Afghanistan is on the brink of ‘universal poverty,’ ‘total breakdown,’ UN says: LIVE UPDATES
Afghanistan is on the brink of “universal poverty” and may see a “total breakdown” of its economy unless there are dramatic interventions, a report from the United Nations Development Programme released Thursday said.
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U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Braden Coleman, who secured the last U.S. plane to leave Afghanistan on Aug. 30, relived the tense mission Friday on "Fox & Friends First."
"I guess the best way to describe it was apocalyptic," Coleman said of the rainy night. "It was unlike anything I had ever seen."
When Coleman’s aircraft was attempting to land in Kabul, chaos ensued in the air.
"We came back around, we blacked out over Kabul. And we look over the side and it's, you know, boof, boof, boof. ADA or triple-A, that’s anti-aircraft artillery that was going off," Coleman said. "We had to turn early to come in. They had to line up a truck on the runway so we could land."
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The Biden administration on Friday provided the first public look inside a U.S. military base where Afghans airlifted out of Afghanistan are being screened, amid questions about how the government is caring for the refugees and vetting them.
“Every Afghan who is here with us has endured a harrowing journey and they are now faced with the very real challenges of acclimating with life in the United States,” Liz Gracon, a senior State Department official, told reporters.
The three-hour tour at Fort Bliss Army base in El Paso, Texas, was the first time the media has been granted broad access to one of the eight U.S. military installations housing Afghans.
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The United States’ account of a drone strike launched against a suspected terrorist in Afghanistan toward the end of the military withdrawal from Kabul is being challenged by a report suggesting the victim was not a threat to the United States.
According to a New York Times report, the drone attack that American officials said killed an ISIS terrorist carrying a bomb in a car toward U.S. troops may have killed a man with no ties to ISIS and who was carrying water to family members.
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The White House said on Friday that the U.S. has temporarily suspended flights of Afghan evacuees into the country after four measles cases among recent arrivals -- in a move it described as "out of an abundance of caution."
"‘Operation Allies Welcome’ flights into the United States have been temporarily paused at the request of the [Centers for Disease Control] and out of an abundance of caution because of four diagnosed cases of measles among Afghans who recently arrived in the United States," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.
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A Qatar Airways aircraft takes off with foreigners from the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021. Some 200 foreigners, including Americans, flew out of Afghanistan on an international commercial flight from Kabul airport on Thursday, the first such large-scale departure since U.S and foreign forces concluded their frantic withdrawal at the end of last month. Credit: AP Photo/Bernat Armangue
National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said in a Friday statement released by the White House that the U.S. government had facilitated additional departures of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents on Friday – both on a chartered Qatar Airways flight from Kabul and "via overland passage to a neighboring country."
According to Horne, the Qatar Airways flight held 19 U.S. citizens and the party traveling overland included two U.S. citizens and 11lawful permanent residents.
"We are continuing intensive work across the U.S. government to facilitate the safe transit of these individuals and other U.S. citizens, LPRs, and Afghans who have worked for us who wish to leave Afghanistan," she wrote. "Because there is an ongoing terrorist threat to operations of this nature, we will not be sharing details of these efforts before people are safely out of the country."
Horne said that the U.S. was "deeply grateful to the continued efforts of Qatar" to help ensure the safety of charter flights at the Kabul International Airport.
"Today’s departures demonstrate how we are giving Americans clear and safe options to leave Afghanistan from different locations," she said. "A number of Americans have taken these options; some have decided not to, for a variety of reasons. That is their right. We understand these are difficult decisions. We will continue to provide proven options for leaving. It is up to Americans who remain whether they choose to take them."
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid speaks during a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Muhammad Farooq
The Taliban on Thursday accused the U.S. of violating the peace deal reached under the Trump administration by keeping members of its recently announced interim government on America's most wanted list.
Sirrajudin Haqqani, who was named by the insurgent group as acting interior minister earlier this week, is known as the leader of the Haqqani Network – a designated terrorist organization by the U.S. and sanctioned under the United Nations.
Haqqani is wanted in connection with a 2008 attack on a hotel in Kabul that killed six people, including one American.
"The Islamic Emirate considers this position a clear violation of the Doha Agreement, which is not in the interest of either the United States or Afghanistan," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said in a statement on Twitter.
Families evacuated from Kabul, Afghanistan, walk through the terminal before boarding a bus after they arrived at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., on Friday, Sept. 3, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
The Biden administration this week made a request for $6.4 billion in funding for Afghan refugee resettlement and language that would allow for the tens of thousands of Afghans being brought in to quickly apply for permanent U.S. residency – sparking conservative fears of "unlimited green cards" for those arriving into late 2022.
The language was included in a request for a continuing resolution to allow for lawmakers to pass a budget for fiscal year 2022, which also includes a $14 billion request for disaster relief.
The U.S. has been evacuating tens of thousands of Afghans out of Kabul amid the Taliban takeover and the U.S. drawdown from Afghanistan. It has seen U.S. citizens and Afghans brought out of the country to military bases in the region and in Europe before being flown to the U.S.
Members of the U.S. Navy Honor Guard guard remove the casket of Navy Corpsman Maxton Soviak at Morman-Hinman-Tanner Funeral Home, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021, in Berlin Heights, Ohio. Soviak was one of 13 U.S. troops killed in a horrific suicide bombing at Afghanistan’s Kabul airport on Aug. 26. Credit: AP Photo/David Dermer
"Every American – except maybe those directly employed in President Biden’s White House who are furiously scrambling to spin the withdrawal from Afghanistan as something other than a complete disaster – should be reflecting on how we arrived at this point," the Ohio Republican wrote in a Friday op-ed.
"We have a commander In chief with no life experience in leading or decision-making now making critical decisions for the most powerful nation in the world," he said.
"Joe Biden never served in the military, never held a private sector job and never owned a business," Johnson added. "He’s never been a problem-solver. He debates and spins problems for political advantage. And now, he’s created multiple major crises that will haunt America for decades."
Taliban flags flutter at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Bernat Armangue
In a Friday release, the House Oversight and Reform Committee said its Chairs and Ranking Members had sent a bipartisan letter to Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) John Sopko requesting that SIGAR review the "underlying causes that contributed to the collapse of the government of Afghanistan and the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces (ANDSF), as well as the ramifications of the Taliban’s return to power for U.S. national security and the people of Afghanistan."
“In light of the collapse of the government of Afghanistan and the Taliban’s return to power, it is imperative to conduct a complete and thorough accounting of the U.S. reconstruction mission in Afghanistan,” the members – including Committee Chairwoman Carolyn B. Maloney, Subcommittee on National Security Chairman Stephen F. Lynch, Oversight and Reform Ranking Member James Comer and Subcommittee on National Security Ranking Member Glenn Grothman – wrote.
“Given two decades of U.S. and Coalition investments in Afghanistan’s future, it is crucial that the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) continue its important work on behalf of Congress and the American people to document the relative successes and failures of our reconstruction mission in Afghanistan, particularly in light of the Afghan government’s capitulation to the Taliban in a matter of weeks, culminating with the fall of Kabul on August 15, 2021,” they said.
The release noted that the letter was sent following a bipartisan briefing that Special Inspector General Sopko provided to committee members at the end of August regarding recent events in Afghanistan.
In this Sept. 9, 2021, photo, a Qatar Airways aircraft takes off with foreigners from the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. U.S. veterans, lawmakers and others say the relaunch of evacuation flights from Kabul has done little to soothe fears that the U.S. might abandon countless Afghan allies who risked their lives working alongside American troops. Credit: AP Photo/Bernat Armangue
While evacuation flights have resumed for Westerners wanting to leave Afghanistan, thousands of at-risk Afghans who had helped the U.S. are still stranded – and their plight is testing President Joe Biden’s promises not to leave America’s allies behind.
On Thursday, 200 foreigners, including Americans, left on a Qatar Airways evacuation flight out of Kabul.
Qatari envoy Mutlaq bin Majed al-Qahtani said that another 200 passengers would leave Afghanistan on Friday.
However, those who have been working to get former U.S. military interpreters and other Afghans on charter flights remain concerned.
Some U.S. special immigrant visas were still in process when the Taliban took Kabul in August and Americans organizing charter flights said they knew of more U.S. passport and green-card holders in the city of Mazar-e-Sharif and elsewhere.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said Thursday that the administration was looking at steps like electronic visas.
In a Thursday statement, National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said that the Taliban “have shown flexibility, and they have been businesslike and professional in our dealings with them in this effort.”
But many doubt the Taliban will be as accommodating for Afghans who supported the U.S.
In Mazar-e-Sharif, hundreds are waiting for Taliban permission to leave.
Afghans and their American supporters report that the Taliban are blocking all passengers in Mazar-e-Sharif from boarding the waiting charter flights, including those with proper travel papers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Taliban fighters sit in a pickup truck at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Thursday, Sept. 9, 2021. Some 200 foreigners, including Americans, flew out of Afghanistan on an international commercial flight from Kabul airport on Thursday, the first such large-scale departure since U.S and foreign forces concluded their frantic withdrawal at the end of last month. Credit: AP Photo/Bernat Armangue
This is the first part of a Fox News Digital Originals series about the fall of Kabul and the hectic and heroic 96-hour effort to evacuate Afghans fearing retribution from the Taliban.
America’s war in Afghanistan ended in calamity.
Around 120,000 people were evacuated from Kabul in just a matter of days, but the herculean, if chaotic effort made the airport a prime target for a terrorist attack that killed nearly 200, including 13 U.S. service members.
But exactly how did Afghanistan, a nation with a military the U.S. trained for 20 years, so quickly fall to the Taliban and instability? How did Kabul become a frenzied site where tens of thousands of people were simultaneously trying to flee the country through the same escape route?
"It was just a compilation of events that led to this precipitous fall," a former senior Defense Department official, Mick Mulroy, told Fox News.
A burqa-clad woman receives alms from a driver along a street in Kabul on June 10, 2021. (Photo by ADEK BERRY/AFP via Getty Images)
Afghanistan is on the brink of “universal poverty” and may see a “total breakdown” of its economy, a report from the United Nations Development Programme released Thursday said.
“We are facing a full-on development collapse on top of humanitarian and economic crises,” Kanni Wignaraja, the director of the UNDP’s regional bureau for Asia and the Pacific, said. “Half of the population is already in need of humanitarian support. This analysis suggests that we are on course for rapid, catastrophic deterioration in the lives of Afghanistan’s most vulnerable people.”
The report pointed out that Afghans are facing several issues that are destabilizing the country besides the Taliban’s recent takeover. There is a prolonged drought and the country is dealing with the effects of COVID-19.
Countries have frozen assets and there new pressure on Kabul's banking system.
Al Jazeera reported that there is about $10 billion of its central bank assets frozen in international accounts. There has been an increase in food prices and Kabul cannot afford to pay salaries.
Deborah Lyons, the UN special envoy on Afghanistan, told the Security Council on Thursday that funds need to be delivered into the country in order to “prevent a total breakdown of the economy and social order,” the report said.
She said that safeguards could be put into place to make sure the funds would not be misused, but insisted that the “economy must be allowed to breathe for a few months, giving the Taliban a chance to demonstrate flexibility and a genuine will to do things differently this time.”
The Taliban seemed to do little to win favor of Western countries after tapping some members on the FBI’s most-wanted list in top government positions.
Senate Armed Services Committee member Tom Cotton said Thursday it is clear the Biden administration is more concerned with the fact the Taliban's new Afghan political leadership is entirely male rather than being almost exclusively composed of terrorists.
The Arkansas Republican told "The Story" the development is however not surprising given the behavior of the current White House."We shouldn’t be surprised even though Joe Biden and Tony Blinken have been saying for weeks this is the ‘new and improved’ and ‘moderate and inclusive’ Taliban," he said.
The Taliban have started painting over murals depicting western symbols throughout Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan.
The murals depicted everything from George Floyd to the signing of the U.S.-Taliban agreement, the drowning of Afghan refugees and the murder of Dr. Tetsu Nakamura, a Japanese aid worker who was widely respected in the nation for his humanitarian work in Afghanistan.
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