Accounts from Afghanistan Contradict Taliban Assurances Touted by Biden Administration

The Biden administration spent Sunday touting Taliban promises to allow foreign nationals and Afghan citizens to leave the country after the United States’ August 31 withdrawal deadline.

“We have received assurances from the Taliban that all foreign nationals and any Afghan citizen with travel authorization from our countries will be allowed to proceed in a safe and orderly manner to points of departure and travel outside the country” reads a statement issued by the U.S. and 97 other countries.

Zalmay Khalilzad, the chief U.S. envoy to the Taliban under both the Trump and Biden administrations, called the Taliban’s promises “positive.” On ABC News’ This Week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken explained to Martha Raddatz that “a very senior Taliban leader spoke on television and on the radio throughout Afghanistan and repeatedly assured the Afghan people that they would be free to travel after August 31st.” Challenged by Raddatz about the extent to which the Taliban could be expected to live up to their word, Blinken insisted that he was “not saying we should trust the Taliban on anything.”

“I’m simply reporting what one of their senior leaders said to the Afghan people. He [the Taliban leader] specifically cited as well those who worked for Americans and any other Afghan for whatever reason.” said Blinken.

Reports from lawmakers, journalists, and activists appear to vindicate the skeptics and suggest the Biden administration may be exaggerating the prospects of Taliban cooperation with a longer-term evacuation effort.

A spokeswoman for Senator Marco Rubio announced that he and his colleagues had received reports of American women being turned away at Taliban checkpoints in Kabul, telling National Review that “the office of U.S. Senator Rubio, as well as other Senate offices, have heard alarming anecdotes of women — including from U.S. citizens — who are being prevented from passing through Taliban checkpoints without a male guardian.”

Other lawmakers and their staffers made similar allegations in comments to National Review.

Judd Deere, deputy chief of staff to Senator Bill Hagerty, made it plain that “Senator Hagerty’s office is aware of American citizens and legal permanent residents whom the Taliban is preventing or deterring from leaving Afghanistan.”

Senator Ben Sasse declared that “President Biden is leaving people behind enemy lines. Americans are still in Afghanistan. The State Department has not told us how many U.S. legal permanent residents are still in Afghanistan. Thousands of Afghans who fought alongside us are being left to be beaten and slaughtered. Trusting the Taliban is beyond stupid, it’s insane. The administration is treating this like a PR crisis, but news cycles don’t matter much to hostages and casualties. This is a national disgrace.”

Jim Geraghty has reported that far from offering assistance to Afghans who assisted in the American fight against them, the Taliban are rifling through cell phones for text messages sent in English, taking that as prima facie evidence of collaboration with American forces. The same accusation is being made of Afghans caught speaking English aloud.

Activists are also sounding the alarm about the reality on the ground. Alex Plitsas, a veteran and Defense Department official, tweeted on Monday that
“the Taliban are still preventing US citizens from accessing the airfield as of right now” and provided a photograph of what he claimed to be this unwelcome phenomenon in action.

Matt Zeller, a veteran and co-founder of No One Left Behind — an organization “committed to ensuring that America keeps its promise to our allies and their families who risked their lives for our freedom” — did some quick math based on numbers provided by the Pentagon on Sunday, calculating that “the US left behind 79,000 SIVs [Special Immigrant Visa holders].”

A private operation to rescue SIVs previously struggling to make their way past Taliban checkpoints and to Hamid Karzai International Airport last week casts more doubt over the U.S.’s faith in the Taliban’s plans to accommodate those fleeing the country.

With the deadline for withdrawal approaching on Tuesday, U.S. capacity to assist its citizens, permanent residents, green card holders, as well as SIVs is set to decline precipitously. The Biden administration has leaned heavily on the Taliban’s cooperation during its evacuation effort, relying on the terror group for security outside the airport and providing it with lists of names that the U.S. is prioritizing getting out.