between a decision to withdraw and the manner of the withdrawal. The responsibility for the latter lies wholly with Biden.

In a recent interview, retired Gen. David Petraeus, the four-star general who was former head of U.S. forces both in Iraq and Afghanistan, disputed Biden’s claim that Trump is responsible for the current mess. Petraeus pointed out that there were merely 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan, and they were not doing front-line fighting. Rather, their responsibility was to provide intelligence and logistical support for the Afghan army, and moreover, to help carry out air strikes to provide the Afghan army with cover during clashes with the Taliban.

This, Petraeus says, the Afghan army counted on. They were never trained to fight exclusively on their own. They were trained to fight with U.S. coordination and support, and when this coordination was precipitously halted, and the U.S. just got up and ran, well, the Afghan army decided to get up and run also. This, Petraeus concludes, is why Afghanistan fell so quickly into Taliban hands.

Biden’s blunders have continued beyond the fall of Kabul. That loss was disastrous enough, because it left a huge cachet of guns and matériel for the Taliban to use itself or put on the international market for other terrorist groups and also for China and Russia. Moreover, thousands of Americans were left stranded, not to mention tens of thousands of Afghan allies who were assured the United States would stick with them but now found themselves vulnerable to imprisonment, torture, and death.

But even after leaving Americans behind—creating a vast potential hostage situation of his own—Biden compounded the problem by giving the Taliban a list of names of U.S. citizens, green card holders, and Afghan allies. The ostensible purpose was for the Taliban to grant these people access to the outer perimeter of the city’s airport, so that they could get out. It’s not clear whether Biden himself made this decision, but his administration clearly approved it.

The danger here should be obvious. The Taliban have been fighting against the United States and its Afghan allies for 20 years. Wouldn’t it make sense that they would grab the list, thank Allah for this incredible gift, and then put all these people on a kill list? Is there any doubt that Islamic radicals hardened by privation and guerilla war would be willing to execute people whom they view as enemies of Allah and the very people they have been trying to kill for two decades?

Yet the Biden administration seems willing to trust the Taliban to protect and help evacuate the people on this list. Press secretary Jen Psaki said the Taliban would want to do this to secure its reputation in the international community, as if the Taliban cares what people at the United Nations or the European Union think about its actions. Equally absurd, the commander of the U.S. Central Command said that the United States and the Taliban “share a common purpose,” which raises the question of why the two groups were trying to kill each other since 2001.

The U.S. media, for its part, has provided relatively little honest critical scrutiny of Biden’s actions, evidently owing to its ideological sympathies with the current administration. There have been several articles instructing Americans not to confuse the Taliban with the ISIS-K group that claimed responsibility for the suicide attack. The underlying premise is that the Taliban and ISIS-K have several disagreements, there have been reported clashes between the two, and therefore it’s not unreasonable to expect the Taliban to assist the United States after an attack mounted by the terrorists of ISIS-K.

These articles have all the persuasiveness of someone who argues that there are two types of snakes in the garden, rattlesnakes and copperhead snakes, and humans should not hastily confuse the two. This may very well be true, and it might also be that rattlesnakes and copperheads don’t get along, since they compete for the same types of food. But it does not follow that humans can count on the rattlesnakes to be our allies when faced with a threat from a copperhead. The wiser course of action is for humans to recognize they are in a snake pit and take action to destroy as many snakes as we can.

Some Republicans are already calling for resignations, but not enough of them, and not loudly enough. It’s not enough to stop at Biden. The Pentagon, State Department, and intelligence agencies all share the blame for this unmitigated disaster. They all put Americans last, they all betrayed their countrymen and women, and they all should face the consequences.

A Self-Inflicted Catastrophe (theepochtimes.com)

Thursday’s suicide bombings in Kabul, which claimed the lives of at least 13 American servicemen, marked the deadliest day for U.S. troops in Afghanistan since 2011. President Joe Biden’s low energy press conference in response to the attacks was widely panned for failing to inspire confidence as the situation spirals out of control.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. During the 2020 Democratic primary, Biden touted himself as the only candidate with the experience necessary to successfully handle an international crisis. “To be commander in chief, there’s no time for on-the-job training,” he said during a primary debate in November 2019. “I’ve spent more time in the Situation Room, more time abroad, more time than anybody up here. I know every major world leader. They know me, and they know when I speak, if I’m the president of the United States, who we’re for, who we’re against, and what we’ll do, and we’ll keep our word.”

Former president Barack Obama tried to warn us. He urged Biden not to run for president in 2016, reportedly out of concern that his former running mate “would embarrass himself on the campaign trail and that the people around him would not be able to prevent a belly-flop.” Obama did not mince words during the primary campaign, telling one fellow Democrat: “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to fuck things up.” We should have listened.

When Biden introduced his top foreign policy advisers in February 2021, he touted their “unmatched experience and accomplishments,” as well as their commitment to diversity and inclusion. Biden went on to imply, without evidence, that he had compiled a team “that will keep our country and our people safe and secure.”

“It’s a team that reflects the fact that America is back, ready to lead the world, not retreat from it, once again sit at the head of the table, ready to confront our adversaries and not reject our allies, ready to stand up for our values,” Biden said.

The events of the past several weeks suggest otherwise.

FLASHBACK: Biden Said His Foreign Policy Team of Geniuses Would ‘Stand Up for Our Values’ and ‘Keep Our People Safe’ (freebeacon.com)

Many of the reports coming out of Afghanistan this past week mention something that is simultaneously deplored and swept under the rug.

I mean the fact that when the United States raised the white flag to the Taliban it left behind an enormous amount of American-made military hardware.

Just a couple of weeks ago, all of that war-making matériel had been the property of two entities.

Some belonged to U.S. forces themselves.

A lot of it belonged to the U.S.-supplied Afghan government that was—the mighty 300,000 man-strong force that, on July 8, President Joe Biden said would prevail over the Taliban if push came to shove.

Push did come to shove, as we all know, and now those vast stores of military hardware are under sole control of the Taliban.

There have been several differing inventories of these stockpiles. One just published in the London Times provides perhaps the most authoritative accounting published to date.

Scattered in seven Afghan army garrisons across the country, from Kabul and Kandahar to Herat, Mazar-Sharif, Kunduz, these arms depots include an impressive amount of U.S. military hardware: 22,174 armored Humvees, for example, 42 pickup trucks and SUVS, 64,363 machine guns, 162,043 radios. 16,035 night vision goggles, 358,530 assault rifles (the real ones, not the “assault rifles” that Joe Biden warns about at home), 126,295 pistols, and 176 artillery pieces.

And that’s just for starters. The U.S. also generously left behind more than 100 helicopters, including 33 Blackhawks, 4 C-130 transport planes, and some 60 other fixed-wing aircraft.

There was also oodles of ammunition to go along with all the loot.

The question that has not really been pressed about this rather awe-inspiring armory is, why?

Why did we leave it behind to be used by the Taliban?

I don’t believe that question has been addressed with anything like the determination it deserves.

Some people have suggested that it was just a matter of simple incompetence on the part of the Biden administration, particularly the State Department, which is overseeing the evacuation, and the president himself, who apparently chose to ignore advice from some of his advisors about the time table for the evacuation.

But I suspect there is something more insidious than simple incompetence.

What we’re dealing with here is politicized, and therefore, malevolent incompetence.

This is beginning to be recognized in some surprising venues.

The New York Times, for example, just published an op-ed by Elliot Ackerman, a former Marine who is part of a group of “veterans, journalists, and activists” who have been privately helping to organize evacuation efforts in Afghanistan for months.

“Never,” Ackerman wrote, “have I witnessed a greater, swifter collapse of competence than what I have seen with the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan.”

Nor is he shy about identifying the source of the pandemonium: “Events at the airport—desperation, death—indicate the extreme chaos that ensues when the commander in chief doesn’t actually understand the value of service.”

Like many observers, Ackerman focuses mainly on the chaos in Kabul.

But I continue to wonder about all that fire power and supporting matériel that we have left behind.

Why did we do so? Why did we not destroy it?

As far as I know, no one has answered those questions.

Of course, military hardware is not all that we have left behind.

The evacuation “mission” is apparently also leaving behind hundreds of Americans.

According to Rep. Dan Crenshaw, among others, “Biden is not letting U.S. citizens through the airport gates. It has been impossible to get anyone through for the last 24 hours.”

Crenshaw concludes: “This administration has been lying about their intent to save Americans. Unforgivable.”

Biden has been quick to try to shift the blame for this whole debacle onto Donald Trump. “He made a deal with the Taliban!” is his constant refrain.

But Biden neglects to point out that Trump had a plan to leave by the beginning of May, before the “summer fighting season,” and well before the Taliban had overrun the country.

Biden came up with his own timetable for the optics: he wanted to be able to claim the credit for ending “America’s longest war” and to do so in a way that would deny Trump any credit for it.

It has backfired spectacularly, and the blowback, I predict, is far from over.

For those who wonder about the kinder, gentler Taliban that Biden is partnering with, we’re already getting some vivid indications.

Sure, they post pictures of themselves eating ice-cream to taunt Biden.

I have even seen reports that they have bought or are planning to buy a painting by Hunter Biden to install in the Presidential palace.

Maybe that’s satire, who knows?

The Biden administration and its media poodles keep suggesting that the Taliban may be turning over a new leaf. I think you would have to be mad to think so.

One representative incident: The London Times is reporting that “Taliban fighters have shot dead an Afghan folk singer after it outlawed music and women’s voices on television and radio in the bellwether province of Kandahar, laying the ground for a nationwide ban in an echo of the brutal Islamist regime of 20 years ago.”

Uh oh.

What have we left behind in Afghanistan?

The brilliant editorial cartoonist Michael P. Ramirez provided the crispest summary in his cartoon for today.

A big transport helicopter is flying over our (former) embassy in Kabul. One speech balloon asks: “What did we leave behind.”

The other answers: “Our credibility.”

What We Left Behind in Afghanistan (theepochtimes.com)

What’s Happening:

There are many mistakes made by the Biden administration in the unfolding Afghanistan crisis.

Far too many to count in just one article.

But it seems, over the last few days, the administration has gone out of its way to make matters worse.

We learned that Biden caved to the Taliban’s demands to leave by August 31^st.

Now, we discovered that Biden gave the murderous regime a list of American names.

Um… is Joe that much of an idiot? The administration claim this was to aid getting Americans out.

But Rep. Dan Crenshaw has a different take on this.

From Twitter:

If true, this qualifies as borderline treason. We need to find out who is responsible for giving the Taliban a hit list and they need to go to prison. https://t.co/WTkeRytHmN

— Dan Crenshaw (@DanCrenshawTX) August 26, 2021

If true, this qualifies as borderline treason. We need to find out who is responsible for giving the Taliban a hit list and they need to go to prison.

Republican lawmaker Dan Crenshaw hammered the Biden administration over their handling of American names to the Taliban. He said this was “borderline treason” and those responsible “need to go to prison.”

The administration claims they did this to help Americans get to the airport.

But reports from the ground revealed that the Taliban was in no way trying to help Americans.

Some stories say that they have been detaining Americans along the road. They have been stealing passports and phones.

One story claims Americans have been beaten.

So, why would Biden give a list of names of Americans stuck overseas to our enemy?

Remember, we are trying to evacuate Americans because they are in danger if they stay. The Taliban are not our friends.

They want us gone—because God knows what they’d do if Americans stick around.

It didn’t occur to Biden that handing over American names to these terrorists would be a bad idea?

Is Biden working for the Taliban? He gave them billions of dollars worth of weapons and gear.

And he is making it easier for the Taliban to hunt down those Americans Biden is leaving behind.

If it does constitute treason, Biden could be in very big trouble.

Key Takeaways:

• Dan Crenshaw blasted Biden over handing American names to the Taliban.
• The Republican said this is “borderline treason.”
• He called for those who did it to be sent to prison.

Dan Crenshaw Drops Accusation On Biden’s Team – He Claims Handing Out American Names “Qualifies As Borderline Treason” (thepatriotjournal.com)

Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, a U.S. Marine infantry officer and battalion commander, was fired late last week after a video that he posted on social media went viral. In the video, he demanded that members of the Biden administration be held accountable for the disaster in Afghanistan, which has resulted in the deaths of at least 13 U.S. service members.

“[I’m] not making this video because it’s potentially an emotional time, I’m making it because I have a growing discontent and contempt for my perceived ineptitude at the foreign policy-level,” Scheller said. “And I want to specifically ask some questions to some of my senior leaders.”

“If I’m willing to risk my current battalion commander seat, my retirement, my family stability, to say some of the things that I want to say, I think it gives me some moral high ground to demand the same honesty, integrity, accountability from my senior leaders,” he continued. “The reason people are so upset on social media right now is not because the Marine on the battlefield, let someone down, that servicemember has always rose to the occasion, done extraordinary things. People are upset because their senior leaders let them down. And none of them are raising their hands and accepting accountability, are saying we messed this up.”

“If an O-5 battalion commander has the simplest live-fire incident, EO complaint. Boom. Fired,” he continued. “But we have a secretary of defense that testified to Congress in May that the Afghan National Security Force could withstand the Taliban advance. We have Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs — who the commandant is a member of that — who’s supposed to advise on military policy. We have a Marine combatant commander. All of these people are supposed to advise. And I’m not saying we’ve got to be in the Afghanistan forever. But I am saying, did any of you throw your rank on the table and say, hey, it’s a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone? Did anyone do that? And when you didn’t think to do that, did anyone raise your hand and say, we completely messed this up?”

“And what I’ll say is, from my position, potentially all those people did die in vain if we don’t have senior leaders that own up and raise their hand and say, we did not do this well in the end,” he concluded. “Without that, we just keep repeating the same mistakes. This amalgamation of the economic / corporate / political/ higher military ranks are not holding up their end of the bargain. I want to say this very strongly. I have been fighting for 17 years. I am willing to throw it all away to say to my senior leaders, I demand accountability.”

U.S. Marine Commander Fired After Demanding ‘Accountability’ From Biden Admin Over Afghanistan Disaster | The Daily Wire

Congressman Paul Gosar (R-AZ) is demanding answers from the U.S. State Department after a National Pulse exposé revealing the Biden regime cancelled Trump-era plans to found a new bureau specializing in rescuing Americans from crisis zones such as Afghanistan.

On August 18th, we reported:

The “Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau” – which was designed to handle medical, diplomatic, and logistical support concerning Americans overseas was paused by Antony Blinken’s State Department earlier this year. Notification was officially signed just months before the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan. 

In a letter dated August 27th, Rep. Gosar wrote to Secretary Blinken:

As Americans and the world-at-large watch in dismay at the frantic scenes coming from Kabul, we are all concerned for the safety of our fellow countrymen. I am equally concerned with the lack of preparation for this contingency. Questions regarding this lack of preparation will be brought to the Department of Defense, however I write today concerned by reports that the State Department terminated a crisis response group in the months leading up to the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Specifically, I am referring to the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau (CCR) established in October 2020 under the Trump Administration which was designed to handle medical, diplomatic, and logistical support concerning Americans overseas. Reports from The National Pulse indicate that the State Department under your watch terminated this critically important bureau just months before the Afghanistan withdrawal and the need to evacuate thousands of Americans.

Gosar added:

Cancelling the CCR  as the Biden Administration was preparing for the Afghanistan withdrawal is baffling and raises serious questions about how prepared the Administration was to complete this final step in Afghanistan. Reports also indicate that the decision to pause the program go back as far as February, which means this decision would have also jeopardized the withdrawal plan committed to under the Trump Administration.MUST READ:  Bannon’s War Room 1188: Thurs. 19 August 2021

If reports that the CCR has been paused since February and terminated in June are correct, it shows that State was never prepared for this withdrawal, justifying the heartbreaking and concerning reports and videos we are now seeing from Afghanistan.

I am therefore asking for confirmation on whether or not CCR was terminated and if so, on what grounds? A full scope answer of what authorities and justification were given to terminate the CCR, what the State Department felt it had in place to fill the CCR gap, and a determination of any issues for the State Department responding to this contingency would greatly aid in oversight of this withdrawal.

Finally, please also indicate if elimination of the CCR was in response to any Biden Administration wide orders to reevaluate Trump era policies or the product of any lingering resentment towards the former Administration held by career or political employees. Please adhere to all rules and regulation when fulfilling this request.

The letter comes as discredited “fact check” websites such as Politifact panicked over The National Pulse’s reporting, and sought to confuse the matter with a long article quoting unrelated think-tank “experts” who claimed without evidence that the scrapping of the CCR plan did not affect the Afghanistan withdrawal. Notably, Politifact did not attempt to rate the story true or false, as it usually does.

The far-left Media Matters website was also rattled by the revelation, first misattributing the story to Fox News, then baselessly attempting to confuse the OpMed bureau inside the State Department with the new CCR, without speaking to people actively involved in the Trump-era program, as The National Pulse sourced.MUST READ:  WATCH: Kassam Breaks Biden Botched Afghanistan Exfiltration Scoop.

You can read Rep. Gosar’s full letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, here.

Rep. Gosar Demands Answers from State Dept Following National Pulse Afghan Exfiltration Exposé. – The National Pulse

A sitting Marine battalion commander was fired Friday after he slammed the “ineptitude” of U.S. military leadership over the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, saying he was willing to risk losing his 17-year career and future retirement pension in order to “demand accountability” from top military brass.

Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller said in a Facebook post that he was relieved for cause after he posted a video Thursday saying military leadership let service members down during the bungled Afghanistan withdrawal. His video post came after a terrorist attack at Hamid Karzai International Airport on Thursday that killed 13 U.S. service members, including someone with whom Scheller had a close relationship.

“I have been relieved for caused based on a lack of trust and confidence,” Scheller wrote.

In his Thursday video post, Scheller said that military leadership should take responsibility for the situation in Afghanistan.

“The reason people are so upset on social media right now is not because the Marine on the battlefield let someone down. That service member always rose to the occasion and done extraordinary things,” Scheller said. “People are upset because their senior leaders let them down and none of them are raising their hands and accepting accountability or saying, ‘We messed this up.'”

The scathing public rebuke is a sign of the growing anger among U.S. service members over the pullout and evacuation effort, which has led to a Taliban takeover of the country, left departing Americans vulnerable to deadly terrorist attacks, and stranded thousands of at-risk Afghan military allies.

“I want to say this very strongly. I have been fighting for 17 years. I am willing to throw it all away to say to my senior leaders: I demand accountability,” said Scheller.

On Aug. 18, Gen. David Berger, commandant of the Marine Corps., issued a public letter in an attempt to reassure Marines who were venting their frustration on social media, telling them that their service was “meaningful, powerful, and important.”

Scheller said the letter missed the point and failed to address the actual concerns of his fellow Marines.

He argued that the withdrawal was a major policy failure from the highest levels of military leadership, calling out Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and the joint chiefs of staff.

“I’m not saying we’ve got to be in Afghanistan forever. But I am saying, did any of you throw your rank on the table and say, ‘Hey, it’s a bad idea to evacuate Bagram Airfield, a strategic airbase, before we evacuate everyone’? Did anyone do that? And when you didn’t think to do that, did anyone raise their hand and say, ‘We completely messed this up’?” asked Scheller.

Scheller acknowledged that his critique would almost certainly cost him his job three years before he would qualify for a retirement pension.

“I thought through, if I post this video, what might happen to me—especially if the video picks up traction, if I have the courage to post it,” Scheller said. “But I think what you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk. If I’m willing to risk my current battalion seat, my retirement, my family’s stability to say some of the things I want to say, I think it gives me some moral high ground to demand the same honesty, integrity, and accountability from my senior leaders.”

Update 4:12 p.m.: This post has been updated to reflect that the Marine Corps relieved Scheller of his duty.

Marine Battalion Commander Fired After Blasting ‘Inept’ Military Leadership Over Afghanistan Withdrawal (freebeacon.com)

The identities of the 13 US service members who were killed by an ISIS-K suicide bomber outside the Kabul airport while helping to oversee the evacuation of thousands of Americans and Afghan allies have begun to emerge. 

The names of one Navy corpsman and four Marines killed in Thursday’s blast have been released, while the identities of an additional six Marines and two Army soldiers have yet to be disclosed while the military works to inform their families. 

“We continue to mourn the loss of these Marines and pray for their families. Our focus now is taking care of the families of those who were killed and caring for our injured,” Maj. Jim Stenger, a Marine Corps spokesperson, told The Post in an email. 

Per protocol, the military does not release information on deceased service members until 24 hours after their family members have been notified, but relatives have already independently confirmed several of the deaths ahead of that timeline. 

Here’s what we know about the US service members who were killed. 

Maxton Soviak

Soviak, a 22-year-old Navy hospital corpsman, hailed from Berlin Heights, Ohio, and graduated from Edison High School in Milan in 2017, the Sandusky Register reported. 

A woman who identified herself as Soviak’s older sister, and who goes by Marilyn Soviak on Instagram, penned a heartbreaking post Friday that confirmed her brother’s death. 

“I’ve never been one for politics and i’m not going to start now. What I will say is that my beautiful, intelligent, beat-to-the-sound of his own drum, annoying, charming baby brother was killed yesterday helping to save lives,” the sister wrote. 

“he was a f–king medic. there to help people. and now he is gone and my family will never be the same. there is a large Maxton sized hole that will never be filled,” she wrote alongside a slideshow of images showing the two as children.

“he was just a kid. we are sending kids over there to die. kids with families that now have holes just like ours.” 

While in high school, Soviak was on the honor roll and football team, the outlet reported.

“Max was a good student who was active in sports and other activities throughout his school career. He was well respected and liked by everyone who knew him,” the school said in a statement, adding that news of his death has brought “great sorrow.”

Soviak also previously worked as a lifeguard and a maintenance technician, the outlet reported. 

Kareem Nikoui was a young Marine from California whose father didn’t realize he’d been killed until he saw a clutch of Marines show up at his door, the Daily Beast reported. 

“I haven’t gone to bed all night,” the heartbroken dad told the outlet.

“I’m still in shock. I haven’t been able to grasp everything that’s going on.”

He said his son “loved what he was doing” and “always wanted to be a Marine.”

“He really loved that [Marine Corps] family. He was devoted — he was going to make a career out of this, and he wanted to go. No hesitation for him to be called to duty,” the dad said.

Ahead of his deployment to Afghanistan, Kareem Nikoui was stationed nearby at Camp Pendleton and often visited home on the weekends, bringing along “10 or 15 other Marines” with him, the dad told the Daily Beast. 

“My wife and I felt very honored that [since] these other boys weren’t around their homes, that we were able to provide some sort of family life for them,” he said.

The father criticized President Biden’s sloppy withdrawal from Afghanistan and said he didn’t expect his son to be in this situation. 

“They sent my son over there as a paper pusher and then had the Taliban outside providing security,” Steve Nikoui said. 

“I blame my own military leaders … Biden turned his back on him. That’s it.”

David Lee Espinoza

Espinoza was a 20-year-old Marine from Laredo, Texas, according to the Laredo Police Department. 

“Our thoughts and prayers will remain with the family of United States Fallen Marine, David L. Espinoza, as well as to his friends and fellow Marines,” the agency wrote in a Facebook post alongside a photo of Espinoza.

“Semper Fi. Thank you for your service.”

Espinoza graduated from Lyndon B. Johnson High School in Laredo and lived in Rio Bravo his entire life, KGNS reported.

“Mr. Espinoza, a Laredo Marine killed in Afghanistan, embodied the values of America: grit, dedication, service, and valor. When he joined the military after high school, he did so with the intention of protecting our nation and demonstrating his selfless acts of service,” Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) wrote on Twitter.

“I mourn him and all the fallen heroes in Afghanistan. My heart goes out to the Espinoza family in this extremely difficult time. The brave never die. Mr. Espinoza is a hero.”

Espinoza leaves behind a brother, mother and stepfather, News 4 San Antonio reported.

Rylee McCollum 

McCollum, a Marine from Bondurant, Wyoming, was on his first deployment and was three weeks away from being a dad when he was killed in Thursday’s blast, his sister told the Casper Star Tribune.

“He wanted to be a Marine his whole life and carried around his rifle in his diapers and cowboy boots,” McCollum’s sister Roice McCollum told the outlet. 

“He was determined to be in infantry … Rylee wanted to be a history teacher and a wrestling coach when he finished serving his country. He’s a tough, kind, loving kid who made an impact on everyone he met. His joke and wit brought so much joy.” 

Rylee McCollum had just graduated from high school in 2019 and was manning an airport checkpoint when the bomb exploded, the outlet said. 

“Saying that I am grateful for Rylee’s service to our country does not begin to encapsulate the grief and sadness I feel today as a mother and as an American,” Wyoming Schools Superintendent Jillian Balow told the outlet. 

“My heart and prayers are with Rylee’s family, friends, and the entire Jackson community.”

Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon tweeted about the death early Friday. 

“I’m devastated to learn Wyoming lost one of our own in yesterday’s terrorist attack in Kabul,” Gordon wrote.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Rylee McCollum of Bondurant. Jennie and I, along with all of Wyoming and the entire country thank Rylee for his service.”

Jared Schmitz 

Schmitz was a 20-year-old Marine lance corporal from St. Charles County, Missouri, according to KMOX.

“His life meant so much more. I’m so incredibly devastated that I won’t be able to see the man that he was very quickly growing into becoming,” Schmitz’s father, Mark Schmitz, told the outlet. 

The heartbroken dad said his son, who always dreamed of being a soldier, was on his first deployment and was sent to Afghanistan from Jordan. He was notified of his son’s death at about 2:40 a.m.

State Rep. Nick Schroer penned a Facebook post about the death.

“Today please pray for Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz who paid the ultimate sacrifice yesterday serving our nation,” Schroer wrote on Facebook. 

“This young marine was from St. Charles County and is a true American hero. Keep his family in your prayers today. Thank you for your service young man! God Bless you and your family, Marine.” 

These are the US service members killed in Kabul airport attack (nypost.com)

Thirteen U.S. troops were killed on Thursday in the bombings in Kabul, Afghanistan.

More than a dozen others were wounded, CENTCOM Commander General Kenneth McKenzie told reporters in a briefing conducted hours after the attack.

Twelve deaths were initially announced; among them were 11 Marines and one Navy medic. Another Marine was reported to have died hours later.

Kabul health officials were quoted as saying that at least 60 Afghan civilians were killed in the attack, reported Reuters.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the attack, bragging that a suicide bomber “managed to penetrate all the security fortifications” put into place by U.S. forces and the Taliban.

President Joe Biden said the United States would retaliate against the terror group.

“We will hunt you down and make you pay,” he said in Washington, speaking to those responsible for the bombings.

U.S. officials also said evacuation efforts would continue until Aug. 31, when U.S. troops are scheduled to withdraw from Afghanistan.

“We will not be dissuaded from the task at hand,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a written statement. “To do anything less—especially now—would dishonor the purpose and sacrifice these men and women have rendered our country and the people of Afghanistan.”

The bombings took place at or near the Abbey Gate, which sits on the eastern side of the airport, on Thursday evening local time.

One went off at the gate before at least one other exploded near the Baron Hotel, situated a short distance from the gate.

Photographs showed injured and bloodied people, with dozens of Afghans among those wounded or killed.

13 US Troops Killed in Afghanistan Bombings (theepochtimes.com)

Multiple casualties among Americans and Afghans were reported

The U.S. ambassador in Kabul has told staff there that four U.S. Marines were killed in an explosion at the city’s airport and three wounded, a U.S. official with knowledge of the briefing said. Two explosions ripped through crowds of Afghans trying to enter the airport on Thursday.

At least three U.S. troops were injured, a U.S. official said. Witnesses reported multiple fatalities among the Afghans, many of whom were trying to enter the airport because they had assisted U.S.-led coalition efforts and feared persecution by the Taliban.

Western governments have repeatedly warned of an imminent attack by Islamic State and urged their citizens not to approach the airport. After the blasts, the U.S. Embassy told all Americans to leave the entrances to the airport immediately.

The explosion at the Abbey Gate of the airport was the result of a complex attack, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said. He said another blast occurred near the Baron hotel adjacent to the airport. A British security official said both attacks were carried out by suicide bombers.

An Afghan man who was attempting for the fifth time to get into the airport and get on one of the evacuation planes was standing in the crowd outside Abbey Gate when the detonation took place. “A lot of people got hurt,” he said by phone. “I helped a little girl. I think she died.”

Kabul Airport Explosion Kills Four U.S. Marines Amid Evacuations – WSJ

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby confirmed a second explosion in downtown Kabul Thursday after an earlier explosion rocked the capital’s international airport.

“We can confirm that the explosion at the Abbey Gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of US & civilian casualties. We can also confirm at least one other explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, a short distance from Abbey Gate. We will continue to update,” posted the Pentagon Press Secretary on Twitter.

We can confirm that the explosion at the Abbey Gate was the result of a complex attack that resulted in a number of US & civilian casualties. We can also confirm at least one other explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, a short distance from Abbey Gate. We will continue to update.

— John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) August 26, 2021

Fox News is now reporting at least three American soldiers were injured in the first blast.

“A suicide bombing outside the Abbey Gate at Kabul’s airport in Afghanistan Thursday injured at least three U.S. troops, U.S. officials confirmed. A U.S. official indicated that the attack set off a firefight at Abbey  Gate, where last night, there were 5,000 Afghans and potentially some Americans seeking access to the airport,” reports Fox News.

“We can confirm an explosion outside Kabul airport. Casualties are unclear at this time. We will provide additional details when we can,” posted Kirby on Twitter.

We can confirm an explosion outside Kabul airport. Casualties are unclear at this time. We will provide additional details when we can.

— John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) August 26, 2021

#BREAKING: Explosion reported at Kabul airport https://t.co/s40Ede94cd pic.twitter.com/4yeWCjwSF5

— The Hill (@thehill) August 26, 2021

BREAKING: Pentagon Confirms Second Explosion at Hotel in Kabul | Sean Hannity

An explosion has been reported Thursday outside of Kabul’s airport.

Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby confirmed Thursday that an “explosion” occurred outside Kabul’s International Airport, stating that “casualties are unclear at this time.”

“We can confirm an explosion outside Kabul airport. Casualties are unclear at this time. We will provide additional details when we can,” posted Kirby on Twitter.

We can confirm an explosion outside Kabul airport. Casualties are unclear at this time. We will provide additional details when we can.

— John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) August 26, 2021

#BREAKING: Explosion reported at Kabul airport https://t.co/s40Ede94cd pic.twitter.com/4yeWCjwSF5

— The Hill (@thehill) August 26, 2021

Pentagon Confirms ‘Explosion’ Near Kabul Airport, ‘Casualties Unclear at This Time’ | Sean Hannity

The US Embassy in Afghanistan is warning Americans who are at or near the Kabul airport to “leave immediately.”

James Heappey, Britain’s armed forces minister, told the BBC that there was “very, very credible reporting of an imminent attack” that may be targeting the airport.

Heappey said that there could be an attack perhaps “within hours.”

The British official said that “there is an appetite by many in the queue to take their chances, but the reporting of this threat is very credible indeed and there is a real imminence to it.”

“There is every chance that as further reporting comes in, we may be able to change the advice again and process people anew, but there’s no guarantee of that,” Heappey added.

The US Embassy issued a statement late Wednesday evening saying that people should not attempt to travel to the airport and those who are already there should leave immediately.

“Because of security threats outside the gates of Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so,” a statement from the embassy issued early Thursday morning said.

“U.S. citizens who are at the Abbey Gate, East Gate, or North Gate now should leave immediately,” the embassy added.

According to a report from the Seattle Times, “new warnings emerged from Western capitals about a threat from Afghanistan’s Islamic State group affiliate, which likely has seen its ranks boosted by the Taliban’s freeing of prisoners during their blitz across the country.”

Britain and New Zealand also warned their citizens not to go to the airport. Australia’s foreign minister also stated that there was a “very high threat of a terrorist attack.”

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo also said that his country had been warned about the possibility of an attack, according to the Seattle Times report.

“We received information at the military level from the United States, but also from other countries, that there were indications that there was a threat of suicide attacks on the mass of people,” he said, talking about the threat around Kabul airport.

There are still hundreds, possibly thousands, of Americans who are attempting to flee the Taliban controlled country.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid has dismissed reports of a possible imminent attack, calling them “not correct,” according to a report from Fox News.

BREAKING: British Official Warns Kabul Airport May Be Under ‘Imminent Attack,’ US Embassy Says to ‘Leave Immediately’ | TIMCAST IRL

posted by Hannity Staff – 8.26.21

Senator Lindsey Graham stopped by ‘Hannity’ Wednesday night to discuss the escalating chaos in Kabul; saying President Biden has “signed the death warrant” for thousands of Afghans who helped America the last two decades.

“This is the most dishonorable thing a Commander-in-Chief has done in modern times. He said he’s leaving 31 August because the Taliban told him we have to get out. There’s no way in hell we’re going to get all the American citizens out,” said Graham.

“We’re going to leave thousands of Afghans behind. We’re setting the table for the rise of al Qaeda and ISIS to attack us down the road,” he added. “President Biden has signed the death warrant for thousands of Afghans who helped us.”

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended President Biden’s joke about Americans being stranded in Afghanistan during her briefing Wednesday, saying “we’re on track to complete our mission.”

“At the tail end of the President’s remarks today about cyber security, he was asked about Afghanistan and he made a joke… So, what’s so funny?” asked Fox News’ Peter Doocy.

“What he conveyed is that, he uh, he has not, well, what I can convey from here, is that we’re on track to complete our mission by August 31^st,” said the Press Secretary.

What’s so funny?

Peter Doocy presses Jen Psaki as to why Joe Biden laughed about leaving Americans in Afghanistan earlier today. pic.twitter.com/CWi9imJaHA

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 25, 2021

President Biden continued to deflect questions surrounding his withdrawal from Afghanistan Wednesday when the White House turned off the Commander-in-Chief’s microphone as journalists shouted questions about the safety of Americans in Kabul.

“Thank you all very much, and I thank the press for being here. We’re going to go private now,” said the President.

“Mister President, what will you do if Americans are still there after the deadline?” pressed one journalist.

The White House turned off the President’s microphone at that moment.

“I asked President Biden what he will do if Americans are still in Afghanistan after the 8/31 deadline,” posted New York Times reporter Peter Alexander. “His response: ‘You’ll be the first person I call.’ Took no questions.”

GRAHAM on HANNITY: ‘Biden is Signing the Death Warrant of Thousands of Afghans Who Helped Us’ | Sean Hannity

The Democratic National Convention released a statement on Tuesday about President Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal titled “President Biden Defies Expectations (Again), Delivers Results in Afghanistan.” The statement surprisingly claimed that the “results” Biden “delivered” were better than expected.

“President Biden has defied expectations and exceeded even his own administration’s goal in successfully ramping up evacuations from Afghanistan,” the statement said. “Not only has President Biden evacuated nearly 60,000 people from Kabul with no American casualties, but he has taken the steps necessary to finally end a 20-year long war, bring Americans home, and keep our promise to our Afghan partners.”

Biden certainly defied his own expectations as the disastrous withdrawal went far worse than he had predicted in a press conference a month prior. At the time, Biden said that “the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”

A month later, the Taliban have “overrun everything” and are in control of Afghanistan.

Biden also added, “The Taliban is not the south — the North Vietnamese army. They’re not — they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability.  There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of a embassy in the — of the United States from Afghanistan.  It is not at all comparable.”

A month later, there were, in fact, “people being lifted off the roof of a embassy” in Afghanistan.

DNC Praises Biden On Afghanistan Withdrawal As Crisis Continues | The Jeffrey Lord

“We built them a pretty amazing war chest and now all of it is in the hands of the Taliban”

The United States military is leaving 75,000 vehicles, 600,000 weapons and 208 aircraft in Afghanistan after the Taliban conquered the country amid the withdrawal of U.S. forces.

“We built them a pretty amazing war chest and now all of it is in the hands of the Taliban,” said Open The Books CEO Adam Andrzejewski. “We know that last month, as late as July, seven new helicopters were being delivered in the capital city of Kabul.”

“We’ve made the Taliban into a major U.S. arms dealer for the next decade,” said Andrzejewski. “They now control 75,000 military vehicles. This is about 50,000 tactical vehicles, 20,000 Humvees they control about 1,000 mine-resistant vehicles, and even about 150 armored personnel carriers.”

Andrzejewski also told The National Desk that “there are also about 208 airplanes and helicopters. Some U.S. equipment given to Afghan security forces is currently unaccounted for, including missing military drones.”

“We found a Federal Audit that detailed up to $200 million worth of drones that had disappeared,” Andrzejewski said. “We don’t know where 600,000 weapons are within the country.”

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said that the United States doesn’t know where the equipment is, but a “fair amount” is in the hands of the Taliban.

“We don’t have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defense materials has gone, but certainly a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban,” he said.

U.S. Leaving 75,000 Vehicles, 600,000 Weapons, 208 Aircraft In Afghanistan | Leo Terrell (theleoterrell.com)

posted by Hannity Staff – 8.25.21

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended President Biden’s joke about Americans being stranded in Afghanistan during her briefing Wednesday, saying “we’re on track to complete our mission.”

“At the tail end of the President’s remarks today about cyber security, he was asked about Afghanistan and he made a joke… So, what’s so funny?” asked Fox News’ Peter Doocy.

“What he conveyed is that, he uh, he has not, well, what I can convey from here, is that we’re on track to complete our mission by August 31^st,” said the Press Secretary.

What’s so funny?

Peter Doocy presses Jen Psaki as to why Joe Biden laughed about leaving Americans in Afghanistan earlier today. pic.twitter.com/CWi9imJaHA

— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) August 25, 2021

President Biden continued to deflect questions surrounding his withdrawal from Afghanistan Wednesday when the White House turned off the Commander-in-Chief’s microphone as journalists shouted questions about the safety of Americans in Kabul.

“Thank you all very much, and I thank the press for being here. We’re going to go private now,” said the President.

“Mister President, what will you do if Americans are still there after the deadline?” pressed one journalist.

The White House turned off the President’s microphone at that moment.

“I asked President Biden what he will do if Americans are still in Afghanistan after the 8/31 deadline,” posted New York Times reporter Peter Alexander. “His response: ‘You’ll be the first person I call.’ Took no questions.”

I asked President Biden what he will do if Americans are still in Afghanistan after the 8/31 deadline.
His response: “You’ll be the first person I call.”
Took no questions. pic.twitter.com/MlyFIayrMZ

— Peter Alexander (@PeterAlexander) August 25, 2021

A reporter asks President Biden what he will do if Americans are still in Afghanistan after the deadline.

White House cuts the audio feed pic.twitter.com/noBM74gzNn

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 25, 2021

‘You’ll Be The First Person I Call’: Biden Jokes When Pressed On Plan For Americans Left Behind In Afghanistan https://t.co/I8673J2n9W

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 25, 2021

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy issued a dire warning after receiving a classified briefing on Afghanistan Tuesday; saying he’s “less confident” all Americans can be evacuated from Afghanistan before the Taliban’s August 31^st deadline to remove all US Troops.

“I’m less confident after leaving that briefing. There’s no possible way that we can get every American that’s still in Afghanistan out in the next seven days,” McCarthy said.

“At no time should America ever bend or allow the Taliban to tell us when we have to stop bringing Americans out. We should stay until every single American is able to get out of Afghanistan. And we should use every recourse possible to make that happen,” McCarthy continued.

WATCH: Psaki Clams-Up When Asked Why Biden Joked About Americans Stranded in Afghanistan | Sean Hannity

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy ripped the Biden Administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan during his weekly press briefing Wednesday, saying Joe Biden went “against everything America has stood for in the past.”

“We’re going to have to reassure our allies that we’re going to keep our word… A number of them question what America will do in the future,” said McCarthy.

“We just had a president go against everything America has stood for in the past,” he added. “He made a decision and won’t answer questions.”

Rep. Kevin McCarthy on President Biden: “We just had a president go against everything America has stood for in the past.” pic.twitter.com/nR0WmBR0Pz

— The Hill (@thehill) August 25, 2021

Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw also slammed President Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan on Fox News Tuesday, saying the Commander-in-Chief is “building the Taliban back better” -not America.

“Every time you think of something you shouldn’t do that’s exactly what he does. He is building the Taliban back much better,” he said. “That’s exactly what he has done. He is not building America back better.”

“You know what the House has been working on all week – what Pelosi has been putting on the floor –  is giant inflation-driving spending bills. $3.5 trillion, which is actually closer to really $6 trillion if the math is done correctly as well as that $1 trillion of infrastructure spending. That’s what they’re talking about right now,” Crenshaw said.

“It’s wasteful spending at a time when we don’t need it and in a time we all need to be focused on what’s going on in Afghanistan. As you noted, there is bipartisan outrage over this Aug. 31 deadline.”

“I never thought I would see our American military; our country acting this way,” he said. “We don’t run from these people. We make our own timelines and those timelines should be based on getting our people out in a timely manner. And it’s over when we say it’s over. If they don’t like that, then too bad. We will kill you.”

McCARTHY: ‘We Just Had a President Go Against Everything America Stood for in the Past’ | Sean Hannity

Unbelievable footage resurfaced Wednesday showing Donald Trump issuing a major warning on Afghanistan back in 2017, saying a “rapid exit” from the country would be “unacceptable” and create a “vacuum” filled by terror networks like ISIS and al Qaeda.

“My original instinct was to pull out. The consequences of a rapid exit are both predictable and unacceptable. 9/11 -the worst terrorist attack in our history- was planned and directed from Afghanistan because that country was ruled by a government that gave comfort and shelter to terrorists,” said the President,.

“A hasty withdrawal would create a vacuum that terrorists -including ISIS and al Qaeda- would instantly fill just as happened before September 11^th,” he added.

House Republicans sent a scathing letter to the Department of Justice this week over allegations exiled Afghani President Ashraf Ghani departed the country with upwards of $169 million in assets as the Taliban seized control of Kabul.

“President Ashraf Ghani fled the country of Afghanistan on August 15, precipitating the rapid collapse of the Afghan government in Kabul and paving the way for the Taliban’s entry into the capital city and presidential palace. The Taliban are now in control of Afghanistan for the first time in nearly two decades. President Ghani is residing in the United Arab Emirates, which has granted him humanitarian protection. However, reports state that President Ghani may have been self-dealing with U.S. funds intended for the Afghan people, having fled the country with enormous sums of cash totaling well over a hundred million dollars. If true, this was not the dignified exit of a benevolent head of state, but that of a coward and grifter. The United States must do everything in its power to seize any illicitly gained funds that were corruptly embezzled by President Ghani. If he diverted funds from their intended purposes, the U.S. should bring him to justice,” write the lawmakers.

“It is unclear how President Ghani obtained such a large sum of cash, but the amount and nature of his flight from Afghanistan raises the specter that he illegally and corruptly embezzled these funds from U.S. assistance intended for the Afghan people’s welfare and defense. In fact, until recently, approximately 80% of Afghanistan’s total budget was funded by the United States and other international assistance. Thus, if Ghani was embezzling funds from the government of Afghanistan, he was likely embezzling U.S. taxpayer funds,” add the legislators.

Was the longest war worth it?

After two decades of combat, Americans by more than 2-1 say the war in Afghanistan, launched in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, wasn’t worth it. In a new USA TODAY/Suffolk University Poll, 3 of 4 predict the Taliban-led country will once again become a haven for terrorists targeting the United States.

For President Joe Biden, the cost of the war’s chaotic end has been steep. His overall job approval rating now stands at 41% who approve versus 55% who disapprove – a big drop in the closely watched barometer of political health. Until last week, national polls generally showed his approval rating above 50%.

Now, while he has held the backing of 87% of Democrats, only 32% of independents say he’s doing a good job.

The poll was taken Thursday through Monday, when the nation’s headlines were dominated by scenes of desperate families trying to evacuate the Kabul airport and a surge of COVID-19 cases across the United States.

Half approved of his handling of the pandemic, 39% of his handling of the economy, 26% of his handling of the Afghan withdrawal.

“Today, President Biden’s overall approval has taken a turn for the worse due to his awful job performance rating on Afghanistan,” said David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk Political Research Center. “His approval on immigration and the economy are also upside down. The only issue keeping him remotely in the game is his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, where he is barely at 50%.”

Latest on Afghanistan:U.S.-Taliban meeting reported, UN issues warning on human rights

Biden’s decision to pull out troops was backed by most Americans, 53%-38%. But almost two-thirds, 62%, disapproved of the way his administration has handled that withdrawal.

“He basically handed the Taliban all these weapons, and he’s inspired a resurgent ISIS now,” said Aubrey Schlumbrecht, 51, of Lakewood, Colorado, a home health-care nurse and political independent who was among those polled. “He is not even taking any responsibility. He says he owns it, but he’s blaming other people and he’s blaming the Afghan people themselves.”

John Plaskowsky, 55, a business manager from Suwannee, Georgia, said the news media’s coverage of the tumultuous withdrawal has been unfair to Biden.

“I would say probably for the last 10 years they’ve been ignoring Afghanistan, then President Biden gets handed a horrible deal from the previous administration,” he said in a follow-up interview. While noting that he is a Republican, he said former President Donald Trump played a role by negotiating with the Taliban for a U.S. withdrawal that was supposed to be completed by May 1.

“There needs to be some accountability to the previous administration on the deal they cut,” he said.

Some say Afghanistan war was ‘all for nothing’

Attitudes toward the war in Afghanistan and the leadership of the commanders-in-chief who waged it are complicated.

“There were objectives in the very beginning that were probably good objectives,” said Leif Hassell, 46, a Democrat and public health administrator from Little Rock, Arkansas. “But we spent a long time there and used a lot of treasure and a lot of American lives. There was no clear goal, and there’s been no clear benefit from it.”

While most of those surveyed say Biden mishandled the exit in Afghanistan, few blame him for what went wrong in the war itself. Among those who say the war wasn’t worth it – a view held by 60%-28% – just 7% identify Biden as the president who is most responsible for that. Fifteen percent cite Barack Obama, who vowed to end U.S. participation in the war and didn’t.

Nearly two-thirds, 62%, put the responsibility on George W. Bush, the president who ordered the invasion in 2001.

“He’s the one that had the big push into Afghanistan,” said Ryan Haugh, 27, an independent from Camphill, Pennsylvania. “After 9/11, I think there was very few Americans that were against war at that point because of what happened with the World Trade (Center) and the Pentagon. But I think some of the reasons that we were there were the wrong reasons. And then, ultimately, if you look at the end goal, or the end game, where we’re at now, it’s kind of just like it was all for nothing.”

Foreign policy and defense strategists in a string of administrations say the war was a success in routing the Taliban and combating terrorist groups, if not in establishing a stable democracy. 

But now 73% of Americans believe Afghanistan will once again become a base for terrorists who want to attack the United States. There is scant support for developing diplomatic relations with the emerging rulers there; 71% say the United States should not recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan.

Senator Marco Rubio ripped the Biden Administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan on ‘Hannity’ Tuesday night, saying the United States just “donated an Air Force to the Taliban.”

“When history looks back at this moment, this is going to be a big deal for decades. This is going to be one of the worst catastrophes in American foreign policy history,” said Rubio.

“They should have known, the red lights were flashing the whole time,” he added. “They were oblivious to it… We just donated an Air Force to the Taliban.”

A report from Fox News highlights the scope of the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan as the network claims the Taliban now control 75,000 vehicles, 200 aircraft, 600,000 weapons and $85 billion in funding.

If this isn’t impeachable, then what is? pic.twitter.com/n0K9iBalv5

— Bongino Report (@BonginoReport) August 20, 2021

“U.S. officials tell Reuters that the current intelligence indicates that the Taliban control at least 2,000 U.S.-made armored vehicles, between 30 and 40 aircraft and an untold number of small arms,” writes a reporter from the global news agency.

“Joe Biden creates the Taliban Army and Air Force,” posted former Trump official Richard Grenell on Twitter.

Joe Biden creates the Taliban Army and Air Force. https://t.co/x5ly8ez6VS

— Richard Grenell (@RichardGrenell) August 19, 2021

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan admitted last Tuesday that the administration does not yet have a “complete picture” on the location of American defense equipment abandoned in Afghanistan.

“We don’t have a complete picture, obviously, of where every article of defense materials has gone,” the Biden adviser said. “But certainly, a fair amount of it has fallen into the hands of the Taliban, and, obviously, we don’t have a sense that they are going to readily hand it over to us at the airport.”

“The president did not think it was inevitable that the Taliban were going to take control of Afghanistan,” Sullivan said. “He thought the Afghan national security forces could step up and fight because we spent 20 years, tens of billions of dollars, training them, giving them the best equipment, giving them support of U.S. forces for 20 years.”

RUBIO on HANNITY: ‘We Just Donated an Air Force to the Taliban’ | Sean Hannity

Two top House Republicans on the House Oversight Committee are demanding answers over the allegations that exiled Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country with $169 million in cash, as the Taliban terrorist group seized control of Kabul.

Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the top Republican on the committee, and Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.), the ranking member on the National Security subcommittee, wrote a letter (pdf) to Attorney General Merrick Garland following accusations that Ghani took large sums of money with him as he departed the presidential palace.

“President Ghani may have been self-dealing with U.S. funds intended for the Afghan people, having fled the country with enormous sums of cash totaling well over a hundred million dollars. If true, this was not the dignified exit of a benevolent head of state, but that of a coward and grifter,” the lawmakers wrote.

Comer and Grothman said that the United States must do everything in its power to seize “any illicitly gained funds that were corruptly embezzled by President Ghani.”

“If he diverted funds from their intended purposes, the U.S. should bring him to justice,” the lawmakers said.

Ghani’s exit from the country on Aug. 15 allowed the Taliban to take the capital unopposed. He fled as the Islamist insurgents entered Kabul, saying he did so to avoid bloodshed.

The lawmakers called it “imperative that corrupt foreign government officials not be permitted to personally enrich themselves with U.S. taxpayer money,” and charged that Ghani’s actions contributed “to the speed with which the Taliban took over the country.”

“It is unclear how President Ghani obtained such a large sum of cash, but the amount and nature of his flight from Afghanistan raises the specter that President Ghani illegally and corruptly embezzled these funds from U.S. assistance intended for the Afghan people’s welfare and defense,” the Republican lawmakers continued.

Speaking from exile in the United Arab Emirates on Aug. 18, Ghani denied reports that he fled the country with large sums of money.

The pair concluded their letter with a list of questions the said they want answered by the Department of Justice (DOJ), including whether it is probing the matter, if the alleged sum came out of U.S. funding, and what action the DOJ intends to take to bring Ghani “to justice,” if he did “engage in corrupt actions…to enrich himself at the expense of the U.S. taxpayers.”

The Epoch Times has reached out to the DOJ for comment.

Months before he fled the country, Ghani claimed that his government could resist the terrorist group’s attacks without U.S. support, and that “no power in the world” could persuade him to get on a plane and leave the country.

“It is a country I love, and I will die defending,” he claimed in an interview with German news magazine Der Spiegel published on May 14.

The president’s words saw tens of thousands of Afghan families flee their homes hoping to find safety from the approaching Taliban in Kabul.

Afghan Vice President Amrullah Saleh has remained in the country following Ghani’s exit. He said on Twitter on Aug. 17 that he has remained to fulfill his duty as the “caretaker president” as outlined in the country’s constitution, adopted in 2004.

He has since vowed to resist the Taliban from the Panjshir Valley, together with Ahmad Shah Massoud, the son of a former anti-Soviet mujahedeen commander.

Comer and Grothman have asked for answers to their questions by Aug. 31, which is President Joe Biden’s self-imposed deadline to pull remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan.

Republicans Demand Answers Over Claims That Exiled-Afghan Leader Fled With $169 Million in Cash (theepochtimes.com)

posted by Hannity Staff – 8.25.21

Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw ripped President Biden’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan on Fox News Tuesday, saying the Commander-in-Chief is “building the Taliban back better” -not America.

“Every time you think of something you shouldn’t do that’s exactly what he does. He is building the Taliban back much better,” he said. “That’s exactly what he has done. He is not building America back better.”

“You know what the House has been working on all week – what Pelosi has been putting on the floor –  is giant inflation-driving spending bills. $3.5 trillion, which is actually closer to really $6 trillion if the math is done correctly as well as that $1 trillion of infrastructure spending. That’s what they’re talking about right now,” Crenshaw said.

“It’s wasteful spending at a time when we don’t need it and in a time we all need to be focused on what’s going on in Afghanistan. As you noted, there is bipartisan outrage over this Aug. 31 deadline.”

“I never thought I would see our American military; our country acting this way,” he said. “We don’t run from these people. We make our own timelines and those timelines should be based on getting our people out in a timely manner. And it’s over when we say it’s over. If they don’t like that, then too bad. We will kill you.”

“That’s exactly what we do to people who get in the way of us saving Americans,” Crenshaw continued. “And that’s exactly the message that should be delivered right now. And I’m telling you, there is actually bipartisan support for this — for extending the deadline, and it’s time we stand up for ourselves and stand up for the people we left behind in this botched withdrawal and it’s time we act like America again.”

Read the full report at Fox News.

CRENSHAW RIPS BIDEN: ‘He is Building the Taliban Back Better, Not America’ | Sean Hannity

Biden administration left Americans trapped in Kabul and American-made weapons in Taliban hands

Republicans are calling on the Pentagon’s inspector general to launch a formal investigation into the Biden administration’s bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan, including its decision to abandon scores of American-made weapons that are now in the Taliban’s possession.

Rep. Carlos Giménez (R., Fla.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, is spearheading legislation that would direct the Defense Department’s inspector general to determine how the Biden administration’s pullout from Afghanistan endangered scores of American citizens who are trapped in Taliban-controlled Kabul and begging for rescue by U.S. forces.

Giménez’s bill is the first in what is likely to be a series of Republican efforts to investigate the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan. The administration has faced criticism at home and abroad over its failure to plan for an immediate Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. The administration, including the Pentagon and State Department, is struggling with its evacuation effort and has avoided answering questions about whether it had a plan to deal with the Taliban’s return to power. It is likely that Democrats will be forced to go along with these investigations, even as party leaders defend the Biden administration’s decisions.

Giménez told the Washington Free Beacon that Congress must begin investigating the ongoing disaster, particularly given the administration’s refusal to answer questions.

Biden and his senior advisers have “made categorically false statements to the American people, including lies that the American embassy in Kabul was secured and prepared for the withdrawal, that there are no al Qaeda militants in Afghanistan, that America’s allies are not questioning the president’s judgments, and even changed transcripts and readouts with our most important allies,” Giménez said.

“These falsehoods,” Giménez continued, “are deliberately deceptive to the American people with both the mainstream press and the president’s own senior national security officials contradicting these claims. If the president of the United States is not going to be straight with the American people while American lives are being left in Afghanistan at the mercy of the Taliban, then Congress has both the moral and constitutional obligation to demand accountability of any and all Biden administration officials who deliberately put American lives at risk.”

Giménez’s bill would direct the Pentagon inspector general to provide Congress with a full accounting of the Biden administration’s behind-the-scenes decision-making. This accounting would include an audit of “the reasons why United States Humvees, helicopters, artillery, and drones ended up in the hands of the Taliban,” according to the bill.

Since the United States pulled out of Afghanistan, the Taliban has seized scores of American-made weapons, which helped them take control of the country and trample the U.S.-trained Afghan National Army.

The legislation also would force the Defense Department to provide information on whether “Afghan forces in possession of United States equipment entered Iran,” which seeks to replace the United States as a powerbroker in Afghanistan.

The Pentagon inspector general’s report would be issued to Congress within three months and also examine the effectiveness of the Biden administration’s ongoing evacuation of Americans from Kabul, according to the bill.

Republicans Call for Formal Pentagon Investigation Into Bungled Afghanistan Withdrawal (freebeacon.com)

Iran touts US failure in Afghanistan as it increases enrichment of weapons-grade uranium

Iran is set to hold a series of war drills with Russia and China, as the hardline regime celebrates the United States’ bungled evacuation in Afghanistan and boosts its enrichment of nuclear weapons-grade uranium to historically high levels.

Iranian and Russian leaders announced on Monday that their countries, along with China, will hold joint maritime war exercises in the Persian Gulf later this year or early in 2022, according to Iran’s state-controlled media. The countries said they will focus on “shipping security and combating piracy” as the United States reduces its military footprint in the region following its marred withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The announcement comes as the rogue countries step up their involvement in war-torn Afghanistan amid a hurried effort by the Biden administration to evacuate U.S. personnel from the country. Iran, Russia, and China have all expressed an interest in replacing the United States as a powerbroker in the nation and working with the newly installed Taliban government. Iran’s foreign ministry announced that “Iran is in contact with all parties in Afghanistan to pave the ground for dialogue and reconciliation” and that the Russian and Chinese embassies remain functioning.

Iran’s new hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, celebrated what he called America’s “military failure” in Afghanistan last week, saying the Biden administration’s “military defeat and its withdrawal must become an opportunity to restore life, security, and durable peace in Afghanistan.” Iranian officials also have sought to increase ties with the Taliban, historically a regional enemy, as it expands its footprint in the region.

As the situation in Afghanistan deteriorates for the United States, Iran has increased its enrichment of uranium, the key component in a nuclear weapon. The International Atomic Energy Agency reported late last week that Iran produced uranium metals that were enriched up to 20 percent purity for the first time in its history. It also amped up its uranium enrichment program to 60 percent purity, a threshold level that allows the regime to produce the fuel needed for a nuclear weapon.

The move was met with consternation by the United States and its European allies, but they did not take any steps to sanction Iran or issue penalties for its breach of the 2015 nuclear accord. The United States said Iran must cease its enrichment, but would not go further than a public reproach. France, Germany, and the United Kingdom also acknowledged their concerns on the IAEA report in a joint statement on Thursday.

Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told the Washington Free Beacon that “the botched Afghanistan drawdown is a propaganda coup for Tehran.”

The Islamic Republic “has long advanced the idea that America can be forced from the region through a sustained death-by-a-thousand-cuts military strategy,” Taleblu said. “Moreover, it is trying to get local actors who are pro-American to accommodate rising Iranian power by saying those who work with Washington will one day be abandoned.”

Iran’s latest enrichment levels are a signal to the U.S. administration that the country “is increasingly comfortable with escalation and has survived peak pressure,” Taleblu said. “Would you be afraid of a state which has denigrated instruments of national power like economic sanctions and military force in a bid to change your national security policy?”

As Iran increases its regional footprint and funds terrorist groups operating in and around Afghanistan, the Biden administration is pursuing negotiations aimed at securing a revamped nuclear agreement.

The State Department has made clear that it remains open to talks even as Iran refuses to come back to the bargaining table. Tehran wants full-scale sanctions relief and access to hard currency, but claims the Biden administration is not going far enough in its concessions, which are rumored to include the removal of sanctions on Iran’s financial system and other sources of revenue for the regime.

U.S. Iran envoy Robert Malley said last week the Biden administration is prepared to present Iran with a new nuclear deal should talks on reentering the 2015 accord fall apart, according to Politico.

Iran recently enlisted U.S. ally Japan in its pursuit of sanctions relief. Japanese foreign minister Toshimitsu Motegi landed in Tehran over the weekend to discuss ways both countries can pressure the Biden administration into granting Iran sanctions relief.

“To revive the [nuclear deal], the United States must abandon its excessive demands,” Motegi was quoted as saying following meetings with high-ranking Iranian government officials.

Emboldened Iran To Hold War Drills With Russia and China (freebeacon.com)

National security officials fear newly freed Afghan terrorists may exploit border crisis

The Taliban’s release of prisoners throughout Afghanistan poses a security threat on the U.S.-Mexico border, according to senior Department of Homeland Security officials and national security experts.

The Taliban freed thousands of prisoners, many of whom either worked directly with or had ties to al Qaeda and ISIS, when it captured Bagram Air Base on Aug. 15. Afghan soldiers surrendered the base with virtually no resistance, leaving U.S. intelligence officials with little ability to track suspected terrorists. The crisis at the southern border could prove an inviting target for terrorists, according to the DHS official, who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

“We’ve always been surprised by the countries of origin we see individuals coming from along our southwest border. It’s more than likely some Afghans will arrive now as well,” the official told the Washington Free Beacon. “It’s definitely a national security threat, and the strain of forces currently along the border would make it more likely that some would slip through illegally.”

The intelligence community warned the administration about terror threats at the southern border just weeks after President Joe Biden announced the planned withdrawal from Afghanistan. National security officials warned the White House in a classified memo, first reported by the Free Beacon, that border patrol officers had arrested two Yemeni nationals on the terrorist watch list as they attempted to cross into the United States from Mexico. One of the two men was also on the FBI’s no-fly list. Their names have not been released to the public.

The Biden administration did not respond to a request for comment.

Senators from both parties pressed Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Gen. Mark Milley on whether the Pentagon would change its terror assessment of Afghanistan following the collapse of the U.S.-backed government. The two acknowledged their report to Congress in June—that Afghanistan contained only a “medium” risk of terror groups—was likely obsolete. 

Individuals who had worked on assessing terror threats at the southern border told the Free Beacon that the surge of migrants has left border patrol officers ill-equipped to face the new terror challenge. Former Immigration and Customs Enforcement chief of staff Jon Feere said the record-setting influx of illegal border crossings will only exacerbate the threat.

“When it comes to cross-border illegal immigration that goes undetected, there is obviously no background check taking place,” Feere, who now works at the Center for Immigration Studies, said. “Customs and Border Protection apprehended foreign nationals from countries across the globe and that means there are likely many aliens from problematic countries getting past the border patrol already.”

Border patrol agents already complain about a lack of resources to adequately police the southern border. Biden administration officials have also come to acknowledge the strain. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas privately told border agents, “If our borders are the first line of defense, we’re going to lose and this is unsustainable,” according to Leaked Audio of his remarks. 

More migrants were recorded crossing into the country in July—212,000—than at any point in the last 21 years. Illegal crossings jumped 13 percent from June, which previously held the 21-year record. 

DHS Braces for Terror Threat on Southern Border (freebeacon.com)

A group of Republican Senators called-out White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki Tuesday after the Biden official claimed it was “irresponsible” to say there are currently Americans stranded in Afghanistan.

“This is just not true. And it’s a slap in the face to the thousands of Americans who are stranded right now,” posted Sen. Tom Cotton on Twitter.

This is a boldfaced lie!

My office literally just received word of a Tennessean STRANDED in Afghanistan. https://t.co/naM8g4OMRP

— Senator Bill Hagerty (@SenatorHagerty) August 23, 2021

This is just not true.

And it’s a slap in the face to the thousands of Americans who are stranded right now. https://t.co/ngiGfddDqs

— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) August 23, 2021

Psaki held her daily briefing at the White House Monday where she informed reporters that it’s now “irresponsible” to claim that American citizens are “stranded” in Afghanistan.

“I think it’s irresponsible to say that Americans are stranded. They are not. We are committed to bringing Americans who want to come home, home,” said Psaki.

.@PressSec: “I think its irresponsible to say that Americans are stranded. They are not. We are committed to bringing Americans who want to come home, home.” pic.twitter.com/lFIbQ56OBT

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 23, 2021

A report from Reuters highlights the scope of the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan as the agency claims the Taliban now control 2,000 American-made vehicles and between 30 and 40 aircraft.

“U.S. officials tell Reuters that the current intelligence indicates that the Taliban control at least 2,000 U.S.-made armored vehicles, between 30 and 40 aircraft and an untold number of small arms,” writes a reporter from the global news agency.

“Joe Biden creates the Taliban Army and Air Force,” posted former Trump official Richard Grenell on Twitter.

‘SLAP IN THE FACE’: GOP Senators React to Psaki’s Claim ‘No Americans Stranded’ in Afghanistan | Sean Hannity

The Biden administration continues to deflect growing criticism surrounding its decision to rapidly withdraw US troops from Kabul, claiming just weeks ago that the Afghanistan Army could defend itself from the terror network.

“What proof do you have that the Afghanistan forces can defend themselves?” asked one reporter.

“They have over 300,000 soldiers and police. They have a modern Air Force. They have modern weaponry. They have an organizational structure. They have a lot of advantages that the Taliban don’t have,” said the spokesperson.

President Biden addressed the nation Sunday afternoon on the chaos unfolding in Afghanistan, saying his decision to abruptly exit the country was “rational, logical, and right.”

“There are number of places where we’re doing that, without permanently placing American forces there… But look, that’s the job. My job is to make judgments no one else can or will make. I made them, I’m convinced I’m absolutely correct in not sending more women and men to war,” said Biden.

“I don’t trust anybody, there’s not a lot of people I trust. The Taliban has to make a fundamental decision. Are they going to attempt to be able to unite and provide for the well-being of the people of Afghanistan?” he added.

Watch the revealing comments above.

FLASHBACK: Six Days Before Fall of Kabul, Pentagon Dismisses Taliban’s Capabilities | Sean Hannity

Vice President Kamala Harris broke-out in laughter early Monday when asked about the chaos engulfing Afghanistan, telling reporters to “slow down!” when pressed about the foreign policy debacle.

“What’s your response to reports the American…” began one journalist.

“Hold on, slow down everybody. I want to talk about two things. First Afghanistan, we couldn’t have a higher priority right now,” said Harris. “

New polls are sounding alarm bells within the Democratic Party as Vice President Kamala Harris’ approval rating sinks amid a series of controversies surrounding the border, Afghanistan, and inflation.

“According to a Rasmussen Reports survey released Thursday, 55 percent of likely voters say the former senator from California is either ‘not qualified’ or ‘not at all qualified’ to assume the duties of the presidency. By contrast, 43 percent consider Harris ‘qualified’ or ‘very qualified’ to be commander in chief. The same poll found in April that 49 percent of likely voters said Harris was qualified to become president,” reports the NY Post.

The Vice President has been mostly absent since Afghanistan’s capital Kabul fell to the Taliban last weekend.

“Since then, she has taken part in at least four briefings with President Biden and his national security team, but has confined her public statements about Afghanistan to Twitter and did not appear at Biden’s side when he attempted to defend the withdrawal in remarks from the White House East Room Monday,” adds the Post.

“Kamala Harris, who has vanished since the debacle began, still can’t keep her approval polls from dropping,” posted Larry Elder -Republican candidate in Gavin Newsom’s upcoming recall- on social media.

Watch Harris above.

WATCH: Kamala Harris Cracks-Up When Asked About Americans Trapped in Afghanistan | Sean Hannity

The Wall Street Journal reports “An internal State Department memo last month warned top agency officials of the potential collapse of Kabul soon after the U.S.’s Aug. 31 troop withdrawal deadline in Afghanistan, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the document.”

The memo was dated July 13th, a mere month after Secretary of State Antony Blinken canceled a Trump-era program designed at providing swift and safe evacuations for Americans out of crisis zones, such as the upcoming Afghanistan troop withdrawal.

The Wall Street Journal reports:

The classified cable represents the clearest evidence yet that the administration had been warned by its own officials on the ground that the Taliban’s advance was imminent and Afghanistan’s military may be unable to stop it.

The cable, sent via the State Department’s confidential dissent channel, warned of rapid territorial gains by the Taliban and the subsequent collapse of Afghan security forces, and offered recommendations on ways to mitigate the crisis and speed up an evacuation, the two people said.

The cable, dated July 13, also called for the State Department to use tougher language in describing the atrocities being committed by the Taliban, one of the people said.

As of last weekend, some 18,000 Afghans who have applied for the U.S.’s Special Immigrant Visa program, as well as their families, remained on the ground in Afghanistan, with about half of them outside Kabul in areas already under Taliban control, and efforts to get them to the Kabul airport have grown more difficult by the day.

Internal Memo Shows State Department Was Warned ‘Collapse of Kabul’ by Taliban was Imminent | Gregg Jarrett (thegreggjarrett.com)

Americans have been beaten in Afghanistan, a U.S. military official said Saturday.

A day after he said the military was aware of reports that Americans were beaten by Taliban terrorists, Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said that “we know of a small number of cases where some Americans … have been harassed, and in some cases, beaten.”

“We don’t believe it’s a very large number, and most Americans who have their credentials with them are being allowed through the Taliban checkpoints,” he added.

The stunning admission came as the U.S. Embassy warned Americans against traveling to the U.S.-held airport in Kabul, where thousands of people are trying to enter to escape the country before American troops leave.

The United States is openly working with the Taliban to facilitate the evacuation, and Taliban militants control all of the ground around the exterior of the airport.

President Joe Biden said Friday that the United States was in “constant communication” with the Taliban, which is designated as a terrorist group by a number of countries.

The U.S. military has largely chosen not to conduct operations outside the airport, leaving Americans and Afghans to fend for themselves until they reach the facility.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told members of Congress in a call Friday that violence against Americans “is unacceptable,” Kirby said Saturday.

And U.S. commanders have conveyed the same message to Taliban commanders, he said.

“We’ve been in touch with the Taliban for quite some time, I think, over the course of the last week. And we’ve certainly made our concerns known,” Kirby said.

According to the military spokesman, word had not filtered down from Taliban leadership to every individual militant.

“What appears to be happening is that not every Taliban fighter either got the word or decided to obey the word,” he said.

The revelation came as a growing number of Republicans called for more decisive action from the Biden administration, which both parties have said has botched the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“Instead of going out there and making the Taliban our hostages, right now America is on day seven, day eight of the Afghanistan hostage crisis for us,” Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), a military veteran, said on Fox News on Friday. “And until we flip that scenario back to where it was prior to this, we can’t safely get our people out.”

“Biden’s failed Afghanistan withdrawal has put thousands of American lives in danger behind enemy lines,” added Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.), who is trying to impeach Biden, on Twitter on Saturday. “The Taliban is beating Americans but Biden is still relying on & trusting them. He is incompetent, unhinged, incoherent & unfit.”

Military officials said the focus remains on keeping the airport secure and evacuating people who can make it there.

“The military mission that we are executing now is a noncombatant evacuation operation,” Kirby said. “We’re fighting against both time and space. That’s the race that we’re in right now,” he added later.

Pentagon Confirms Americans Have Been Beaten in Afghanistan (theepochtimes.com)

Americans in Afghanistan were told Saturday not to go to the airport in Kabul to evacuate unless they receive a specific message to do so.

“Because of potential security threats outside the gates at the Kabul airport, we are advising U.S. citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to avoid airport gates at this time unless you receive individual instructions from a U.S. government representative to do so,” the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan said in an alert.

The Pentagon declined to comment, referring The Epoch Times to the State Department. That agency did not respond to a request for comment.

Video footage from the exterior of the airport on Saturday showed crowds remaining outside the concrete, razor wire-topped walls being guarded by U.S. troops.

President Joe Biden told Americans in Washington on Friday that his administration had “no indication” that Americans weren’t able to get to the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

“We’ve made an agreement with the Taliban. Thus far, they’ve allowed them to go through,” he said.

He later said he misunderstood the question and that Americans may be getting into trouble after being let through Taliban checkpoints.

But the Department of Defense, about an hour later, acknowledged being aware of reports that Taliban terrorists had been beating Americans in Afghanistan.

Thousands of Americans are estimated to remain in the country after the United States withdrew most troops and the Taliban pummeled Afghan forces.

The Taliban took over Kabul on Aug. 15.

Members of Congress from both parties have been critical of how the United States conducted the withdrawal, with many wondering why civilians weren’t evacuated before the military largely pulled out.

Now, Americans, Afghans, and others seeking to flee the country must brave the Taliban-held streets to reach the airport, with little to no help from troops from the United States or other nations, though some special forces have reportedly conducted targeted rescue missions by helicopter and U.S. troops went outside the airport to rescue 169 people.

Americans were encouraged to leave Afghanistan earlier this year and urged to do so as the Taliban rapidly gained ground this month.

Those who chose to stay have been receiving changing advice from U.S. officials regarding travel to the airport.

The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan told Americans on Aug. 15 to shelter in place because of the unstable security situation there.

That directive remained active until Aug. 18, when Americans were told that U.S. government flights were departing from the airport but also informed that the government could not “ensure safe passage” to the facility.

A similar message was promoted on Thursday, with another warning.

“We are processing people at multiple gates. Due to large crowds and security concerns, gates may open or close without notice. Please use your best judgment and attempt to enter the airport at any gate that is open,” U.S. citizens were told.

US Tells Americans to Avoid Traveling to Kabul Airport Because of ‘Potential Security Threats’ (theepochtimes.com)

‘Highly unlikely’ Taliban will overrun Afghanistan, Biden said in July

When President Joe Biden defended his decision to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by a September 11 deadline, the president told reporters in July that it remained “highly unlikely” the Taliban would take control of the country. 

“The likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely,” Biden said. “The Afghan government and leadership has to come together. They clearly have the capacity to sustain the government in place … there’s not a conclusion that, in fact, they cannot defeat the Taliban.”

Biden’s forecast for the future of Afghanistan, however, has proven completely false. The Taliban has captured several of Afghanistan’s largest cities, and experts now believe the terrorist group will target the Afghan capital of Kabul in the coming weeks. The Biden administration scrambled to call in another 8,000 troops to the region in an effort to rescue both U.S. troops and civilians remaining in the country.

Biden’s Afghanistan Predictions Were All Wrong (freebeacon.com)

‘It was pretty obvious to me what was going to happen’ if Biden bucked military advice, Senate minority leader says

Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) said President Biden directly ignored the advice of military leaders during briefings on the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan.

“I was in a number of these briefings over the last couple months, it was pretty obvious to me what was going to happen,” McConnell said Monday. “I know for a fact that the president’s military leaders argued against this decision. I think the president himself felt strongly about this and overruled his own military leaders to do it, and he owns it.”

McConnell slammed the Biden administration for its incompetent withdrawal of thousands of Americans and Afghans. Footage emerged Monday of havoc at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, that caused civilian casualties.

“Honestly, this administration looks to me like it couldn’t organize a two-car funeral,” McConnell said. “It is a sad day for the United States of America.”

President Biden responded Monday to critics of his withdrawal, saying he stands by his decision.

“We will continue to support the Afghan people,” Biden said. “The way to do it is not through endless military deployments, but diplomacy.”

McConnell: Biden Ignored Military’s Advice on Afghanistan (freebeacon.com)

The restraint crowd delivers America’s humiliation in Afghanistan

When the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft was founded in 2019, the mainstream media celebrated its emergence as a beacon of hope for a more restrained American foreign policy. Two years later, the humiliating failure wrought by the toxic mix of isolationism and anti-Americanism at the heart of the Quincy Institute is on full display.

Charles Koch, once pilloried for his conservative politics, was celebrated for a collaboration with George Soros that aimed to “bring an end to America’s age of endless wars and to reduce the nation’s military footprint around the world.”

While the left and right alike remain allergic to bipartisanship, the so-called transpartisanship of the Quincy Institute’s retrenchment remains very much in fashion in Washington. It can now claim full credit for the foreign policy debacle in Afghanistan.

The institution itself—and the White House—agrees. The Quincy Institute trumpeted its “success” in a Monday night email. “We knew that if we could bring the forces against endless war on the Left and the Right together, we could achieve the impossible,” the Quincy Institute wrote to supporters. White House chief of staff Ron Klain, for his part, retweeted the top Koch aide William Ruger’s wet kiss to Biden: In Ruger’s view, the president is “showing the requisite realist spine America needs at the moment.” Congratulations!

Quincy cheered President Joe Biden’s announcement in April that the United States would leave Afghanistan, sneering that that “the military high command’s never-ending urge to stick with a failed war was complemented by the inside-the-Beltway Blob’s doomsday scenarios and tired nostrums.”

The Soros network may have been pushing on an open door with Democrats, but Charles Koch gets the credit for doing the heavy lifting to provide intellectual cover for isolationists on the right.

That’s in part why President Donald Trump nominated Ruger, to serve as ambassador to Afghanistan in the last days of that administration. We opposed that nomination, but we now regret he wasn’t there this week to see the fruits of his labor.

This precipitous and calamitous withdrawal had “transpartisan” advocates. But the slogans, the white papers, the research and reports, and the veneer of professionalism and academic rigor used to justify the reckless policy came largely from Koch, Soros, and their army of “restrainers.”

A recent article from the Quincy Institute’s Responsible Statecraft blog posed a question that gets to the core of its naïve worldview:

What would our world actually be like if you simply declared peace and came home?

Now they know the answer. The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft has brought us the single most irresponsible bit of American statecraft in 50 years. This travesty—and all the death and destruction that will flow from it—is their first great achievement. Let’s hope it is also their last.

Responsible Statecraft Gets Its Moment (freebeacon.com)

The Forrest Gump of American decline?

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan is at the center of yet another U.S. foreign policy disaster. During the Obama administration, in his role as a top aide to former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and then-vice president Joe Biden, the highly credentialed wunderkind presided over some of the most humiliating failures in the history of American foreign policy.

Sullivan’s extensive experience as an architect of American failure in Syria, Libya, Ukraine, Iran, and Myanmar, plus the fact that White House press secretary Jen Psaki is mysteriously out of the office, made him a natural choice to defend the Biden administration’s handling of the rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.

“It is certainly the case [that] the speed with which cities fell was much greater than anyone anticipated,” Sullivan said Monday during an interview with NBC’s Savannah Guthrie, who also asked about President Joe Biden’s assessment that a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was “highly unlikely” and “there’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States,” as there was in Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War.

Fact check: False. Kimberley Motley, an international human-rights attorney who has worked in Afghanistan for more than a decade, described the situation in the country as a “nightmare” that was “like Saigon on steroids.”

Sullivan was unable to muster a compelling response. “To be fair, the helicopter has been the mode of transport from our embassy to the airport for the last 20 years,” he said as the network rolled footage of Taliban militants streaming into Kabul.

Perhaps the 44-year-old Sullivan has grown weary of presiding over epic failures. Despite being considered one of the most brilliant foreign policy experts of his generation, Sullivan’s résumé is littered with embarrassing debacles, including both of Hillary Clinton’s failed presidential campaigns. Afghanistan is merely the most recent example.

In 2011, as a top adviser to then-secretary Clinton, Sullivan helped orchestrate the “kinetic military action” in Libya. Even though the intervention resulted in the death of dictator Muammar Qaddafi, it is widely viewed as a failure. The U.S. ambassador to Libya, Christopher Stevens, was assassinated during the Benghazi terrorist attacks in 2012, and the country would eventually become a haven for Islamic State militants.

Less than a month before Stevens was killed, Sullivan was among the team of experts advising then-president Barack Obama on the escalating civil war in Syria. Obama warned Bashar al-Assad, the Russian-backed dictator, that the use of chemical weapons was a “red line” that would “change my calculus” regarding U.S. military action against the regime.

Assad crossed the red line on multiple occasions, and the United States responded by taking negligible action to deter the slaughter of civilians. Assad remained in power, Russia flexed its military muscle, and the Islamic State established a caliphate in northeast Syria, wreaking havoc in Iraq as well.

During an interview with the New Yorker in 2019, Sullivan said he considered it “a great regret of mine” that “we were not able to more effectively play a role in stopping hundreds of thousands of people from dying in Syria and millions and millions more losing their homes.”

By 2014, Obama’s failure to enforce his “red line” on chemical weapons in Syria had changed Vladimir Putin’s calculus regarding Russian military intervention in Ukraine. Once again, the United States took no significant action to deter Russian forces from destabilizing the country and annexing Crimea. The conflict would claim thousands of lives, including the 298 people aboard Malaysian Airlines Flight 17, which was shot down with a Russian-made missile over eastern Ukraine.

Less than a month after Biden was sworn in as president, the government of Myanmar was ousted in a military coup conducted by individuals responsible for the genocidal atrocities perpetrated against the country’s Rohingya population. Foreign Policy magazine called it “a failure of U.S. diplomacy orchestrated by some of [the Biden administration’s] own players nearly a decade ago.”

In other words, people like Jake Sullivan. In 2011, he was advising Clinton when she described meeting Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as an “inspiration” and touted the Obama administration’s efforts in the country as a diplomatic victory. The celebration was short-lived. Aung San Suu Kyi would go on to assume a senior role in the country’s government but would be widely condemned for her refusal to denounce the military’s campaign of violence against the Rohingya.

Sullivan, who played a key role in negotiating the failed Iran nuclear deal in 2015, is currently leading the Biden administration’s efforts to revive the controversial agreement. He will almost certainly have a major role in crafting the pathetic U.S. response to China’s inevitable invasion of Taiwan. He is the Forrest Gump of American decline, and one of the best rebuttals to the American system of meritocracy.

None of these policy failures will hurt Sullivan’s glowing reputation among members of the Liberal Élite. After all, his credentials are impeccable: Yale University (Phi Beta Kappa), Rhodes scholar, Yale Law School, Brookings Institution. He was a debate team champion and president of the student council in high school, where he was voted “most likely to succeed.” He clerked for Supreme Court justice Stephen Breyer and worked as chief counsel for Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D., Minn.), where he was presumably traumatized by the abuse he suffered.

In any event, these colossal blunders will likely pale in comparison to what he will be able to accomplish as U.S. secretary of state in the Kamala Harris administration.

Jake Sullivan Presides Over Yet Another Foreign Policy Disaster (freebeacon.com)

“But in Islamic law, even if you have a good purpose or goal, you have to follow the rules.”

As refugees from Afghanistan pour into the Fort Lee U.S. military base in Virginia, an imam named Ammar Amonette is leading the fundraising drive for the Afghan refugees. Ammar Amonette, Imam of the Islamic Center of Virginia, is a left-wing activist who has spoken alongside Democrat then-Governor Terry McAuliffe, worked with the state’s Democrat attorney general to push hate crime legislation, held a press conference with Democrat Senator Mark Warner, and protested President Donald Trump’s travel ban on terrorism-rich countries.

In a 2004 interview unearthed by NATIONAL FILE, Amonette discussed the 9/11 attackers, saying, “Terrorism is about symbolic targets. It’s sending a political message. The World Trade Center sounds in Arabic like ‘center for globalization.’ I think they took it literally, and globalism may be a threat. But in Islamic law, even if you have a good purpose or goal, you have to follow the rules.” Amonette previously served as imam of the Colorado Muslim Society which, during his tenure, hosted an event with then-Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine Ekrima Sabry, who has said that it is a “fairytale” that six million Jews died in the Holocaust.

Ammar Amonette’s Islamic Center of Virginia is raising money and supplies for the Afghan refugees at Fort Lee. DiscoveringIslam.org describes Michigan-born Amonette as “an American Islamic scholar who is a convert to Islam. He spent 12 years studying in Saudi Arabia. He initially studied at Umm Al-Qura University in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. He later earned a Masters at the Graduate Institute for Preparation of Imams in Mecca.” Amonette’s efforts to help the migrants was profiled this week by CBS 6 Richmond in which he stated that “It’s going to be a long process and it’s only beginning” and said “a new plane is arriving every day” to take refugees to Fort Lee.

In June 2020, Ammar Amonette was the first speaker at a Clergy Action RVA press conference to protest the police beside the Robert E. Lee statue in Richmond, Virginia. On its Facebook page, Clergy Action RVA posts support for Black Lives Matter and George Floyd, supported giving felons the right to vote in Virginia, stated that “As last week’s insurrection at the Capitol demonstrated, the voices of white supremacy are violent and loud,” and held “Election Organizing” and “Election Brainstorming & Organizing” Zoom meetings prior to the 2020 election.

In January 2021, Amonette was quoted as saying that Muslims are not allowed to be vaccine refusers, regardless of whether or not a vaccine contains pork ingredients. He stated: “In case of an epidemic, you’re not allowed to refuse vaccination even if there’s a slight danger to you of a reaction. Although you may be able to refuse treatment when you’re ill, you can’t endanger others in the community. We have a religious duty and obligation to be vaccinated as long as competent science and medical authorities approve the vaccine…Anything that saves lives takes precedence over food prohibitions. Protecting the health of the community takes precedence over some other details of the law.”

Amonette cited the rules of Muslim law when discussing the 9/11 terrorist attacks in an October 17, 2004 interview with Denver Post reporter Eric Gorski headlined “U.S.-born imam turns heads, minds, hearts.” At the time, Amonette worked as an imam for the Colorado Muslim Society. Text of that article is preserved at the World-Wide Religious News website.

Here is a passage from the article (emphasis added): “Given his background, Amonette is in demand as a spokesman for his faith on terrorism. His answer usually goes something like this: The Islamic concept of jihad is similar to Christianity’s just- war theory, which allows war if conditions are met. In Islam it is allowable to defend yourself against armed aggressors. But Islamic law strictly forbids killing innocent civilians.

“Terrorism is about symbolic targets,” he said. “It’s sending a political message. The World Trade Center sounds in Arabic like ‘center for globalization.’ I think they took it literally, and globalism may be a threat. But in Islamic law, even if you have a good purpose or goal, you have to follow the rules.’”

In 2017, Ammar Amonette spoke at an interfaith Ramadan potluck at Bon Air United Methodist Church with then-Virginia governor and current gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe and then-lieutenant governor Ralph Northam. Amonette said at the event: “This is the real America, there’s nothing more American than an interfaith breaking of the fast where we’re not threatened by each other.”

Governor McAuliffe said at the event: “We want to be part of this very special occasion, and when you think about the holy month of Ramadan and how important that is, and the message it conveys, I want everybody to understand that from day one, our administration has fought to make sure Virginia is open and welcome to everyone. And to every member of the Muslim faith, let me be very clear on behalf of the citizens of the Commonwealth of Virginia, we love you, we respect you and we thank you for your contribution to the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States of America.”

In 2004, while working as an imam of the Colorado Muslim Society, Amonette reportedly discussed how Hamas founder Ahmed Yassin’s assassination affected the Muslim community in Colorado. In March 2006, the Colorado Muslim Society (where Amonette served as imam) hosted “An Afternoon With Shaikh Ekrima Sabry,” who was then the Yasser Arafat-appointed Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine. Years earlier in 2000, Sabry said, with regard to the Holocaust: “Six million Jews dead? No way, they were much fewer. Let’s stop with this fairytale exploited by Israel to capture international solidarity. It is not my fault if Hitler hated Jews, indeed they were hated a little everywhere.” Records confirm Amonette working as an imam for the Colorado Muslim Society both before and after the event.

Amonette expounded on his views in a lecture called “The Need To Rule By ALLAH’s Law.” In his political activism from recent years, Amonette has opposed President Donald Trump. “At US Court of Appeals today protesting Trump’s Muslim Ban,” he wrote on Facebook on May 8, 2017.

In 2015, Amonette joined Democrat Senator Mark Warner for a press conference about alleged anti-Muslim hatred. In July 2018, the Islamic Center of Virginia teamed up with the ACLU of Virginia for the event #NoMuslimBanEver to fight President Donald Trump’s homeland security policy. Amonette spoke at the event. In October 2018, Amonette spoke at a vigil at the Weinstein JCC that attorney general Mark Herring and governor Ralph Northam’s wife Pamela attended. In April 2021, Amonette spoke at a Sikh event that was attended by Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger and governor Ralph Northam’s deputy chief diversity officer and senior policy adviser for immigrant and refugee affairs.

Amonette has appeared at events for the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, which advocates for progressive policies and which gave the Islamic Center of Virginia a “Beacon of Light” award. In one entry on its website, the Virginia Interfaith Center announced that “Representatives from the Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy lent support today during Attorney General Mark Herring’s announcement of a new legislative push to protect racial, ethnic and religious minorities in Virginia from hate crimes, and to establish a more inclusive definition of “hate crime.”

Several faith leaders joined Herring for his announcement and added their words of support to a new effort to help protect citizens of the Commonwealth from acts of violence, harassment, discrimination or intimidation…Iman Ammar Amonette of the Islamic Center of Virginia in Bon Air, said that “we support everyone’s First Amendment rights, but hate speech emboldens some people to take matters into their own hands and to attack and assault and harass people. Most Muslims have probably been targeted by hateful speech and these incidents are underreported. We appreciate the Attorney General’s strong words and actions to protect us here in Virginia to make people feel safe and welcome and equal citizens under the law.’” (Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy passage ends)

The Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy’s “Foundational Partners” include the Center for American Progress, a George Soros-funded leftist group.

Activist Imam Fundraising For Afghan Refugees Discussed ‘Good Purpose’ Of 9/11 Spoke With McAuliffe, Hosted Holocaust Denier – National File

Jihadists disseminate messages to Afghan residents on social media platforms

Taliban leaders used Twitter and WhatsApp to spread propaganda and establish control over Kabul as they stormed the Afghan capital over the weekend. 

On Monday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid tweeted that residents welcomed the Taliban and that “the situation in Kabul is under control.” The jihadist group used WhatsApp to disseminate a similar message to Kabul residents as it entered the city. In recent days, Taliban leaders have circulated WhatsApp numbers that Afghan regime officials or soldiers could call to negotiate their surrender.

The Taliban has swept across Afghanistan in the weeks following Biden’s withdrawal of U.S. troops, capturing major cities with little resistance. The Pentagon on Sunday deployed an additional 1,000 troops to Afghanistan to aid evacuation efforts as Afghans and Americans swarmed Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. Administration officials said in July that they expected a Taliban takeover to take months. 

The Taliban has used WhatsApp and Twitter for years to share official statements, but in the past week it has escalated its use of the platforms, using WhatsApp to announce new rules for Kabul residents.

On Monday, Mujahid tweeted a warning against looting and unauthorized intimidation of Afghan officials. The Taliban’s “complaint commission” posted WhatsApp numbers for city residents to call “if they face threats from anyone” and set up an emergency broadcast system via the app as well.

Twitter and Facebook, which owns WhatsApp, regularly banned ISIS members from their platforms. But the sites appear to let the Taliban broadcast its messages without incident. 

A Twitter spokeswoman told the Washington Free Beacon that it was “proactively removing content that violates our policies.” The spokeswoman linked to a policy banning “hateful conduct” and another that bans “threatening or promoting terrorism.” The spokeswoman did not comment on whether Twitter considers the Taliban a terrorist organization. A Facebook spokesman told the Free Beacon it would take action against accounts maintained by sanctioned groups in Afghanistan, but would not comment on specific cases.

Several Taliban spokesmen have maintained Twitter accounts for years, regularly tweeting updates on negotiations and regional battles. The accounts often post photos and videos from frontlines, which are then copied and shared by pro-Taliban accounts. Only 15 percent of the Afghan population has access to the internet.

Both Twitter and Facebook removed former president Donald Trump after the Jan. 6 riots and have not restored his account, citing “incitement to violence.” 

Taliban Leaders Used Twitter and WhatsApp to Help Capture Kabul (freebeacon.com)

The thousands of prisoners freed by the Taliban in Afghanistan after the terrorist group took over the country pose a “serious concern to the security of the United States,” top Republicans in the House of Representatives warned national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Wednesday.

Prisoners freed from Pul-e-Charkhi prison and Bagram Air Base, among other lockups, are reported to include Taliban terrorists, senior Al-Qaeda operatives, and former Guantanamo Bay detainees.

“This development is found to be more troubling considering recent reports of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General [Mark] Milley’s observation that terror groups like Al-Qaeda could build up in Afghanistan much sooner than earlier intelligence estimates suggested. With the very real prospect that seasoned terrorist operatives now roam freely in a Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, we write to urgently request information on how the U.S. Government plans to mitigate threats to U.S. interests and the homeland,” the Republicans wrote to Sullivan.

They’re asking for detailed information on the prisoners, including whether the U.S. government is aware of any who were previously involved in plotting terror attacks against the United States.

“As the American people prepare to mark the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, we are soberly reminded of the dangers posed to the homeland by threats borne out of terror safe havens, like Afghanistan,” Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.) and two other top Republicans said.

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

Sullivan told reporters on Tuesday that the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan was presenting broad challenges.

“We will remain persistently vigilant against the terrorism threat in Afghanistan,” Sullivan said, asserting that the United States “has proven in other places that we can suppress terrorism without a permanent military presence on the ground.”

“We are going to have to deal with the potential threat of terrorism from Afghanistan going forward, just as we have to deal with potential threat of terrorism in dozens of countries, in multiple continents around the world,” he added.

Katko, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) also linked the threat to the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, where thousands of people are crossing illegally every day.

Border agents have encountered known or suspected terrorists from far-flung countries. The outgoing Border Patrol Chief said recently that “Unprecedented numbers of known or suspected terrorists have crossed the southern border in recent months.”

As part of their inquiry, the lawmakers want to know whether the intelligence community and U.S. immigration enforcement officials are sharing information related to known or suspected terrorists “seeking to exploit vulnerabilities along the southwest border.”

Katko is the top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee. McCaul is the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Rogers is the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee.

Prisoners Released by Taliban in Afghanistan Pose ‘Serious Concern’ to US Security, Republicans Warn (theepochtimes.com)