A former special forces linguist who assisted hundreds of people in escaping the Taliban a year after the last American soldier left Afghanistan accused Washington of abandoning tens of thousands of its allies there and of putting the lives of refugees in danger by concentrating on rescuing Joe Biden’s translator.
After Aman Khalili’s situation was made public by American media, Safi Rauf was a member of the group that assisted him in leaving northern Afghanistan and smuggling him into Pakistan.
But he said that when a convoy of armed American operatives arrived at a safe house in the Pakistani capital Islamabad to take him away, he was frightened.
He told DailyMail.com, “It was crazy how they did it because they endangered everyone else’s life.” They “put like the lives of my personnel at peril.”
According to Rauf, the ‘P.R. stunt’ caused American officials to leave behind more than 250 additional allies who were sheltering in the city and also revealed the location to Pakistan’s dreaded intelligence agencies, who have a history of cooperating with the Taliban.
The event, according to Rauf, who cofounded the Human First Coalition, came to show how America had abandoned erstwhile partners and moved on from Afghanistan.
He calculated that there were still over 100,000 persons imprisoned in Afghanistan or detained in other places around the globe who were working directly for the United States and qualified for the Special Immigrant Visa.
And he said that the Biden administration had broken its pledge to remain in Afghanistan.
He said, “They’re basically trying everything to avoid even bringing up Afghanistan.”
It’s almost like it’s a sensitive area for them that they don’t even want to bring up.
Like they don’t even want to admit that Afghanistan is a real place.
On August 30 of last year, the final American soldier left Afghanistan via plane.
As the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan after 20 years of war, it occurred at the conclusion of a rushed, chaotic evacuation during which American and international soldiers carried out a sizable airlift to save around 120,000 people.
Last week, Biden released a message in honour of the 13 American military members who lost their lives during the operation’s closing days.
And last week, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said that American involvement in the nation “is not done.”
General Frank McKenzie, who managed the withdrawal, claimed to have persuaded the president to keep 2500 soldiers in the nation to avert the collapse of the Kabul administration.
As a consequence, claims have been made that Washington hasn’t accurately recorded the lessons discovered and the lives lost throughout a 20-year battle that concluded with the Taliban regaining control of the nation.
Rauf said that even if the rest of the world had moved on, his group was still rescuing Afghans who were in need.
He said that in October of last year, after he had accompanied Khalili on his journey from Mazar-i-Sharif in northern Afghanistan to the south and eventually over the border into Pakistan, things had changed.
The case had raised suspicions at the White House.
When Joe Biden, a senator from Delaware at the time, was touring the nation with Senators John Kerry and Chuck Hagel in 2008, Khalili was deployed as a member of a rescue team to assist him.
Their helicopters were forced to land in a region known for Taliban strikes because to a snowfall.
He spent years translating for American soldiers, but like so many others, he became lost in the chaos last year as the Taliban drew closer to taking over.
He sent a message to the president through the Wall Street Journal, saying, “Hello Mr. President: Save me and my family.” Keep in mind that I’m here.
In the White House briefing room, his predicament was discussed.
Jen Psaki, the press secretary, declared at the moment, “We will get you out.” We are dedicated to honouring your service, and we will do so.
After a variety of possibilities were considered, Rauf and his Human First Coalition were successful in bringing Khalili to safety.
Rauf said that the State Department subsequently stepped in after ensuring the translator’s safety in Islamabad.
At least 20 armed employees of the Diplomatic Security Service of the State Department spread out on the premises before escorting Khalili and his six family members to the cars.
When five black SUVs drew up to the safe house, he was kept in the dark and caught off guard, according to information originally published by Newsweek.
The outcome was chaos as hundreds of the 260 Afghans seeking sanctuary appeared on the street pleading to be taken as well.
The unwelcome attention was Rauf’s other concern.
He responded, “Lining up with all this security.”
And you are aware of the Pakistanis’ suspicion.
They asked, “Why is the US interested in this particular location, this particular individual, and this particular safe house? Why do they care so much about it?
The hundreds of exiles who had all worked for the United States and were disappointed, he said, are now mostly imprisoned in Pakistan. And there are many more scattered over the globe.
Rauf said, “I was recently in Abu Dhabi. “People are killing themselves in Abu Dhabi.”
“There are individuals there who are stranded and dying.” They are stuck. They’ve been in solitary confinement for more than a year now.
Those who claimed that Afghanistan or American friends were being neglected were refuted by the White House and the State Department.
According to John Kirby, spokesperson for the National Security Council, Biden made a speech honouring the 13 fallen soldiers and mentioning that the United States was the largest humanitarian giver to the nation.
He claimed that his attention had been drawn to the activities necessary to keep our Afghan partners out of Afghanistan.
“We continue to do that, and the State Department maintains its flight flow every month transferring Afghan allies out,” he stated.
By June of this year, the State Department claimed to have given more than 15000 special visas and to have decreased the processing time from 510 days under the previous administration to 82 days.
They said, “This is a continuous, permanent commitment by the United States government to maintain faith with our people and those who worked for us.”
“Over the previous year, several private groups helped Afghans go to other countries.
The State Department states, “The State Department diligently works with other government agencies and the private sector to ensure Afghans eligible to be relocated to the United States are properly screened and vetted, but does not make promises outside of that process and we deny those allegations raised.”