Remember when Joe Biden told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos just three weeks ago that if American citizens are left in Afghanistan beyond Aug 31, “we’re going to stay, get them all out?”
That was a lie, and according to the latest update from White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, about 100 U.S. citizens were left behind in Afghanistan when the international airlift out of Kabul ended last week.
So now what? Well, assuming one can even trust anything coming out of the Biden administration at this point, Klain said Biden’s administration hopes Qatar will resume air links with the Afghan capital in the days ahead, which could allow Americans to leave.
“We know many of them have family members. Many of them want to stay,” Klain said on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “But the ones that want to leave, we’re going to get them out, as the president said.”
Barack Obama’s “Ebola Czar” also said the administration also is working to evacuate more Afghans with special immigrant visas — a category that centers on Afghans who were allies of the U.S. during its 20-year military presence, although we certainly hope they aren’t holding their breath, and even the administration’s propaganda outlet, CNN, pressed on this saying that it is “hearing what we believe are credible reports about the Taliban systematically hunting down [SIVs], many of them, and killing them. Have you heard about that, and what is the administration doing about it?”
Klain didn’t give much of an answer to those questions, either.
As for Qatar, which together with Turkey was viewed as Afghanistan’s “lifeline to the outside world“, the tiny but ultra-wealthy Gulf nation refused to take any of the 50,000 Afghan civilian refugees who landed on its soil. Instead they were transferred to Europe & the US, even as Qatar hosted the Taliban for 20 years as foreign policy expert Walid Phares pointed out overnight.
#Qatar didn’t take any of the 50,000 Afghan civilian refugees who landed on its soil. They were transferred to Europe & the US…
But Qatar hosted the #Taliban for 20 years…
— Walid Phares (@WalidPhares) September 5, 2021
Separately, Klain also said that the White House won’t offer covid boosters without FDA, CDC sign off – which may be challenging after the recent snafu with two top FDA officials resigning over the rushed rollout of boosters – but he added that the Biden administration is “ready to go once the science says go.”
