Taliban form all-male government with ex-Gitmo detainees scoring key positions: LIVE UPDATES
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., is one of the loudest critics of the Taliban’s choice for key positions in the new Afghanistan government, calling the picks a “line-up of thugs and butchers.” Four of the five Guantanamo detainees who were released during President Obama’s administration in exchange for U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl hold senior positions in the interim government.
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Forty-one congressional Republicans have sent a letter to President Biden raising flags about the State Department's "rushed and incomplete vetting of Afghan evacuees" who were brought to the U.S. from Afghanistan following the Taliban's takeover.
"We are concerned that inadequate criminal and security background checks are being performed by the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and the Department of State on evacuees in their country of origin, and in other countries in which they have resided or to which they traveled before being brought to the United States," the U.S. representatives, led by Rep. Yvette Herrell, R-N.M., wrote in the letter.
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White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Wednesday during a briefing that President Biden's administration is "not going to allow" charter flights with unvetted passengers from Afghanistan to land on American military bases, due to safety concerns.
According to Psaki, the Biden administration continues to "press the Taliban" over the issue of evacuation flights, many of which contain Americans, not being allowed to leave Afghanistan.
"We don't have a role in preventing flights from taking off," Psaki told reporters. "We are not on the ground, so that is not something that the U.S. government is doing. At the same time, some of these planes and some of the issues [include] where are they going to land."
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CIA operatives who were the first boots on the ground behind Taliban lines after the Sept. 11 attacks say they feel betrayed by President Biden's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The author telling Team Alpha operatives' story in his new book, "First Casualty: The Untold Story of the CIA Mission to Avenge 9/11," Toby Harnden, told Fox News that former CIA officers are carrying a burden of sadness over the deadly withdrawal.
"There is a deep sense of sadness among former CIA officers about the desperate situation in Afghanistan and the return to power of the Taliban, a movement of medieval brutality," Harnden said.
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Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday called on the Taliban to stop blocking charter flights containing Americans from departing Afghanistan.
The State Department has come under fire for not doing more to pressure the Taliban to allow planes to leave Afghanistan amid reports several planes carrying Americans have been stuck at Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport in Kabul.
Blinken said during a press conference Wednesday at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany that the U.S. government has "made clear" to the Taliban that "these charters need to be able to depart."
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President Joe Biden speaks during an event to celebrate labor unions, in the East Room of the White House, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021, in Washington. Credit: AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President Joe Biden missed a deadline Tuesday night set by Republican senators who demanded he provide the exact number of Americans, green card holders and special immigrant visa applicants who remain in Afghanistan.
The group of 26 senators, led by Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas, gave the president until 5 p.m. ET on Tuesday to give the public a full, unclassified accounting of who was "left behind" after the last of the U.S. troops evacuated Kabul on Aug 30.
In addition, the group wanted a detailed account of the vetting process of the Afghan refugees who are not SIVs or green card holders and whether they were evacuated to the U.S. with any pending immigration status.
"President Biden and Biden-Harris administration officials have no idea who has been getting on their planes, but they don’t want to admit that because it would show they stranded Americans and Afghan SIVs while failing to vet planeloads of incoming people," Texas Sen. Ted Cruz told Fox News in a statement.
"Congress, staffers, veterans, volunteers, and NGOs have been working together to save them, but that can’t make up for the massive failure by the President and State Department to rescue Americans or their ongoing vetting failures, no matter how much they want to ignore those catastrophes," he said.
Afghan women shout slogans during an anti-Pakistan demonstration, near the Pakistan embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Wali Sabawoon
A female student in Afghanistan, going by the name Sahar, expressed her sadness and outrage on "Fox & Friends First" Wednesday, calling the Taliban a group of "savage puppets" who are trying to imprison women in the war-torn nation once again.
Her remarks come more than a week after the U.S. completed its withdrawal of armed forces: a move that garnered significant bipartisan backlash for the Biden administration's hasty strategy which left 13 service members dead.
"Well I am furious and saddened by what is happening," Sahar said. "After all the challenges we have dealt with and issues within the national society of Afghanistan over decades and we have fought for generations to achieve what we have right now as females in society."
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid speaks during a press conference in Kabul, Afghanistan Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Muhammad Farooq
Americans trying to evacuate hundreds of U.S. citizens and Afghans are pleading for action from the Biden administration.
“Unfortunately we are left behind now,” a former U.S. military translator -- who says he is anticipating his beheading by the Taliban -- told The Associated Press on Wednesday. "No one heard our voice.”
The man has been waiting for week for Taliban permission for the chartered evacuation flights to leave the airport at the city of Mazar-e-Sharif.
U.S. Army veterans working to help the longtime interpreter had tried and failed to get him and his family on the earlier airlifts that ended with the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan at the end of August.
“I hope we can help them out, and get them out of this mess,” retired Army colonel Thomas McGrath said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A picture of President Ashraf Ghani is seen inside the Hamid Karzai International Airport after the U.S. withdrawal in Kabul, Afghanistan, Tuesday, Aug. 31, 2021. Credit: AP Photo/Kathy Gannon
In a statement Wednesday morning, exiled Afghan president Ashraf Ghani defended his decision to flee Kabul in August as the Taliban closed in.
Ghani wrote that he had left at the "urging of the palace security" who had advised him that "to remain risked setting off the same horrific street-to-street fighting the city had suffered during the Civil War of the 1990s."
He said that leaving Afghanistan's capital was the "most difficult decision" of his life but that he believed it was the only way to save the city of millions.
"I have devoted 20 years of my life to helping the Afghan people work toward building a democratic, prosperous, and sovereign state -- it was never my intent to abandon the people or that vision," Ghani wrote.
The leader next sought to again address what he called the "baseless allegations" that he had taken millions of dollars belonging to the Afghan people as he left Kabul.
"These charges are completely and categorically false. Corruption is a plague that has crippled our country decades and fighting corruption has been a central focus of my efforts as president," he wrote. "I inherited a monster that could not easily or quickly be defeated."
Ghani said he welcomed an official audit or financial investigation under UN auspices or "any other appropriate independent body" to prove the veracity of his statements and that close aides are ready to submit their finances to public audit as well.
Ghani wrote that has "firmly believed that the formula of a democratic republic was the only way forward for a sovereign, peaceful, prosperous Afghanistan," citing guidance from the 2004 Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
"I offer my profound appreciation and respect for the sacrifice of all Afghans, especially our Afghan soldiers and their families, through the last forty years. It is with deep and profound regret that my own chapter ended in similar tragedy to my predecessors -- without ensuring stability and prosperity," he said. "I apologize to the Afghan people that I could not make it end differently. My commitment to the Afghan people has never wavered and will guide me for the rest of my life."
US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, attends a meeting with German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas at the Ramstein U.S. Air Base in Ramstein, Germany, Wednesday, Sept. 8, 2021. The largest American military community overseas houses thousands Afghan evacuees in a tent city at the airbase. Credit: AP Photo/Michael Probst
The U.S. State Department refused to grant official approval for private evacuation flights from Afghanistan to land in third countries, even though the department conceded that official authorization would likely be needed for planes to land in those nations, an email reviewed by Fox News shows.
Furthermore, the State Department explicitly stated that charter flights, even those containing American citizens, would not be allowed to land at Defense Department (DOD) airbases. U.S. officials have pointed to possible security threats from landing charter planes at military bases, saying that they lack the resources on the ground to fully verify flight manifests.
The Biden administration's delaying of private evacuation efforts has been a widespread source of frustration, infuriating rescue organizers and even a prominent Democratic senator.
President Joe Biden speaks as he tours a neighborhood impacted by flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Ida, Tuesday, Sept. 7, 2021, in the Queens borough of New York. Credit: AP Photo/Evan Vucci
President Joe Biden addressed hecklers on Tuesday who shouted at him about his chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The president claimed that they didn't actually live in the area he was touring and suggested that they were upset by his climate change position.
After Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., introduced Biden as the man who will "lead us out of darkness in this present moment," the president began his remarks in New York City by saying he received a warm reception in the area he had been touring.
"None of them were shouting or complaining," Biden said. "Every one of them were thanking me as if it was something special … that I was here."
Sirajuddin Haqqani is wanted by the FBI. (FBI)
Sirajuddin Haqqani, the head of the terror group known as the Haqqani network who is wanted by the FBI, has been named the Taliban's interim interior minister, which was seen by some as a slap in the face to the U.S. and Western countries.
The Haqqani network is known to be a ruthless arm of the Taliban and has been blamed on attacks in the country against coalition forces. The FBI has a $10 million bounty on his head. It is believed that he is holding at least one American hostage, according to the Associated Press.
The White House, FBI and State Department did not immediately respond to after-hour emails from Fox News.
Four out of five Guantanamo detainees whom former President Barack Obama released in exchange for former U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in 2014 now hold senior positions in the interim government created by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
According to the Afghan television network TOLOnews, the Taliban-formed government gave leadership positions to Khairullah Khairkhwa, Norullah Noori, Abdul Haq Wasiq, and Mohammad Fazl; all of whom were released in a 2014 deal between the Obama administration and the Taliban to free Bergdahl, whom the Taliban had held as a prisoner since 2009.
On Tuesday, the Taliban announced that Khairkhwa would serve as acting minister for information and culture, Noori would serve as acting minister of borders and tribal affairs, Wasiq would serve as acting director of intelligence, and Fazl would serve as deputy defense minister.
The White House on Tuesday said there is "no rush" to recognize the Taliban as the official government of Afghanistan, saying that recognition from the U.S. will be "dependent" on their actions, as the group announced the formation of its new government.
Press secretary Jen Psaki, during a gaggle to reporters aboard Air Force One Tuesday, was asked about when the Biden administration to recognize the Taliban.
"There's no rush to recognition, and that will be planned dependent on what steps the Taliban takes," Psaki said. "The world will be watching whether they allow for American citizens, whether they allow individuals to leave who want to, and how they treat women and girls around the country."
Florida congressional candidate and U.S. Army combat veteran Cory Mills spoke with Sean Hannity on his efforts to evacuate Americans out of Afghanistan on Tuesday night.
Mills discussed how the Biden administration failed to properly evacuate U.S. citizens, forcing people like him to take action.
"If the administration had done what it was supposed to do, it would not be necessary for guys like myself or the brave members of our team," Mills said.
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