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Reporters grill top WH official for allowing Taliban to harbor al Qaeda — then Peter Doocy ratchets up the pressure

By CHRIS ENLOE | August 03, 2022

National Security Council coordinator John Kirby was peppered with questions Tuesday over how the Biden administration will respond to the Taliban violating the Doha Agreement.

The United States carried out a successful counterterrorism strike against the leader of al Qaeda over the weekend, killing Ayman al-Zawahiri. American operators were successful partly because al-Zawahiri was “hiding” in plain sight in a wealthy Kabul neighborhood, thus underscoring the type of impunity the Taliban have extended to al Qaeda after the fall of Afghanistan last year.

The close relationship between the Taliban and al Qaeda violates the Doha Agreement, a peace treaty negotiated under former President Donald Trump between the U.S. and the Taliban. Specifically, the agreement bars the Taliban from allowing al Qaeda to operate in Afghanistan, a provision the Taliban have clearly violated. With the Taliban in clear violation of the Doha Agreement — a reality Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged — reporters from multiple media outlets grilled Kirby over how exactly the Biden administration will respond.

“What will the repercussions be for the Taliban harboring al-Zawahiri?” ABC News chief White House correspondent Cecilia Vega asked.
“I’m not going to telegraph moves and decisions that we might make,” Kirby responded. “I’m certainly not going to get ahead of anything at this point.”

Kirby, however, disclosed that U.S. leaders have spoken with Taliban leaders for harboring al-Zawahiri, which he admitted is a clear violation of the Doha Agreement. But when NBC News chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander pressed Kirby on whether the Biden administration would hold accountable the Taliban, Kirby obfuscated, saying only that he will not “telegraph punches” and the Taliban know the U.S. is aware they violated the Doha Agreement. Kirby even suggested the Taliban might shape up because they want legitimization from Western powers.

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and John Kirbywww.youtube.com

Then Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy ratcheted up the pressure.

“You guys gave a whole country to a bunch of people that are on the FBI Most Wanted list. What did you think was going to happen?” Doocy pressed.

Kirby responded by saying he takes “issue with the premise that we gave a whole country to terrorist groups.”

“The Taliban was harboring the world’s number-one terrorist. How is that not giving a country to a terrorist-sympathizing group, if not giving them permission to have terrorists just sit on a balcony?” Doocy pressed.

Engaging in circular reasoning, Kirby then told Doocy the strike against al-Zawahiri is proof the U.S. is not idly permitting the Taliban to harbor al Qaeda terrorists. And in the end, Kirby praised Biden.

“I would go so far as to say not only the American people are safer as a result of President Biden’s decision, but the rest of the world is safer,” Kirby said.

Other reporters asked Kirby similar questions about the Taliban and their violations of the Doha Agreement, but he never offered substantive answers.

Kirby said violations of the agreement will “lead to consequences not just from the United States, but from the international community” — but he never said what any of those consequences would be.

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U.S. Special Forces Veterans Rescue Afghan Family Biden Abandoned, Reunite Them with American Father

REPORTED BY: JORDAN BOYD | APRIL 29, 2022

It had been more than a year since Hashmatullah Niazy, a U.S. citizen, last saw his wife, Freshta, and four young children when they finally reunited in Austin, Texas this month.

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While thousands of illegal immigrants pour across the southwest U.S. border daily, Afghan refugees abandoned by the Biden administration during the Afghanistan withdrawal are still struggling to gain legal entry to the United States.

It had been more than a year since Hashmatullah Niazy, a U.S. citizen who emigrated from Afghanistan, last saw his wife, Freshta, and four young children when they finally reunited in Austin, Texas this month. Niazy became a U.S. citizen in 2020 through the Special Immigrant Visa program after working as a translator for the U.S. military in Afghanistan. He began translating and training recruits at the Kabul Military Training Center in 2007 after his older brother died in combat while working with special forces. When Niazy obtained his U.S. visa in 2014, he resigned from his job and flew to the states.

Niazy told me he wanted to bring his family over with him, but every time he tried to initiate the immigration process, his wife was pregnant and wanted to avoid strenuous travel. Freshta and the children eventually joined the backlogged SIV immigration process before the Taliban took over the country, but their quest for permanent U.S. residency was derailed when President Joe Biden initiated the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan last fall.

I first reported on Niazy’s family situation in September 2021 when his brother, wife, and kids were all stranded in a Taliban-infested Kabul. At the time, Niazy was already in the United States, working nights and eagerly building a life for his family in Texas. But his excitement for his family’s new life in America was blunted when he realized they might not make it past the crowds at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul to get on an evacuation flight out of Afghanistan.

“Suddenly the Taliban took over the country and now we were like lost,” Niazy told me.

That’s when “angels from the sky” came in.

The Escape

After weeks of chaos at the Hamid Karzai International Airport, where some translators and their families were among the more than 200 people killed by a suicide bomber on August 26, Freshta and the kids, ranging in age from 3 to 12 years old, finally escaped Kabul at the end of September with the help of a large group of former U.S. soldiers, some trained in special operations.

Jim Young, Dan Fickel, Keye Perry, Joe Penkala, and another man named “Tom,” who is still in active government service and declined to give his last name, all graduated from West Point in 1994. When they saw the crisis in Afghanistan, they banded together to do everything they could to rescue Americans and Afghan allies the Biden administration had left behind. They enlisted the aid of several other former service members including Ryan Timoney, West Point class of 1993 graduate Dave Abrahams, retired Special Forces officer Matt Coburn, former Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, and Helen Jbeily of California Republican Rep. David Valadao’s office to actively shepherd Freshta, her brother-in-law, and her kids to the overcrowded, dangerous airport for evacuation while avoiding the Taliban as much as possible.

I talked to Penkala, a retired U.S. Army officer, about the rescue efforts after the Niazy family’s first attempt to seek evacuation at the airport.

“We had sort of an up and down type of situation, even after we had taken over his case, and had managed to get the family back to [the airport]. And it was through no small effort on the part of some folks from the Special Operations community, one individual in particular who was retired,” Penkala told me over the phone. “We actually got them to the North Gate [of the airport] so this is the second time they had made it to the airport. And even though there was an obvious way to bring them in, frankly, they were still left stranded. Nobody would open the gate for them even though at one point we only had about 25 people in front of the North Gate.”
At one point, Penkala told me that, “the Taliban began beating some of the local Afghans,” forcing the on-the-ground rescuers to adapt as the Niazy clan retreated to their apartment.
During that time, Niazy said his wife “never lost her courage.”
“There was the time that I lost my hope. That was the time when my wife said ‘It’s okay. Whatever it takes me to get my kids to their dad, I will do that,’” Niazy said. “So that was a time when she gave me the courage, she gave me the hope and I needed it.”

Efforts to orchestrate the evacuation of the Niazys and hundreds of others from the clutches of the Taliban were largely funded by one of Young’s business partners, Zekelman Industries out of Texas, which donated $1 million out of the $1.1 million required to reunite the Niazy family and other refugees after another sponsor backed out.

After days of chaos, the Niazy family and 528 other American citizens, legal permanent residents, their spouses, and their children were finally able to flee Afghanistan unharmed.

“We’re so thankful for all these great humans. From God first and then from all these humans that helped me and came into my life, me and my wife,” Niazy said.

Evacuation Was Only The Beginning

Even though the Niazy family applied to permanently rejoin the head of their household in the United States, it was a long and difficult process between September of last year and early April this year, when they were finally permitted to set foot on American soil.

“This was a family who was already in the process and had paperwork prepared. And, frankly, the wife was married to a U.S. citizen. This is the immediate family of a United States citizen and it took private efforts,” Penkala said. “And once we got them out of harm’s way, it took an additional five months to come into the country.”

During that time, Freshta and her children were at a refugee camp in the United Arab Emirates. While the family was safe from the dangers the Taliban posed to them, they were stuck in limbo and at the mercy of the American bureaucracy.

Penkala said “there were some folks who were kind enough to work through their connections to get them some additional food and supplies and that type of thing” but that didn’t help reunite the family.

Niazy admitted that the experience induced many “sleepless nights” for him as he anxiously waited for the green light. In total, it took more than five months for Niazy, an American citizen who served with U.S. forces in combat, to legally relocate his wife and kids to Texas.

The American Dream

The Niazy family may have had to jump through multiple hoops that illegal immigrants at the Southern border don’t, but a lack of help from the U.S. government hasn’t hampered their enthusiasm for the American Dream.

While Niazy works as an engineering technician, Freshta and the children are acclimating to their new lives along with Niazy’s parents, who also emigrated to the United States. Once the family moves to a new apartment, three of the four children will start attending school.

In just a couple of weeks, Freshta and the Niazy children are expected to receive their Social Security numbers. But for now he is thankful that his immediate family made it to a free country where his daughters can attend school.

“It’s the teaching of our parents that wherever you live, treat it as your home, keep it clean, and keep the environment clean and also treat your neighbors good,” Niazy said. “With this [Taliban] regime, no one is happy and everybody lost the hope that [Afghanistan] will ever be a free country.”

When I video chatted with the family last week, Niazy had just woken up after working a night shift at his engineering job and Freshta was preparing food in the family’s apartment kitchen. The children were happily chattering with each other as they played with toys. The youngest one gave me a shy wave.

“This is a beautiful life,” Niazy said as he bounced his daughter on his lap. “I’m very excited and very happy. And I am praying for those who helped me, these beautiful humans in my life.”

Jordan Boyd is a staff writer at The Federalist and co-producer of The Federalist Radio Hour. Her work has also been featured in The Daily Wire and Fox News. Jordan graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow her on Twitter @jordanboydtx.

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Reeks What They Sow

A.F. BRANCO | on March 2, 2022 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-reeks-what-they-sow/

After just one year of President Biden, the ‘State of the Union” is strong, as in reeks.

Biden State Of the Union — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2022.**

Donations/Tips accepted and appreciated – $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – $100 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU!

A.F. Branco has taken his two greatest passions, (art and politics) and translated them into the cartoons that have been popular all over the country, in various news outlets including “Fox News”, MSNBC, CBS, ABC, and “The Washington Post.” He has been recognized by such personalities as Dinesh D’Souza, James Woods, Sarah Palin, Larry Elder, Lars Larson, Rush Limbaugh, and shared by President Donald Trump.

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US Government Left As Many As 9,000 American Citizens In Afghanistan After Withdrawal, Senate Report Reveals

Reported by MICHAEL GINSBERG, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER | February 03, 2022

US And European Defence Forces Assist In Evacuations From Afghanistan Following Taliban Takeover — **(Photo by Sgt. Isaiah Campbell / U.S. Marine Corps via Getty Images)**

As many as 9,000 American citizens were left in Afghanistan when the U.S. military withdrew from the country Aug. 31, according to a report released Thursday by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In public statements, Biden administration officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, claimed that only 100-150 Americans remained in Afghanistan and had contacted the U.S. government with a desire to leave. The State Department and Defense Department officials stuck to that number, even as the government publicly admitted that large numbers of American citizens were still leaving the country.

The report, signed by Foreign Relations ranking member Jim Risch of Idaho, reveals that State Department officials believed that between 10,000 and 15,000 Americans were in Afghanistan as late as Aug. 17. In the next two weeks, only 6,000 Americans were able to escape the country ahead of the Taliban takeover. In testimony in front of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, however, Blinken claimed that “approximately 100-150 remained in Afghanistan who still wished to depart.”

Estimating the number of Americans residing or visiting a country like Afghanistan is “50% art and 50% science and educated guesswork,” staffers of the former Kabul Embassy reportedly said, since Americans are encouraged but not required to register with the State Department when they enter a country. The staffers noted that host countries are generally able to provide better estimates than the embassy, but that Afghanistan was not capable of doing so.

Officials like Blinken and U.S. Central Command leader Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth McKenzie frequently qualified their statements about the number of Americans remaining in-country by saying that they were in contact with smaller numbers who “want to leave.”

Contributing the failure was the Biden administration’s lack of preparation for the execution of the withdrawal. National security officials were still working to formulate a withdrawal plan a day before Kabul fell to the Taliban, despite the fact that Biden announced that American forces would withdraw from Afghanistan four months before the collapse of the U.S.-allied government. The National Security Council failed to coordinate withdrawal operations between the State and Defense departments, and rapid troop withdrawals exacerbated the failed evacuation process, according to the report.

After Kabul fell to the Taliban, the Biden administration was still slow to organize contingency responses for withdrawal. The Transportation Department waited five days to issue an order allowing foreign airlines to deliver evacuees to American airports, and seven days to activate the Civil Reserve Aircraft Fleet (CRAF). The CRAF is a private airline fleet that can aid the U.S. military in a crisis, but “was barely used and did little to impact evacuation operations.”

Government officials had warned as early as 2007 that plans for withdrawal from unsafe and hostile nations would need a significant overhaul, particularly the reporting requirements for American citizens in those countries. A key factor in those plans is the reliance on the host government in providing an accurate number of Americans in need of evacuation. This issue has not been corrected across four presidential administrations.

“The lack of host nation accounting for Americans is likely not unique to Afghanistan and will be a persistent feature in countries with weak central governments and inefficient accounting systems,” the report notes. “It is exactly these countries that are most prone to rapid onsets of instability requiring the evacuation of Americans.”

Despite these logistical failures, as well as the death of 13 American service members in an ISIS-K terrorist attack, the Biden administration has claimed its withdrawal efforts a success.

“We completed one of the biggest airlifts in history. With more than 120,000 people evacuated to safety, that number is more than double what most experts thought was possible. No nation – no nation has ever done anything like it in all the history,” Biden said in a speech marking the final withdrawal of American forces and embassy officials.
“The bottom line: 90% of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave were able to leave,” he added.

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Today’s THREE Politically INCORRECT Cartoons by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – What Could Go Wrong?

A.F. BRANCO on January 29, 2022 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-what-could-go-wrong/

After the disaster Biden created in Afghanistan can He be trusted with the Ukraine-Russia issue?

Can Biden be Trusted? — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco. ©2022**

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Birds of a Feather

A.F. BRANCO on January 30, 2022 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-birds-of-a-feather-2/

This is the Democrat party of Minnesota, but it could be any blue state in America.

Democrat Convention 2022 — **Political Cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2021**

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Old Man, Look At “Your” Life

A.F. BRANCO on January 31, 2022 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-old-man-look-at-your-life/

Anti-free-speech advocate Neil Young gave Spotify an ultimatum, it’s either Rogan or me? Spotify chose Rogan.

Neil Young, Rogan, and Spotify — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2022.**

Donations/Tips accepted and appreciated – $1.00 – $5.00 – $25.00 – $50.00 – $100 – it all helps to fund this website and keep the cartoons coming. Also Venmo @AFBranco – THANK YOU!

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A Scandal for Every Month: The Biggest Botches, Failures, And Mess-Ups of Joe Biden’s First 12 Months in Office

REPORTED BY: ELLE REYNOLDS | JANUARY 20, 2022

Joe Biden has been in the Oval Office (or that weird set in the Eisenhower building’s South Court auditorium with the greenscreen windows) for a year now, and he’s already managed to make his short presidency known for a long line-up of scandals, botches, and slip-ups.

It’s too hard to narrow the list down to one top failure, although his disgracefully handled Afghanistan withdrawal may be the most sobering and inflation may be the one that played the biggest role in Biden’s tanking approval ratings. Even though Biden’s mess-ups tally up to far more than 12, it’s not hard to remember a Biden-enabled disaster for every month of the septuagenarian’s first year at the stern … or in the basement.

January: Biden’s Radical First Week

On his first day in office, President Joe Biden signed a list of radically left-wing executive orders, including an order requiring that schools must ignore the biological differences between male and female students from the athletic field to the bathroom if they wish to continue receiving federal funding. In Biden’s first week, Press Secretary Jen Psaki also signaled the administration’s plans to reinstate federal funding for abortions around the world with the reversal of the Mexico City policy, and the new president canceled the Keystone XL pipeline.

As Tristan Justice reported at the time, “Biden’s first 48 hours in office have launched the new administration with 17 executive orders, more than were issued in the first month of their presidencies by Donald Trump, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton combined.”

February: Biden’s CDC Worked to Keep Schools Closed

In February, Biden’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced strict reopening guidelines that would keep many schools around the country shut down. “Only K-12 schools in cities and areas with low or moderate virus transmission can fully reopen for in-person learning, as long as physical distancing and mask-wearing is enforced,” Jordan Boyd reported on Feb. 12. “Any transmission rate beyond what is designated as moderate requires hybrid learning or ‘reduced attendance,’ limiting which children are allowed in the classroom at the same time.”

On the same day, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky admitted that far-left teachers unions that have worked to keep students out of school buildings over the course of the Covid pandemic had influence when the CDC created its school reopening guidelines.

March: Working With Corporations to Create Vax Passports

As The Washington Post first reported, the Biden White House spent the month of March plotting with corporations to develop a “vaccine passport” system to force Americans to show their Covid papers in order to participate fully in society. “The passports are expected to be free and available through applications for smartphones, which could display a scannable code similar to an airline boarding pass,” the Post noted.

At the end of April, Biden announced his “American Families Plan,” a list of far-left spending priorities, many of which would become hallmarks of his struggling Build Back Bankrupt agenda. The goals of the proposed $1.8 trillion spending spree included extending government schooling fully into preschool and two years of taxpayer-provided community college.

May: More Unsavory Hunter Exploits Emerge

Scandal follows President Biden’s troubled son Hunter around, as the country learned when the New York Post published damning information recovered from a laptop the younger Biden allegedly left at a repair store in late 2020. But further revelations about Hunter’s exploits emerged in May of last year, adding to the pile of unsavory behavior that may implicate the president himself.

New emails from Hunter Biden’s suspected laptop published on May 26 by the Post show that Joe Biden “met with Ukrainian, Russian and Kazakhstani business associates of his son’s at a dinner in Washington, DC, while he was vice president” in April 2015.

“Dear Hunter, thank you for inviting me to DC and giving an opportunity to meet your father and spent some time together,” wrote executive Vadym Pozharskyi of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma, where Hunter sat on the board.

Other emails published by The Daily Mail in May revealed that Hunter Biden bragged he “smoked crack with [former D.C. Mayor] Marion Barry” when he was a student at Georgetown University.

June: Record-Setting Crisis at the Southern Border

Biden’s crisis at the Southern border has been setting records all year, but it was in June that apprehensions surged past 1 million for fiscal year 2021 and border crossings were at the highest levels since 2006. In May alone, “170,000 people were captured, marking a 20-year high,” Gabe Kaminsky reported at the time. June also saw the border state of Texas declare an emergency over Biden’s border crisis, which the president helped cause by reversing Trump-era stances like the “Remain in Mexico” policy.

As the crisis raged, Biden’s border czar Vice President Kamala Harris couldn’t be bothered to visit the actual U.S.-Mexico line, snapping “I haven’t been to Europe” when reporters pressed her on the topic. She finally caved and scheduled a trip, but only after former President Donald Trump announced his plans to visit.

July: Bragging about Working with Big Tech to Silence Dissent

In July, the Biden administration bragged about colluding with Big Tech to shut down perspectives with which the regime disagreed. In a press briefing on July 15, Psaki touted the administration’s policy of “flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation.” A few days later, Psaki admitted there was nothing “off the table” in the effort to smear dissent as “misinformation” and have it removed from social media.

August: Bungled Afghanistan Withdrawal

August saw the largest-scale disaster on Biden’s watch so far, when the administration’s disorganized withdrawal from Afghanistan left 13 American service members dead and thousands of American citizens and allies stranded under Taliban control.

From the administration’s decision to vacate Bagram Air Base before evacuating Americans from the country, to leaving weapons and equipment to fall into the hands of the Taliban, to Biden taking an out-of-touch, hollow victory lap after the service members’ deaths and while Americans remained stranded, to the administration’s ongoing decision to ignore the allies still behind enemy lines, every action taken by the Biden team was a disaster. In the same month, the administration carried out a drone strike targeted at ISIS operatives that actually killed at least 10 civilians, seven of whom were children.

Americans won’t soon forget the harrowing images of desperate people trampling each other in the chaotic race to the Kabul airport, of people clinging to aircraft landing gear and falling helpless from the sky, or of a lone helicopter leaving the roof of the American embassy. There is blood on Biden’s hands, and our allies won’t soon forget it either.

September: Biden Lies to Undermine His Own Border Patrol Agents

After a photo of U.S. Border Patrol agents on horseback was misconstrued by Democrats and their media allies to falsely accuse agents of “whipping” criminals, Biden promised to make his own CBP employees “pay” and the White House banned agents in Del Rio, Texas from using horses going forward.

“It was horrible to see. To see people treated like they did. Horses running them over people being strapped. It’s outrageous,” Biden claimed, even though the photographer who took the viral photo insisted he’d “never seen them whip anyone.”

October: Biden’s Ed Secretary, DOJ Collude with NSBA to Smear Parents as Domestic Terrorists

On Sept. 29, the National School Boards Association sent a letter to the White House asking Biden to use the FBI and other federal law enforcement to target parents using terrorism laws. A few days later on Oct. 4, in response to the letter, Attorney General Merrick Garland directed the FBI and federal attorneys to investigate and address “a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff.”

As it turns out, however, Biden’s own Education Secretary Miguel Cardona appears to have secretly requested the letter from NSBA, presumably to use as a pretense for the administration’s push to target parents unhappy with public schools’ closures, mask mandates, and extremist LGBT and critical race theory curricula.

November: That Tyrannical, Unconstitutional OSHA Vax Mandate

After issuing a September press release threatening a vaccine mandate for private businesses with 100 or more employees, Biden’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) released an emergency temporary standard on Nov. 4 that would require businesses to comply by Jan. 4 or incur fines of up to $14,000 per violation.

The Supreme Court struck this down in January, of course, and the Biden administration knew it was flagrantly unconstitutional all along — but exploiting the delays of the judicial system allowed the administration to bully many corporations into compliance anyway. Never mind the fact that the Biden administration had promised during the campaign that it wouldn’t mandate the Covid vaccine.

December: Supply Chain and Inflation Nightmare

December saw the climax (so far) of Biden’s joint inflation and supply chain crisis, dually caused by the administration’s radical spending and Democrats’ Covid lockdowns. As Americans faced shortages and shipping delays during their Christmas shopping, the Department of Labor released its November figures revealing 6.8 percent year-to-year inflation, or “the largest 12-month increase since the period ending June 1982.”

December’s inflation numbers were even higher, clocking in at 7 percent.

Bonus: January 2022: Compared Filibuster Defenders to George Wallace, Jefferson Davis

In a Jan. 11 speech urging the U.S. Senate to ditch filibuster rules in order to pass his radical and unconstitutional federalization of election laws, President Biden compared his agenda’s critics — which include Democrat Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona — to former Alabama Gov. George Wallace and Confederate leader Jefferson Davis.

“Do you want to be the side of Dr. King or George Wallace? Do you want to be the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?” Biden said. Comparing his critics to notorious segregationists isn’t a good way to start year two of the Biden era.

Who knows what new scandals and embarrassments await the Biden administration in 2022? For the sake of the country, we can hope for fewer than in 2021, but it’s clear the administration has a failed track record only one year in.

Elle Reynolds is an assistant editor at The Federalist, and received her B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College with a minor in journalism. You can follow her work on Twitter at @_etreynolds.

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Taliban Vows to Overrun DC with 2,000 Suicide Bombers, Biden Admin Silent as the Grave

Reported By C. Douglas Golden | January 11, 2022

Remember how, after the fall of Kabul, we were promised Taliban 2.0? It was going to be a softer, gentler theocracy — one which was going to include a multitude of voices in government and which definitely wouldn’t be embracing terrorism like it did during its first tenure running the country of Afghanistan.

Yes, well, about that: A report states the group, currently the de facto government of Afghanistan, has now threatened to send 2,000 suicide bombers to Washington, D.C. And yet, there’s nary a peep out of President Joe Biden’s administration.

It’s not that we couldn’t have seen this coming. Since the Biden administration’s capitulation in Afghanistan this summer, the Taliban has made it clear through their actions they’re still the same extremists they were when we chased them from power. The Western Journal has been bringing readers the truth about just how bad the situation in Afghanistan is — and why the president is directly responsible. You can help us bring America the facts by subscribing today.

The suicide-bombing threat was first reported by the Middle East Media Research Institute, or MEMRI, a watchdog which keeps an eye on communications from extremist groups and media sources.

According to a December report, during ongoing talks in Doha, Qatar — where the Taliban government seeks international recognition — Maulvi Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid, Afghanistan’s acting defense minister, said that if America wanted troops in Afghanistan to reopen its embassy there, the Taliban wanted an equivalent number of terrorists in our capital.

“If America wants 2,000 English [i.e., American] troops at its embassy in Afghanistan, we also want 2,000 Fidayeen Mujahideen [i.e., suicide bombers] from the Fateh Force at the embassy of Afghanistan in America,” a Dec. 11 tweet from Yaqoob read.

MEMRI noted that “Fidayeen” is another term used by jihadi groups for their suicide bombers.

“‘Fateh Force,’ or ‘victorious force,’ is a ‘martyrdom force’ within the Badri 313 unit of the Islamic Emirate,” the group reported. “Badri 313 is named after the Ghazwa-e-Badr, the first Islamic battle led by Islam’s founder Muhammad in which 313 Muslims defeated thousands of non-Muslim tribesmen.”

It’s not like we couldn’t have seen this coming, either. Yaqoob is the son of Mullah Mohammad Omar Mujahid, the deceased co-founder and spiritual leader of the Taliban. When the acting defense minister of Taliban 2.0 is from the family line of the extremist originator of Taliban 1.0, you can bet it’s not exactly an upgrade.

The threat isn’t an idle one, either. Last week, MEMRI reported that Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told a Pashtu-language radio station the Taliban is readying units of suicide attackers.

Taliban Spokesman and Deputy Minister Zabihullah Mujahid: Our Army’s Special Forces Will Include Martyrdom-Seeking Battalions #Afghanistan #Taliban pic.twitter.com/BXkDrRhLUd
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) January 6, 2022

“Our mujahideen in the Ishtishhadi Kandaks [martyrdom-seeking battalions] will be part of the army and [they] will be Special Forces and organized under the defense ministry,” Mujahid said.
“The Special Forces will be established in a specific number and used for special operations.”

One assumes that no matter where the talks between the U.S. and Taliban envoys in Doha go, there won’t be an agreement by which we’re allowed 2,000 troops to open our embassy in Kabul if 2,000 members of the Ishtishhadi Kandaks are stationed in the District of Columbia. However, Yaqoob’s tweet came during the latest round of talks in Doha — and, if the threat was made as reported, it wasn’t anything that fazed the Biden administration.

In October, the Biden administration agreed to send humanitarian aid to Afghanistan after talks in Qatar but refused to recognize the government there. Furthermore, The Associated Press reported the U.S. delegation “made it clear that the talks were in no way a preamble to recognition of the Taliban, who swept into power Aug. 15 after the U.S.-allied government collapsed.”

The Taliban said those talks “went well.” State Department spokesman Ned Price, meanwhile, said they were “candid and professional” and gave the same line the Biden administration has been giving since the beginning: The Taliban’s actions, not its words, would determine how things went going forward.

During a further round of talks in November, Voice of America reported, the Taliban pressed the United States to end sanctions and unfreeze assets as remedies to the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan.

Taliban Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Qahar Balkhi tweeted that their side “urged immediate unconditional unfreezing of Afghan reserves, ending of sanctions & blacklists, & disconnecting humanitarian issues from political considerations … Overall the sessions were positive and both sides agreed to continue such meetings moving forward.”

Price, meanwhile, said our side “remains committed to ensuring that U.S. sanctions do not limit the ability of Afghan civilians to receive humanitarian support from the U.S. government and international community while denying assets to sanctioned entities and individuals.”

However, to the extent Afghanistan is in a dire humanitarian state, the Taliban are the authors of that mess and bear the brunt of the responsibility for the devastation. Even if they won’t accept it publicly, they need to negotiate that way if they expect aid from Western powers. Instead, we see credible reports Taliban 2.0 is the same as Taliban 1.0, threatening the United States with a wave of suicide attackers and promising to spend some of the country’s meager resources on establishing a suicide-attacker unit within its army.

It’s difficult to imagine any other president — in particular, former President Donald Trump — letting this go unanswered. Just like during the fall of Kabul, however, the Biden administration seems unconcerned with the ugly optics or grim realities their policies have created in Afghanistan.

C. Douglas Golden, Contributor,

C. Douglas Golden is a writer who splits his time between the United States and Southeast Asia. Specializing in political commentary and world affairs, he’s written for Conservative Tribune and The Western Journal since 2014.@CillianZeal Facebook

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Friendly Fire

A.F. BRANCO on November 9, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-friendly-fire/

AOC believes the democrat electoral disaster in Virginia is due to Dems being too moderate, ditto her feelings towards Biden.

AOC and Biden — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2021.**

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Biden State Dept. increases number of Americans left behind in Afghanistan

Reported By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor| Monday, October 25, 2021

Taliban fighters atop vehicles with Taliban flags parade along a road to celebrate after the US pulled all its troops out of Afghanistan, in Kandahar on September 1, 2021 following the Talibans military takeover of the country. | JAVED TANVEER/AFP via Getty Images

The Biden administration, which had been saying for weeks that the number of Americans still left behind in Afghanistan and urgently want to be evacuated was about 100, has now increased the number to about 200. State Department spokesman Ned Price said last week that while the U.S. airlifted out dozens of people in the past couple days, more people had come forward in recent weeks expressing a desire to leave and the number is somewhere between 100 and 200, The Washington Times reported.

Sen. Ben Sasse, a Republican from Nebraska, criticized the Biden administration.

“For weeks, their official number was ‘about a hundred’ and it magically never changed — as Americans slowly got out the total number never went down. Now they say more than 300 Americans are still in Afghanistan,” Sasse was quoted as saying.

The number quoted by Sasse includes Americans who, according to the State Department, haven’t said they want to leave. Price, however, claimed that the “proven ability” of the U.S. in airlifting people out is behind the higher number of people wanting to flee.

Following the drawing down of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly seized control of much of the country, taking the capital Kabul in August and forcing the government to flee. Afghanistan’s interim government includes more than a dozen leaders who are designated terrorists and ex-Guantanamo detainees.

Meanwhile, Aman Khalili, an Afghan interpreter who helped rescue Biden in 2008, when he was a senator, after a helicopter he and other senators were riding on had to make an emergency landing in Afghanistan, was able to escape earlier this month. U.S. veterans worked with former Afghan soldiers and Pakistani allies to help Khalili cross the border into Pakistan with his family, The Wall Street Journal reported.

“Aman helped keep me and other Americans safe while we were fighting in Afghanistan, and we wanted to return the favor,” said Brian Genthe, a combat veteran, was quoted as saying. “He’s a blessing.”

Last month, the Taliban declared they will carry out executions and other brutal punishments, including amputations, under Islamic Sharia law as part of their rule in Afghanistan.

“Cutting off of hands is very necessary for security,” Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, a member of the Taliban’s interim government and chief enforcer of the group’s strict interpretation of Sharia law, told The Associated Press. “Everyone criticized us for the punishments in the stadium, but we have never said anything about their laws and their punishments. No one will tell us what our laws should be. We will follow Islam and we will make our laws on the Quran.”

Turabi, who is under U.N. sanctions, also said the new government may consider carrying out such punishments in public. The Taliban have banned all demonstrations and have violently cracked down on protests, including beating women and killing demonstrators. The Taliban are arresting, and in some instances executing, people they perceive as their enemies, Christian missionary David Eubank, a former U.S. Army Special Forces and Ranger officer, said in an earlier interview with CBN News. Eubank also said recent photos and video suggest they’re killing as many as 30 to 40 people at a time.

“They [the Taliban] are hunting down people right now, trying to get all the names of anyone they perceive as an enemy,” Eubank said, adding that the enemies include “people who work with the U.S. government, people who are with other governments, people who work with nongovernmental organizations they don’t agree with.”

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REPORT: British Military Rescuing ‘Anyone Left Behind’ in Afghanistan After Biden’s Withdrawal

posted by Hannity Staff – 10.18.21

A new report from Emily Miller now reveals the British Military is rescuing “anyone left behind” in Afghanistan following Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from the region.

“The British are saving their comrades in arms from Afghanistan. Pres. Biden won’t even rescue American citizens left behind. The Royal Air Force (RAF) this week started flying combat interpreters to safety. Biden refuses to use the assets of the U.S. military. Instead, he tasked the State Department to use diplomacy s to convince the Taliban to let people leave. Biden’s policy has been a total failure,” writes Miller.
“The UK military is rescuing hundreds of its Afghan combat interpreters, according to an exclusive report in The Telegraph. They plan to spend several weeks rescuing the Afghans who worked side-by-side with British military during the 20-year war,” she adds.
“It’s shameful that these men who are loyal to the United States are hiding from the Taliban, while those who worked with British forces are flying to safety. Biden has to take action and use military flights to rescue people,” concludes the journalist.

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US Officials Call Talks With Taliban ‘Candid and Professional’

Reuters • October 11, 2021

FILE PHOTO: Taliban delegates stand in front of a Qatar Airways plane in an unidentified location in Afghanistan, in this handout photo uploaded to social media on October 8, 2021. Picture uploaded on on October 8, 2021. Social media handout/via REUTERS

WASHINGTON (Reuters)—The United States said on Sunday the first face-to-face meeting between senior U.S. and Taliban officials since the hardline group retook power in Afghanistan was “candid and professional” and that the U.S. side reiterated that the Taliban would be judged on their actions, not just their words.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. delegation at the weekend talks in Doha, Qatar, focused on security and terrorism concerns and safe passage for U.S. citizens, other foreign nationals and Afghans, as well as on human rights, including the meaningful participation of women and girls in all aspects of Afghan society. He said the two sides also discussed “the United States’ provision of robust humanitarian assistance, directly to the Afghan people.”

“The discussions were candid and professional with the U.S. delegation reiterating that the Taliban will be judged on its actions, not only its words,” Price said in a statement.
It did not say if any agreements were reached.

The foreign ministry in Kabul said the two-day meeting went well. It welcomed the U.S. offer of humanitarian assistance and said local authorities would facilitate delivery and cooperate with aid groups but said such assistance “should not be linked to political issues”.

“Detailed discussions were held during the meeting about all relevant issues. And efforts should be exerted to restore diplomatic relations to a better state,” the ministry said in a statement, adding that similar meetings would be held in future if required.

On Saturday, Qatar-based Al Jazeera television quoted Afghanistan’s acting foreign minister as saying that Taliban representatives asked the U.S. side to lift a ban on Afghan central bank reserves. It said the minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi, also said Washington would offer Afghans coronavirus vaccines and that the two sides discussed “opening a new page” between the two countries.

Biden administration officials told Reuters on Friday the U.S. delegation would press the Taliban to release kidnapped American Mark Frerichs. Another top priority would be to hold the Taliban to their commitment not to allow Afghanistan to again become a hotbed for al Qaeda or other extremists.

The Taliban took back power in Afghanistan in August, almost 20 years after they were ousted in a U.S.-led invasion for refusing to hand over al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

The U.S. officials said the weekend meeting was a continuation of “pragmatic engagements” with the Taliban and “not about granting recognition or conferring legitimacy” to the group. U.S. officials say they are in contact with dozens of Americans and legal permanent residents who wish to leave Afghanistan and there are thousands of U.S.-allied Afghans at risk of Taliban persecution still in the country.

Washington and other Western countries are grappling with difficult choices as a severe humanitarian crisis looms large in Afghanistan. They are trying to work out how to engage with the Taliban without granting the group the legitimacy it seeks, while ensuring humanitarian aid flows into the country.

(Reporting by David Brunnstrom; Additional reporting by Moataz Abdelrahiem in Cairo, James Mackenzie in Islamabad; Editing by Ross Colvin, Peter Cooney and Raju Gopalakrishnan)

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REPORT: US Cash Is Being Airlifted Into Afghanistan

Reported by VARUN HUKERI | GENERAL ASSIGNMENT & ANALYSIS REPORTER | October 07, 2021

Afghan Refugees Desperate for Food and Aid — (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)

U.S. and international officials are preparing to airlift U.S. cash into Afghanistan for humanitarian assistance while “denying assets” for the Taliban government and its leaders, according to Reuters. Emergency funding for Afghanistan, aimed at preventing a humanitarian crisis amid food shortages and political upheaval, would see U.S. cash flown into Kabul for distribution through banks, Reuters reported. Officials reportedly plan to send $200 in direct cash to Afghans without involving the Taliban.

The U.S. and Europe have reportedly discussed creating an international trust fund to bypass the Taliban government and fund local services. International groups such as the World Food Program and the United Nations are also considering flying in U.S. cash, officials said, according to Reuters.

A U.S. Treasury official said the department would allow humanitarian assistance through international and non-governmental organizations, Reuters reported.

On the international level, one approach could see the World Food Program airlift U.S. dollars and distribute them to people to purchase essentials such as food. A second approach could see the U.N. send cash currently held in banks, according to internal policy documents obtained by Reuters.

The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan and departure of U.S. troops has led foreign donors and investors to pull billions from the country.

The International Monetary Fund suspended Afghanistan’s access to its resources, including $460 million in emergency reserves on Aug. 18. The World Bank halted aid to Afghanistan one week later due to concerns about “development prospects, especially for women,” the BBC reported.

The U.S. also froze billions of dollars in assets from accounts held in Afghanistan’s central bank, a Biden administration official told Axios. The move has prevented the Taliban government from accessing an estimated $9.4 billion in international reserves.

Around 75% of public spending in Afghanistan had been financed by foreign grants prior to the Taliban takeover, according to the World Bank. International groups warn that 14 million Afghans are facing hunger and the country’s economy could collapse amid a major cash shortage.

“If the country collapses, we will all pay the consequences,” a senior European Union official said, according to Reuters. “No one wants to rush into a recognition of the Taliban, but we need to deal with them. The question is not if … but how.”

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – The Buck Stops Where?

A.F. BRANCO on October 1, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-the-buck-stops-where/

Biden, Milley, and Austin pointing fingers, blaming each other for the Afghanistan disaster.

Milley, Biden, Austin blame Game — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2021.**

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Arizona resident who worked with US military says he’s trapped in Afghanistan, slams Biden: ‘A lot of people still left behind’

Reported by PAUL SACCA | September 26, 2021

A permanent resident of the United States and former combat interpreter who worked with the U.S. military in Afghanistan says he and his family are trapped in Afghanistan. Now that the country is dominated by the oppressive Taliban regime, he doesn’t believe he’ll be able to safely escape the country. The man, a resident of Arizona, told Fox News that he is now in hiding in Afghanistan because the Biden administration didn’t have a “clear evacuation plan.” The 31-year-old also revealed that he is not alone in being an American resident stranded in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

“There are a lot of people still left behind. My friends, I know them, they are stuck here. Four of them are American citizens. Two from Arizona and two from California,” the man said.

The man, who is only identified by his first name “Zekria” for his protection, slammed the Biden administration for its botched evacuation plan.

“The Biden administration left without any plan, and that is why there are thousands of allies who worked for the U.S. military, American citizens, Afghan Americans, all stuck here,” he explained.

He added that the Afghans who did escape the country were likely “beggars displaced from other provinces,” and probably “not qualified” members of the Afghan Special Immigrant Visa program.

“There are a lot of people like me,” Zekria said. “We are the ones who are qualified. We put ourselves and our families in danger, and they took people that don’t even have documents.”
“It was impossible to get into the airport,” he said, adding that his brother “got beaten by the Taliban” when attempting to access the Kabul airport. He said the Taliban was demanding $600 to get past checkpoints near the Hamid Karzai International Airport.

Zekria served as an officer in the Afghan Army, then worked with the U.S. military from 2011 to 2015 as a linguist combat interpreter. He reportedly received a green card and legal residence in the U.S. in return for his service. He provided Fox News with documents supporting his claims and dozens of emails he wrote to the State Department and U.S. embassies.

He attempted to evacuate Afghanistan in July, but was allegedly provided no assistance from the State Department, who told him “only help citizens – not green card holders” were being helped out of the country. He claimed that he filled out repatriation forms and other necessary documents nearly 40 times, but was never approved.

“I don’t know how this process is working but there is something that is not right,” Zekria said. “I pay taxes. The worst thing is my rent and car payment is due in a week and I am scared to get eviction in Arizona while I am here.”
Zekria believes he missed the opportunity to escape, “To be honest, I don’t believe I’m getting out safe.”

Zekria is currently living in a house with his wife, three brothers, four sisters, his parents, and his uncle in Kabul. He acknowledged that if the Taliban finds out that he helped the Americans then he and his family could be in grave danger.

“There is no safety for anyone – especially for interpreters and the ones who worked with Americans, their families, plus all of the military and the Afghan military – they just arrest whoever worked for the government,” he said. “This is why I was scared, and why I came to Afghanistan, to do something, at least, to save my family, but it didn’t happen, and now I got stuck here, too.”
“There is curfew at 10 p.m. and the Taliban, every night, is getting into houses. They are beating people. I am witnessing it,” Zekria said.
He noted that Taliban militants are “searching people’s phones and pockets.”
“No one can get out of the country. You cannot get out. It is like a prison,” he said. “The Taliban are finding any possible way to keep people inside and not let anyone leave the country.”

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BREAKING: Private Group’s Charter Plane Has Successfully Left Mazar-i-Sharif Airport in Afghanistan Full of Americans

Reported By Joe Hoft | Published September 18, 2021

The first charter plane has successfully flown out of Afghanistan with a plane full of Americans.

It is being reported that a plane full of Americans has successfully been rescued from Afghanistan.

From Emily Miller at Emilyposts.com:

I had a great conversation today with one of the heads of Afghan Evac about the process of consolidating the small veteran, special forces rescue teams into a more effective, better resourced organization. This will help everyone in Afghanistan (Americans, SIVs). I’ll have details soon for contact, links etc.”

Here is a flight path as provided at the site.

At her site, Emily shares:

Pres. Joe Biden lost the final battle in the Afghanistan war. Americans and Afghan allies were abandoned by the U.S. government in the days before the August 30 departure.
However, brave and patriotic retired military special operators have taken over the mission to leave no man behind. I’m part of one of the groups called “Project Exodus.”
The Project Exodus team allows me to share some of their information to expose the crisis so that the politicians in DC will stop working against them. They also want Americans to understand the true crisis when the U.S. government stops operating and leaves American citizens and Afghan allies to be hunted by the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Joe Hoft

Joe Hoft is the twin brother of TGP’s founder, Jim Hoft, and a contributing editor at TGP. Joe’s reporting is often months ahead of the Mainstream media as was observed in his reporting on the Mueller sham investigation, the origins of the China coronavirus, and 2020 Election fraud. Joe was a corporate executive in Hong Kong for a decade and has years of experience in finance, IT, operations and auditing around the world. The knowledge gained in his career provide him with a unique perspective of current events in the US and globally. He has ten degrees or designations and is the author of three books. Joe is currently co-host of the morning radio show in St. Louis at 93.3 “Tomorrow’s News Today”. His new book: ‘In God We Trust: Not in Lying Liberal Lunatics’ is out now – please take a look and buy a copy.

@joehoft

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Michael Austin Op-ed: Taliban Thrilled: Psaki Confirms Biden Will Not Speak on 20th Anniversary of 9/11

Commentary By Michael Austin September 9, 2021

There’s little doubt President Joe Biden has been planning his 9/11 anniversary speech for some time now. After all, the main cause of the entire Afghanistan withdrawal disaster was Biden’s insistence on an artificial deadline — Aug. 31 — so that, when the 20th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks rolled around, he could presumably boast all about how he did what no other post-9/11 president before him could. He could say he ended the war in Afghanistan.

Things didn’t work out quite as Biden hoped — the overly hasty nature of the withdrawal resulted in a terrorist takeover of the country, a result that many intelligence officials predicted and warned the president would happen, despite his assurances to the American people.

And now, as his approval rating plummets, the president will not address the nation live on the 20th anniversary of 9/11.

“[White House press secretary] Jen Psaki confirms Joe Biden will not deliver a live speech on 20th anniversary of 9/11,” Breitbart News’ White House correspondent Charlie Spiering revealed on Twitter on Thursday.

Spiering then quoted Psaki as saying “You will hear from [Biden] in the form of a video in advance — or if that will be available that day, I should say.”

Reuters reported the president, instead of addressing the nation live on Saturday, plans to visit the three memorial sites of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, ignoring the family members of 9/11 victims who have asked Biden not to show his face.

In a prerecorded video, should he choose to film one, there’s still a good chance Biden will use the opportunity to brag about his “success” in Afghanistan.

He may do so, despite leaving hundreds of Americans stranded in the terrorist-controlled country, despite handing over billions of dollars worth of military equipment to the Taliban and despite the fact that his actions indirectly led to the deaths of 13 service members in Afghanistan.

On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, Americans will be mourning the devastating loss of those brave men and women, some of whom weren’t even old enough to buy alcohol.

And also on 9/11, thanks directly to Biden’s actions, the Taliban will be celebrating. In fact, the terrorist group reportedly plans to have an inauguration ceremony for its new government on that very day.

“Speaking about the symbolism of the War on Terror, the Taliban are planning to have their interim government inauguration ceremony on Saturday, September 11th, on the 20th anniversary of 9/11,” former U.S. State Department adviser and Afghan native Arash Yaqin revealed on Tuesday.

If Biden does release a video on Saturday in honor of the 9/11 anniversary, it is likely he will ignore all the facts, as he usually does. He’s too cowardly to face up to the consequences of his actions. Otherwise, he’d be addressing the nation live.

Michael Austin

Michael Austin joined The Western Journal as a staff reporter in 2020. Since then, he has authored hundreds of stories, including several original reports. He also co-hosts the outlet’s video podcast, “WJ Live.”

@mikeswriting

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Ann Coulter Op-ed” 9/11

Commentary by Ann Coulter | Posted: Sep 08, 2021

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com., and WhatDidYouSay.org.

9/11

Source: AP Photo/Richard Drew, File

In honor of the 20-year marker of the 9/11 attacks, I thought I’d run excerpts from a few of my post-9/11 columns.

One point I politely refrained from making 20 years ago: Why was the president of the United States reading “The Pet Goat” to a class of second-graders at the moment our nation was attacked?

I think the “Attack France” column (Dec. 20, 2001) holds up well, mostly because I’d rather be bringing in hundreds of thousands of Frenchmen right now than hundreds of thousands of Afghans. (Who knew the golden ticket to U.S. citizenship was being the country that hosted Osama bin Laden?)

But that column didn’t make the cut. In 2007, the magnificent Gallic made Nicolas Sarkozy the new president of France, and now we’re friends again.

Finally, for the sub-literate: After the defeat of Japan in World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur, leader of the occupation, put out a call to American Christians: “Send missionaries and Bibles!” Thousands of missionaries poured in. The same thing happened after the Korean War, with greater success than in Japan.

On this point, there was surprising unanimity. Even President Truman agreed with his nemesis MacArthur, who said: “[Democracy] will endure when it rests firmly on the Christian conception of the individual and society.”

Today, not even a Republican would say that. Good luck, America!

— “This Is War,” Sept. 12, 2001

[T]he nation has been invaded by a fanatical, murderous cult. And we welcome them. We are so good and so pure we would never engage in discriminatory racial or “religious” profiling. People who want our country destroyed live here, work for our airlines, and are submitted to the exact same airport shakedown as a lumberman from Idaho. This would be like having the Wehrmacht immigrate to America and work for our airlines during World War II. Except the Wehrmacht was not so bloodthirsty.

“All of our lives” don’t need to change, as they keep prattling on TV. Every single time there is a terrorist attack — or a plane crashes because of pilot error — Americans allow their rights to be contracted for no purpose whatsoever.

The airport kabuki theater of magnetometers, asinine questions about whether passengers “packed their own bags” … somehow allowed over a dozen armed hijackers to board four American planes almost simultaneously on Bloody Tuesday. Did those fabulous security procedures stop a single hijacker anyplace in America that day?

Airports scrupulously apply the same laughably ineffective airport harassment to Suzy Chapstick as to Muslim hijackers. It is preposterous to assume every passenger is a potential crazed homicidal maniac.

We know who the homicidal maniacs are. They are the ones cheering and dancing right now. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren’t punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That’s war. And this is war.

— “Future Widows of America: Write Your Congressman,” Sept. 27, 2001

After the World Trade Center was bombed by Islamic fundamentalists in 1993, the country quickly chalked it up to a zany one-time attack and five minutes later decided we were all safe again. We weren’t. We aren’t now …

Congress has authority to pass a law tomorrow requiring aliens from suspect countries to leave. As far as the Constitution is concerned, aliens, which is to say non-citizens, are here at this country’s pleasure …

[T]he very nature of the enemy is that they have infiltrated this country and pass themselves off as law-abiding, peaceful immigrants. Their modus operandi is to smuggle mass murderers to our shores. But the country refuses to respond rationally. Rather, Congress is busily contemplating a series of “anti-terrorism” measures most notable for their utter irrelevance to the threat. …

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., has proposed that we take the aggressive step of asking aliens in the country to register periodically with the government so we know where they are. That’s already the law in Germany. Several of the hijackers in this attack lived in Hamburg, and they obediently complied.

The mastermind of the most vicious terrorist attack in the history of the world, Mohamed Atta, was in Florida on a “vocational status” visa — in order to attend flight school. Let’s say Atta had registered. Now what, Joe?

— “Build Them Back,” June 7, 2002

The reason liberals prefer a park to luminous skyscrapers [on the site of the World Trade Center] is that they are not angry. Liberals express sympathy for the victims, but they’re not angry. Instead of longing to crush and humiliate the enemy, they believe true patriotism consists of redoubled efforts to expand the welfare state.https://a7dc841daceec5d9069484a50746f032.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html#xpc=sf-gdn-exp-3&p=https%3A//townhall.com

Sen. Hillary Clinton proposed a school for the World Trade Center site and Sen. Charles Schumer, a park. Yeah, that’ll show ’em!

Meanwhile, the construction workers clearing away the rubble vowed they would work without pay to rebuild the World Trade Center. Of course, now that we have 14 cows, that shouldn’t be necessary. (In a genuinely touching story, a tiny cow-herding village in Kenya only recently got word of the attack on America and, this week, made a special present of 14 cows to the United States.)

The attack on the World Trade Center ripped America’s soul not only for the thousands of lives it snuffed out. Even if the towers had been empty, the destruction of those buildings would have been heart-wrenching. Skyscrapers are the hallmark of civilization, monuments to human brilliance and creativity. …

Mohamed Atta loathed skyscrapers. Newsweek reported that he viewed the emergence of tall buildings in Egypt as an odious surrender to Western values. The most fitting memorial to the victims of the World Trade Center attack is to build the most breathtaking skyscraper in the world on top of Mohamed Atta’s corpse.https://a7dc841daceec5d9069484a50746f032.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html#xpc=sf-gdn-exp-4&p=https%3A//townhall.com

— “This Whistleblower They Like,” June 13, 2002

In their enthusiasm to bash the Bush administration for its handling of the war — which Democrats consider an annoying distraction from the real business of government, which is redistributing income — the left has embraced FBI agent Coleen Rowley as a modern Joan of Arc …

[T]he gravamen of Rowley’s 13-page memo is essentially that FBI headquarters botched the Zacarias Moussaoui case (the 20th hijacker) by refusing to racially profile Muslims. …

[Specifically] she condemned FBI brass for refusing to authorize a search warrant for Moussaoui based on the following information: 1) he refused to consent to a search of his computer; 2) he was in flight school; 3) he had overstayed his visa; and 4) he was a Muslim.

Let’s see, which of these factors constitutes probable cause?

— Refusal to consent to a search? It is your right to refuse. Any other rule would allow cops to bootstrap their way into a warrant. “Hi, Zacarias, may we search your computer? No? That’s suspicious! Grounds for a warrant!” I don’t think so.

— In flight school? NO.

— Overstayed visa? NO.

— Is a Muslim? NOT ALLOWED. …

I happen to agree with her, but liberals don’t. So how did Rowley become the left’s new Norma Rae? … FBI headquarters rebuffed Rowley’s callous insensitivity to Muslims and denied a warrant request to search Moussaoui’s computer — and thus failed to uncover the Sept. 11 plot.

The FBI allowed thousands of Americans to be slaughtered on the altar of political correctness. What more could liberals ask for?

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Opinion, Political

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Today’s TWO Politically INCORRECT Cartoons by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – The Beat Goes On

A.F. BRANCO on September 8, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-the-beat-goes-on/

The Left is outraged over the Texas Fetal Heartbeat law, but if babies in the womb could talk.

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A.F. Branco Cartoon – Flight Risk

A.F. BRANCO on September 9, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-flight-risk/

Biden in allowing thousands of unvetted Afghan refugees into the U.S. including possible future terrorists.

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American mom and kids successfully rescued from Afghanistan but mission organizer accuses State Dept. of trying to steal the credit

Reported by CARLOS GARCIA | mSeptember 06, 2021

An American mother and her three children have been rescued from Afghanistan, but one of the organizers accused the State Department of trying to take unearned credit for their mission.

Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma tweeted about the successful mission on Monday.

“Mariam had gone to visit her parents for the first time with the kids and became trapped in Kabul when the Taliban overran the city. We left two weeks ago today to get her, the children, and others out,” said Mullin.

He went on to say that his team faced numerous setbacks in their effort to save Mariam and her children, but they were successfully evacuated Monday morning.

“This morning at 05:32EDT they got out of Afghanistan. Praise the Lord!” tweeted Mullin.

The State Department confirmed the report in a statement.

“U.S. has facilitated the safe departure of four US citizens by overland route from Afghanistan. Embassy staff was present upon their arrival,” said the statement.

Contrary to the claims from the State Department, one of the organizers of the mission accused them of exaggerating their role in the rescue.

“The fact that they’re spinning this, trying to take 100% credit when they didn’t track this family, when they placated this family, when the mother, who was under extreme stress and extreme pressure, reached out to the State Department multiple times and got no help,” said Cory Mills in a statement to Fox News.

Mills and a private team of military veterans were funded in their mission by private donors including the Sentinel Foundation.

“This is an attempt to save face by the administration for the Americans they left behind. This is a woman with three children from age 15 all the way down to two-years-old. And they did nothing to try to expedite this,” Mills continued. “But at the very last minute you have these ‘senior officials’ at the State Department trying to claim credit for this like ‘oh yeah look what we’ve done.'”

Mullin corroborated the accusations against the State Department.

“This is a flat out lie. The Biden Administration abandoned them. Let’s be clear, it was our team of patriots who worked around the clock for two weeks to get them out, despite the many roadblocks from the State Department,” he tweeted.

Mullin added that there are many more Americans still waiting to be rescued.

“There are still many families like Mariam’s who are desperately wanting and waiting to get out. America cannot rest until we get them all home,” he tweeted.

Here’s more about the rescue efforts out of Afghanistan:

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The Taliban is holding hostage six planes chartered by Glenn Beck charity to rescue Americans left behind by Biden admin

Reported by CARLOS GARCIA | September 06, 2021

Six planes on a mission to rescue more than a hundred Americans wanting to leave Afghanistan were grounded by the Taliban as negotiations continued with the State Department Monday.

The evacuation effort was a part of a mission chartered by Mercury One, the charity founded by conservative media personality and TheBlaze founder Glenn Beck.

Newsweek confirmed the details through an NGO working on the evacuation.

According to the report, at least 1,000 people were waiting to board the planes at an airport in the city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

“The planes are currently empty and its passengers are still waiting in their safe houses for clearance for takeoff from the Taliban,” said one NGO official to Newsweek. “I have more than 1,000 people on the master manifest that want to fly, of which 123 are Americans and the rest are Special Immigration Visas.”

Earlier on Sunday, the State Department sent an email to members of Congress to alert them about the negotiations with the Taliban. The email reportedly said that the planes had permission to land in Doha, Qatar, but only after the Taliban allowed them to leave.

“The Taliban is basically holding them hostage to get more out of the Americans,” said a congressional source to CBS News.

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas said Sunday on Fox News that the Taliban had the Americans in a hostage situation.

“In fact we have six airplanes at Mazar-i-Sharif airport, six airplanes, with American citizens on them as I speak, also with these interpreters, and the Taliban is holding them hostage for demands right now,” McCaul said. “State has cleared these flights, and the Taliban will not let them leave the airport.”

A spokesperson told Newsweek they were not able to confirm whether Americans were waiting to board the planes to escape.

“We do not have personnel on the ground, we do not have air assets in the country, we do not control the airspace — whether over Afghanistan or elsewhere in the region,” the unidentified official said.

Glenn Beck had raised more than $22 million from donors and his radio audience to fund the mission to rescue Christians, Americans, and Afghan allies from the Taliban-controlled nation.

Here’s more about the effort to rescue Americans from Afghanistan:

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Life In A Bubble

A.F. BRANCO on September 7, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-life-in-a-bubble/

It’s a shame when President Biden places a higher Priority on ice cream than the death and destruction of his policies.

Joe Biden Failing Mentaly — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2021.**

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‘Hostage situation’: Taliban refusing to let Americans, Afghan translators leave Afghanistan

Reported by By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor| Monday, September 06, 2021

Taliban, Afghanistan — Taliban fighters stand guard along a road near the site of an Ashura procession which is held to mark the death of Imam Hussein, the grandson of the Islamic prophet Mohammad, along a road in Herat on August 19, 2021, amid the Taliban’s military takeover of Afghanistan. | AREF KARIMI/AFP via Getty Images

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, a ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said Sunday that the Taliban are not letting flights ready to evacuate American civilians and allies leave Afghanistan and are “holding them hostage for demands.”

The Taliban is preventing Americans and allies from leaving the country on six charter planes at Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport in northern Afghanistan and making demands of the U.S., McCaul told Fox News on Sunday.

“In fact, we have six airplanes at Mazar-i-Sharif airport, six airplanes, with American citizens on them as I speak, also with these interpreters, and the Taliban is holding them hostage for demands right now,” McCaul said.
“The Taliban wants something in exchange. This is really … turning into a hostage situation where they are not going to allow American citizens to leave until they get full recognition from the United States of America,” he added.

When “Fox News Sunday” host Chris Wallace asked how many Americans have been evacuated out of Afghanistan since the withdrawal deadline on Aug. 31, McCaul said, “I understand, zero.” The flights have permission to land in Doha “if and when the Taliban agrees to takeoff,” according to an email from the State Department to members of Congress, CBS News reported, quoting sources as saying that the planes are not currently loaded and the passengers are being held nearby.

In response to McCaul’s claim that Americans are essentially being held as hostages, a State Department spokesperson told The Hill on Sunday that since the U.S. no longer has an embassy or staff in Afghanistan, it cannot confirm the veracity of those reports.

“Given these constraints, we also do not have a reliable means to confirm the basic details of charter flights, including who may be organizing them, the number of U.S. citizens and other priority groups on-board, the accuracy of the rest of the manifest, and where they plan to land, among many other issues,” the spokesperson said.
“We understand the concern that many people are feeling as they try to facilitate further charter and other passage out of Afghanistan,” the spokesperson added, noting that the Biden administration will “hold the Taliban to its pledge to let people freely depart Afghanistan.”

Ascend, a group committed to developing young women as leaders through athletics, was quoted by CBS News as saying that they’ve had two flights waiting for six days to take between 600 and 1,200 people — including 19 American citizens and two permanent residents.

Following the drawing down of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly seized control of much of the country, eventually taking the capital Kabul last month and forcing the government to flee. In response to the unexpected speed at which the terrorist group retook the nation, tens of thousands of Americans, Afghan allies, and others desperately tried to leave the country.

In its email, the State Department advised members of Congress to warn people seeking to evacuate out of Mazar-i-Sharif that the U.S.: “does not have personnel on the ground in Mazar, we do not have air assets in the country, and we do not control the airspace. … It is a Taliban decision to ground flights in Mazar-i-Sharif. We are, however, providing guidance and assistance to the extent possible — and with an emphasis on safety — to private entities working out of Mazar.”

Politico reporter Daniel Lippman posted a photo from Maxar Technologies showing the grounded planes on Twitter. “Newly released satellite images show six commercial airplanes at Mazar-i-Sharif airport in northern Afghanistan that are not being allowed to depart by the Taliban.”

In his interview with Fox News, McCaul said Biden has “blood on his hands.”

“I’ve said all along this president has blood on his hands, and this week, this last week, we had 13 servicemen and women come home, flag-draped coffins at Dover Air Base. This problem is going to get worse, not better, and we have left them behind. That’s the basic creed of the military.”

On Aug. 26, a suicide bombing outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul killed 10 U.S. Marines, two Army soldiers and one Navy Corpsman, along with as many as 170 civilians, most of whom were awaiting their evacuation.

McCaul also said those who have helped the U.S. military in Afghanistan are being persecuted.

“You have stories of interpreters being taken home to their families and watching their wives and families being beheaded, executed before they execute the interpreter,” he said. “This is not a new and improved Taliban. This is the same old Taliban. They are reverting back to with the same brutal practices.”

In an exclusive interview with Fox News’ Bret Baier on Friday, Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma said the Taliban was charging between $500 to $4,000 as a “tax” to get past each checkpoint to reach the Kabul airport, which is one reason why the French and British special forces carried out rescue missions to extricate their citizens who were stranded or had been turned away at checkpoints.

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Today’s FOUR Politically INCORRECT Cartoons by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Ready, Aim, Blame

A.F. BRANCO on September 3, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-ready-aim-blame/

Biden takes no responsibility for his disaster in Afghanistan, he just wants to blame Trump.

Biden Blames Trump — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2021.**

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Odd Man Out

A.F. BRANCO on September 4, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-odd-man-out/

Much of NATO has lost a lot of trust and respect for the United States under Biden.

Biden and NATO — **Political cartoon A.F. Branco Cartoon ©2021.**

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Police Reimagined

A.F. BRANCO on September 5, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-police-reimagined/

Reimagining police is another term for defunding and reinventing it into more social workers.

Reimagine Minnesota Police — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2021.**

A.F. Branco Cartoon – The Harder They Fall

A.F. BRANCO on September 6, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-the-harder-they-fall/

California Gubernatorial Race; Conservative Larry Elder is up against Gavin Newsom a wealthy leftist elitist funded by Big Tech, Hollywood, and the mainstream corporate media.

Larry Elder vs Gavin Newsom — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2021.**

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How Private Citizens Stepped Up To Get Americans Out Of Kabul When The US Government Failed

Reported by VARUN HUKERI | GENERAL ASSIGNMENT & ANALYSIS REPORTER | September 02, 2021

Hamid Karzai International Airport in KabulEvacuated — **(Photo by Taylor Crul/U.S. Air Force via Getty Images)**

The chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in recent weeks has left Americans stranded in the capital city of Kabul, and in response, a disparate group of private citizens has stepped up to get people out of the country. President Joe Biden stuck to his plan to withdraw the remaining U.S. military forces from Afghanistan even as thousands of American citizens, legal permanent residents and Afghan Special Immigration Visa applicants remained at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

Biden defended the evacuation in an address Tuesday by claiming 90% of Americans who wanted to leave the country were evacuated successfully. His remarks came one day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted that between 100 and 200 Americans had been left behind after the U.S. military completed its withdrawal.

President Joe Biden delivers remarks on the end of the war in Afghanistan in the State Dining Room at the White House on August 31, 2021 in Washington, DC (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

As the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline approached, a number of private citizens with former military or intelligence experience began to organize evacuations to get both Americans and Afghans out of the country. Among them is former Force Recon Marine Chad Robichaux, who was deployed to Afghanistan eight times and has rescued more than 5,300 people from the country. He told the Daily Caller News Foundation about his efforts to rescue orphaned children and other vulnerable people in an Aug. 28 interview.

“We worked a relationship with a foreign government and their military to allow us to work with them and build a plan to clandestinely go in and get certain groups of people, move them onto the airport in Kabul and then utilize charter planes and some of the military aircraft [to get them out],” he said.

A volunteer group of U.S. Special Operations veterans also launched a mission last week to move people in small groups to the Kabul airport and evacuate them from the country. The mission, called the “Pineapple Express,” has reportedly rescued more than 500 people including vulnerable Afghans, according to ABC News.

In many of the private operations conducted by veterans and others, rescuers have used digital communications and other technology to act as emergency dispatchers, call in favors with guards, share intelligence about the Taliban and move families to the right runway to get on a flight, according to The Washington Post.

KABUL, AFGHANISTAN - AUGUST 21: In this handout provided by the U.S. Air Force, an air crew assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron assists evacuees aboard a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 21, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Photo by Taylor Crul/U.S. Air Force via Getty Images)

An air crew assigned to the 816th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron assists evacuees aboard a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft in support of the Afghanistan evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 21, 2021 in Kabul, Afghanistan (Taylor Crul/U.S. Air Force via Getty Images)

A number of operations have used encrypted messaging apps like Slack and Signal to share sensitive information and send photos to the people being evacuated from Afghanistan. These efforts to communicate across thousands of miles are now being called “Digital Dunkirk” in reference to the evacuation of trapped Allied soldiers from the beaches of northern France during World War II.

Members of Congress have also scrambled in recent weeks to provide information to constituents trapped in Afghanistan and aid in evacuation efforts. Several lawmakers told the Daily Caller or other outlets that the State Department had refused to guarantee protection for Americans and Afghans at the airport in Kabul.

Republican Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton was among the first members to encourage Americans trapped in Afghanistan to call his office, setting up an email address to help disseminate information. One Afghan American couple, who had been unable to get to the Kabul airport, made it past Taliban and U.S. security checkpoints with the help of Cotton, who gave them a military contact at the airport.

The Biden administration has taken fire from all sides amid the fallout of a chaotic U.S. withdrawal. As expected, Republicans have ripped the administration for leaving Americans behind, but corporate media outlets and even officials who served under former President Barack Obama have gone off on the administration.

Republicans lambasted the administration President Joe Biden is taking fire from all sides amid the fallout, as the Taliban moves to consolidate its power in Afghanistan and thousands of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies remain trapped in the country.

“The fact that ‘Digital Dunkirk’ exists, it’s a wonderful tribute to the people doing it, obviously the people on the ground in Kabul are awesome, and I’m not talking about them, but the fact that it exists is a — there’s a failure here of the government,” Tapper said.
“My contention is that there is probably no way for the Afghan security forces and the government to collapse overnight and there not to have been a corresponding chaos on the ground and the scenes that you are seeing,” Murphy responded.
“But the idea that this is being done as efficiently as could be done just flies in the face of everything I’m sure you’re hearing behind the scenes, certainly everything I’m hearing,” Tapper shot back.

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Majority of Afghan interpreters left behind: Senior State Dept. official

Reported By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor| Thursday, September 02, 2021

While the United States has evacuated more than 123,000 people out of Afghanistan, the majority of Afghan interpreters who are at risk of Taliban reprisal for helping the U.S. and up to 200 Americans have been left behind, a senior State Department official and other government officials said.

“The majority of” Afghan visa applicants haven’t been evacuated, a State Department official, who has not been named, told The Wall Street Journal. Among them is an Afghan interpreter who was part of a 2008 mission to rescue Joe Biden, who was a senator at the time, and two other Democrat senators when their helicopter made an emergency landing in blinding snow in a valley 20 miles southeast of Bagram Air Field, the Journal said, adding that the man is now in hiding.

Over 20,000 Afghans had applied for visas when the U.S. decided to withdraw troops from their country. When including their family members who would also need to escape the Taliban, the number rises to around 100,000 Afghans who might be eligible for relocation, the Journal estimates.

The State Department estimates that up to 200 Americans who wanted to leave have also been left behind.

At least 24 Sacramento-area students are also confirmed to be stranded in the South Asian country. The Sacramento Bee quoted San Juan Unified school district staff as saying that 24 students, down from the initial estimate of 150 students, had not returned to campuses since the start of the 2021-2022 school year.

“Our office has been in close contact with the San Juan Unified School District, and have urgently flagged the students’ information with the State Department and Department of Defense. We have not received an update from the State Department or the DOD,” Sacramento Congressman Ami Bera’s office said in a statement.

Among the stranded Americans is a pregnant American from California, whom Taliban militants kicked in the stomach as she tried to flee Kabul with her husband and father, Fox News reported.

“She was kicked in the stomach, but she was kicked in the stomach well after — as she got through the first checkpoint where she remained for hours, waiting for those people at the south point to supposedly come out and get her,” U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., was quoted as saying.

“It wasn’t until it was clear they’d closed, [that] they weren’t taking anyone else for quite a while, that finally she accepted that she was going to have to go back and hide in her apartment,” Issa added.

The U.S. and its allies evacuated more than 123,000 people out of Afghanistan in the final weeks of the mission.

Human rights group ADF International has also urged the international community to address the “dire plight” of religious minority communities in Afghanistan, including 10,000 Christians who are now “at extreme risk of being targeted with deadly violence.”

Following the drawing down of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly seized control of much of the country, eventually taking the capital Kabul last month and forcing the government to flee. In response to the unexpected speed at which they retook the nation, tens of thousands of Americans, Afghan allies, and others desperately tried to leave the country.

Last Thursday, a suicide bombing outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul killed 10 U.S. Marines, two Army soldiers and one Navy Corpsman, along with as many as 170 civilians, most of whom were awaiting their evacuation. The explosion came less than a week before the Aug. 31 deadline to withdrawal all U.S. troops from the South Asian country.

In response, the U.S. purportedly killed two high profile terrorists from ISIS-K — one “planner” and one “facilitator,” in a drone strike in Afghanistan.

The withdrawal marked the end of the war in Afghanistan, which spanned nearly two decades. In an appearance on Sinclair Broadcast Group’s “The National Desk” last Monday, Adam Andrzejewski, the CEO of the nonprofit transparency organization OpentheBooks.com, noted that the war effort has cost American taxpayers $83 billion.

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Former Israeli Agent and Researcher: “Kabul is Phase One on the Way to Conquering the World”

Reported By Richard Abelson | Published September 2, 2021

Mordechai Kedar was a member of IDF intelligence for 25 years. The Researcher at Bar-Ilan University in Israel, internationally known scholar, columnist and lecturer, spoke to Italian journalist Giulio Meotti about the fall of Kabul.

“Kabul is pumping new blood into the arteries of the jihad and the results are seen all over the world. We must understand that the Islamic mentality is a ‘zero sum game’. When Islam wins, Christianity loses and the ‘crusaders’ lose. They always see a connection between what happened in the 10th century and what happens in the 21st century”, said Kedar.

“Islam progresses, state by state, continent by continent. Today they speak of conquering Rome after Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Church, while Rome is the capital of the Western Church. Having conquered the Eastern Church in 1453, they are now marching on Rome. We hear this clearly from radical Islam. Kabul is only one phase of a global plan. They think it is proof that their path is the right one. They think they have defeated Western culture, embodied by America, which wanted to spread Westernism in the Islamic world. The battle is always cultural, before one for the land or for people”.

Now in Kabul the battle is between the Taliban and the Islamic State, Kedar says. “I think the Taliban will win because they have a stronger tribal base. There is no Afghanistan, it is just a name that the British gave it. There is also no Afghan language. The Taliban may be more cautious in supporting al Qaeda against America. September 11 was the Pearl Harbor of the Islamic world. But the Islamic State survived the defeat in Syria and Iraq, it is now an idea, present in Sinai, Nigeria, Libya, Yemen, the Philippines, Khorasan … They will try to take advantage of it”.

Hegira: Immigration Jihad

“It is the very nature of Jihad, which is not only a military war, but also a ‘strenuous effort’. And this includes both the military aspect, and also economic jihad: Like Qatar providing money to Islamists in the Middle East such as Hamas. Then there is a media jihad, like Al Jazeera. There is a political jihad, in which Islamists enter European parliaments, to fight those countries from within. And there is the ‘Hegira’ jihad, the Jihad of immigration, which is another manifestation. And we see it very well in Italy. The largest mosque in Europe is in Rome. And what they do in the streets of France, burning churches and physically attacking priests, praying en masse in the open. All they do is strengthen Islam at the expense of other cultures. There is a verse from the Koran, ‘Allah is with those who have patience”.

Europe, Kedar explains , is the final spoils. “The conquest of Europe by mostly illegal immigration and with a higher birth rate than the European peoples. And then the imposition of halal food on schools in the West, the attempts to silence church bells and the imposition of sharia law on public spaces in immigrant neighborhoods in Western Europe. It’s time to wake up, understand and take the necessary steps, before it’s too late”.

It’s time to wake up, before it’s too late

August 15, Kedar concludes, will be remembered in the Islamic world for decades. “Muslims have a great historical memory. It was no coincidence that September 11 was chosen as the date to attack New York, because on September 11, 1683, the Turkish armies were defeated at the gates of Vienna. And since then the Western world has grown stronger and stronger against Islam. September 11 was chosen for a great historical revenge.”

In June 1983, interviewed by Austrian TV, Pope John Paul II said, recalling the enterprise of the Polish king Jan Sòbieski who joined the Duke Charles of Lorraine: “You will commemorate the hour of destiny when, exactly 300 years ago, the city of Vienna was saved from the conquest that was looming, thanks to the joint efforts of Christianity … This very important event will remind today’s Christians of their common responsibility towards Europe ”.

Who today – which Pope, intellectual or politician – would deliver such a speech without incurring, not only an Islamic fatwa, but also Western ex-communication for islamophobia?

Giulio Meotti is an Italian journalist with Il Foglio and writes a twice-weekly column for Israel National News, where this article first appeared.

Richard Abelson is Gateway Pundit international correspondent. Follow him on Parler or GETTR.

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Wasn’t Trump Impeached Over a Call? Biden Coerced Afghan Pres to Lie About Taliban Winning in Leaked Call: Report

By Taylor Penley | September 1, 2021

Remember when House Democrats accused former President Donald Trump of pressuring Ukraine to investigate then-candidate Joe Biden while leveraging military aid as collateral during a phone call with Ukraine’s president in 2019? I do. The accusation prompted Trump’s first impeachment on the grounds of “abuse of power” and “obstruction of Congress” that December, according to the U.S. Sun.

Now, two years later, it’s President Joe Biden who’s responsible for talks with world leaders, talks like the one House Democrats used to attack Trump. And, to afford Biden similar scrutiny to what Trump received, one particular aspect of Biden’s last call with now-former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani seems especially interesting.

Biden’s final call with Ghani came on July 23 — three weeks before Kabul fell to Taliban forces and Islamic extremism toppled 20 years of democratic progress in the country. The two discussed “military aid, political strategy and messaging” for approximately 14 minutes, Reuters reported on Tuesday after reviewing what it said was a transcript and audio of the exchange provided by an anonymous source. One particular aspect of the leaked transcript appears especially damning for Biden, as the New York Post pointed out.

The Post noted the transcript shows Biden “pressured” Ghani to “‘create the perception’ that the Taliban weren’t winning, ‘whether it is true or not.’”
“I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban,” Biden said during the call, according to Reuters.
“And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.”

Biden’s pressuring went a step further, however, according to Reuters.

If Ghani could successfully fool the public into thinking the Afghan government had plans to control what Reuters called the “spiraling situation” of the Taliban’s resurgence, Biden would offer aid.

“We will continue to provide close air support, if we know what the plan is,” Biden said, according to Reuters.

The outlet added that, just days before the call, the U.S. supported Afghan security forces with air strikes against the Taliban. The Taliban maintained that these air strikes violated the Doha peace agreement signed under the Trump administration.

To provide some context, the Taliban had already advanced into approximately half of Afghanistan’s district centers at the time of the phone call, the Post noted. Just three weeks later, the nation’s capital would be directly threatened by Taliban forces. Ghani fled just before the city fell. But before that would happen, Biden advised Ghani during their exchange to employ prominent Afghan political and military figures — including former Afghan President Hamid Karzai — to further generate the sense of security, the Post added.

“That will change perception, and that will change an awful lot, I think,” Biden said, according to Reuters.

At another point in the conversation, Biden said a change in the Afghan government’s strategy would do more than help “on the ground,” Reuters reported. It would generate support for the Ghani regime internationally.

“I’m not a military guy, so I’m not telling you what that plan should precisely look like, you’re going to get not only more help, but you’re going to get a perception that is going to change,” he said, according to Reuters.

It was never OK to give Afghans or our allies a false sense of security in light of the danger steadily progressing across the country.

Afghan civilians and U.S. allies alike (particularly those in Europe) have since succumbed to a grim reality in one way or another — either being forced to flee their homes, scramble to return to their home countries (if residing there on behalf of another nation) or stay behind in the Taliban’s wake.

And it makes our president look like a liar.

Now, as September begins, the aftermath of the U.S.’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan seems clearer every day.

Our allies are furious with us, Gold Star families mourn the loss of our 13 heroes killed in action during an ISIS suicide bombing outside of Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport and several Americans and U.S. allies have since been left behind in the region.

We can only expect things to get worse from here.

Amid the bombshell leaked transcript of Biden and Ghani’s exchange that’s likely to make headway in the news, it’s reasonable to wonder whether Biden’s coercion and deception will stick to his image or roll off his shoulders as if he’s covered in Teflon.

Considering the establishment media’s — and our elected officials’ — histories of handling Biden with kid gloves, the likely answer is already clear.

Taylor Penley, Contributor

Taylor Penley is a political commentator residing in Northwest Georgia. She holds a BA in English with minors in rhetoric/writing and global studies from Dalton State College. As a student, she worked in government relations and interned for Georgia’s 14th congressional district. She previously published an article with Future Female Leaders and published her rhetorical analysis of President Reagan’s Berlin Wall Speech in a collegiate journal. She seeks to study journalism or communication in graduate school.

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Ann Coulter Op-ed: Defund the World’s Police

Commentary by Ann Coulter | Posted: Sep 01, 2021

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com., and WhatDidYouSay.org.

Defund the World's Police

Source: AP Photo/Khwaja Tawfiq Sediqi

Why does the establishment think that whenever something is amiss anywhere in the world, we need to scramble jets and fly in to fix it?

There’s a girl in Sudan who can’t get treatment for a cut on her finger — but they will treat the boy! Fire up the missiles!

Naivete + hubris is a bad combination, like ignoring the label and mixing toilet drain cleaner and bleach.

For a thoughtful defense of Team America: World’s Policeman, we turn to the journal of consensus liberal opinion, The Atlantic. Peter Wehner, a George W. Bush speechwriter and renowned cheerleader for flinging our troops around the globe to wipe out poverty, misogyny, homophobia, badness and meanness, recently penned a piece announcing that he is hopping mad at President Biden for ending the war in Afghanistan after a measly 20 years.

Wehner begins by sneering that Biden is “a follower more than a leader.” Biden’s decision to end the war is opposed by: Donald Trump, Tony Blair, Bush, The New York Times, The New York Post, Fox News, MSNBC, the “intelligence community,” the generals, etc., etc.

Question: Who’s Biden following?

Then Wehner rolled out this huge expose: As vice president, Biden “argued that the United States does not have an obligation to Afghans who trusted the United States,” telling Richard Holbrooke, “We don’t have to worry about that. We did it in Vietnam. Nixon and Kissinger got away with it.”

Biden also “reportedly pushed back on the argument that America had a moral obligation to women in Afghanistan.”

I’m seized with admiration for the man.

Writing in The Dispatch, Paul Miller, director for Afghanistan and Pakistan on the National Security Councils for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, listed the many, many accomplishments of our military hanging out in Afghanistan for two decades.

First, he says, “The U.S. mission in Afghanistan accomplished some important successes. There have been no large-scale international terrorist attacks emanating from Afghanistan or Pakistan since 2001.”

There have been almost “no large-scale international terrorist attacks” period. Maybe Madrid in 2004. The 9/11 attack was a once-in-a-lifetime sucker punch.

But you know what there have been? Loads and loads of “home-grown” — i.e. “immigrant” — terrorist attacks, such as, off the top of my head:

— the 2015 San Bernardino terrorist attack (14 dead) committed by — who was it again? — Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook, two Pakistani immigrants, first and second generation; and

— the 2016 Pulse nightclub terrorist attack — aka “the second-deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history” (49 dead) — committed by Omar Mir Seddique Mateen, a second-generation immigrant from GUESS WHERE? … Afghanistan!

Speaking of home-grown, apple-cheeked, boy-next-door terrorists, who are the “Americans” still needing to be airlifted out of Afghanistan? Why can’t we have the names? The media want me to think they’re all Pat Tillman, but I have a sneaking suspicion they’re more in the mold of Omar Mir Seddique Mateen.

Second, Miller boasts: “The Afghan people broadly support the country’s new constitution.”

That’s true if “broadly” means “not at all.” Ninety-nine percent of Afghans say they want to live under Sharia law, according to 2013 polling by Pew.

And finally, for the killer argument, Miller says: “By virtually every metric of human development, Afghans are better off today than they were 20 years ago.”

Not to get bogged down in irrelevancies, but how about Americans? Are Americans better off today than they were 20 years ago?

The murder rate has soared, year over year, in each of the last two years; BLM riots caused billions of dollars in damage — and that’s just the amount covered by insurance; millions of illegal aliens are streaming into our country right now, as we speak, bringing disease and dysfunction with them; and criminals and homeless people control our streets — especially in any city lucky enough to have a George Soros-backed district attorney.

But who cares about our country? Let’s get back to Afghanistan!

Gen. H.R. McMaster, Trump’s national security adviser — one of his very first picks after winning the election by promising, among other things, to stop the permanent wars and get us out of Afghanistan — was on MSNBC last week, listing a parade of horribles that would flow from Biden’s decision to end the war Afghanistan.

(It’s a mystery why we didn’t get out under Trump!)

McMaster hysterically warned that the withdrawal will lead to another hostage crisis and televised mass executions: “We’re on fast-forward to 1979 in Tehran and a hostage crisis [when Iranian revolutionaries held 52 U.S. diplomats and citizens for 444 days] … Are we just going to stand on the sidelines and watch mass executions?”

I don’t like to make predictions, but McMaster has thrown down the gauntlet. I say: That won’t happen. There won’t be a Tehran-style hostage crisis or mass executions — at least nothing worse than our dear allies in Saudi Arabia do on a regular basis. Check back in a few weeks to see who’s right!

I will be right, because: 1) I’m already one week into being right; and 2) our generals are crazy. Remember when Fox News spent weeks promoting a general who said the missing Malaysian Flight 370 was hiding in Pakistan, waiting to be deployed in a future terrorist attack? (For a while, perhaps still, everything on Fox had to be about Islamic terrorism.)

Unfortunately, Trump thought surrounding himself with generals made him look macho, blithely unaware of who gets made a general these days, so we had to wait for Biden to keep Trump’s promise of bringing the troops home.

Out of either incompetence or malice — or both! — our generals have made a mess of the withdrawal. Obviously, the mistake made by Gen. Mark Milley, Biden’s chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was in not expanding the role of Ibram X. Kendi in advising our armed forces. Instead of seeking Kendi’s counsel merely on “white rage,” Milley should have gone to Kendi for advice on military logistics.

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Republican member of Congress reportedly missing after rogue mission to rescue five Americans in Afghanistan

Reported by CARLOS GARCIA } August 31, 2021

A Republican member of Congress is reportedly missing after saying he was trying to save five American citizens from Afghanistan, according to a report by the Washington Post.Don’t miss out on content from Dave Rubin free of big tech censorship. Listen to The Rubin Report now.

Officials told the Post that the whereabouts of Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma are unknown. The report said that Mullin, 44, became enraged on Monday when a U.S. ambassador refused his request to help move large amounts of money into Tajikistan for his mission to save an American mother and her four children. The ambassador told him the request would be illegal, which reportedly prompted Mullin to threaten the ambassador and his staff.

The Republican had ignored warnings from the State Department and the Pentagon to avoid travelling to Afghanistan. Mullin had said he was planning to hire a helicopter to help the 5 Americans escape the Taliban-controlled country. He was flying from Tblisi, Georgia, into the capital of Tajikistan, Dushanbe.

“To say this is extremely dangerous is a massive understatement,” said one unidentified official to the Post.

The Pentagon had previously denied Mullin’s request to travel to Afghanistan from Greece last week.

Many Americans were outraged when the U.S. military ended its evacuation mission in Afghanistan on Monday while abandoning between 100 to 200 Americans in the Taliban-controlled nation. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden pledged support for those Americans even as the administration was lambasted by critics for previously saying no Americans would be stranded.

“The bottom line, 90% of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave were able to leave. And for those remaining Americans, there is no deadline! We remain committed to get them out if they want to come out!” shouted Biden during his address to the nation.

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Afghan Christians left behind will be ‘targeted with deadly violence’: Human rights group warns

Reported By Anugrah Kumar, Christian Post Contributor| Monday, August 30, 2021

Afghanistan, Christians, — Afghan refugee Faridah visits a course preparing her to convert into christian confession by baptism in Berlin, on October 23, 2016. | CLEMENS BILAN/AFP via Getty Images

Human rights group ADF International has urged the international community to address the “dire plight” of religious minority communities in Afghanistan, including 10,000 Christians who are now “at extreme risk of being targeted with deadly violence.” They, too, need to be evacuated, the group says.

Among the communities at risk are “an estimated ten thousand Christians, many of whom are ‘guilty’ of converting from Islam — a crime punishable by death under Sharia law,” Giorgio Mazzoli, a legal officer representing ADF International at the United Nations, said in a statement. The Vienna-based group said it made an oral statement at the 31st Special Session of the Human Rights Council on the serious human rights concerns and situation in Afghanistan last week.

“As disturbing accounts of killings, harassment and intimidation against them are rapidly emerging, we urge States and the international community to give utmost attention to these persecuted minorities and guarantee the conditions for their prompt and safe exit from the country, irrespective of whether they have valid travel documents.”

Following the drawing down of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, the Taliban quickly seized control of much of the country, eventually taking the capital Kabul earlier this month and forcing the government to flee. In response to the unexpected speed at which they retook the nation, tens of thousands of Americans, Afghan allies, and others have desperately tried to leave the country.

Last Thursday, a suicide bombing outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul killed 10 U.S. Marines, two Army soldiers and one Navy Corpsman, along with as many as 170 civilians, most of whom were awaiting their evacuation. In response, the U.S. military killed two high profile terrorists from ISIS-K — one “planner” and one “facilitator,” in a drone strike in Afghanistan.

As of Saturday, 117,000 people had been evacuated from Afghanistan, the majority of whom are Afghans, Army Maj. Gen. William Taylor said, adding that the number includes 5,400 U.S. citizens, over 300 of whom have been evacuated since the Kabul attack.

As the number of evacuees increases, the U.S. will increase its efforts to provide temporary shelter for Afghans until they’re resettled at various locations across the U.S.

ADF International said it applauds efforts to evacuate and resettle vulnerable persons and it urges all parties to secure their safe passage out of the country. But there’s a need to rescue, evacuate and resettle even those who are now at a higher risk of severe persecution in Afghanistan, it said.

“We join the call on governments to temporarily halt deportations to Afghanistan and reconsider the applications of rejected Afghan asylum seekers fearing persecution because of their faith or beliefs,” Mazzoli said.

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C. Douglas Golden Op-ed: Fury Erupts Over ‘Cargo’ Put on a Plane Escaping Afghanistan

Commentary By C. Douglas Golden August 30, 2021 at 8:19am

There is a time and a place for animal rescue. That time and place isn’t Kabul, Afghanistan, in August 2021.

In the capital of a failed state, citizens of Western countries — as well as the Afghans who worked with them and likely face severe retribution at the hands of the Taliban — are trying to flee the country the only way they can: through Hamid Karzai International Airport.

The airport has seen one terror attack that killed 13 U.S. service members and at least 169 Afghans, according to The Associated Press. A drone strike that U.S. authorities say prevented another suicide bombing at the airport on Sunday has claimed the lives of numerous innocent civilians in Kabul, CNN reported, including at least six children.

Amid all this, a former British Royal Marine who ran an animal shelter in Afghanistan organized an effort to have his animals airlifted out of the country with the assistance of the U.K. military, which got the rescued pets through the airport in Kabul on Friday, according to the BBC.

Paul “Pen” Farthing, the Royal Marine behind the effort, arrived back at London’s Heathrow Airport on Sunday with 90 to 100 dogs and 60 to 70 cats. The effort was dubbed “Operation Ark” and was initially intended to airlift the shelter’s staff and their families — along with 140 dogs and 60 cats — out of Kabul.

Farthing called Operation Ark a “partial success” in a tweet.

That “partial success” didn’t include airlifting the staff out of Kabul; Farthing’s charity confirmed it had to leave Afghanistan without them. Dr. Iain McGill, a veterinarian who traveled back on the plane chartered by Farthing, said the former Royal Marine was “very concerned for his staff and for all the other people suffering in Afghanistan.”

Farthing’s charity said it was a “devastating blow” their “wonderful team” was forced to remain in Afghanistan.

Yes, one might say so.

Farthing’s defenders, including comedian Ricky Gervais, argued the animals traveled in the plane’s cargo hold and therefore didn’t take up any space that would have been used to transport those fleeing the Taliban, according to Bloomberg Quint.

However, the controversy isn’t so much where Farthing’s rescue animals were carried so much as it is one of British resource usage.

According to The Guardian, British Defense Minister Ben Wallace told members of Parliament during a Wednesday conference call that Operation Ark had “diverted” the military’s focus somewhat from saving human lives, adding that the affair was “not something I would be proud of.”

While supporters of Farthing’s charity privately chartered an Airbus A330 to make the flight, Wallace said this wasn’t a “magic wand,” given the logistical difficulties involved with getting people into and through Hamid Karzai International Airport. This call, mind you, took place two days before the suicide bomb attack on the airport complicated things significantly.

Instead, Wallace said the A330 would “block the airfield” and “sit there empty” as the evacuation of people was prioritized.

“What I was not prepared to do is prioritize pets over people. I’m afraid you may dislike me for that but that’s my view. There are some very, very desperate people under threat,” he said.

The BBC also reported Wallace had complained Farthing’s supporters had “taken up too much time of my senior commanders dealing with this issue when they should be focused on dealing with the humanitarian crisis.”

Early on Wednesday, Wallace tweeted that “if [Farthing] arrives with his animals we will seek a slot for his plane … I have been consistent all along, ensuring those most at risk are processed first and that the limiting factor has been flow THROUGH to airside NOT airplane capacity. No one has the right in this humanitarian crisis to jump the queue.”

British Army head Maj. Gen. Nick Carter also didn’t express unalloyed support for the mission to airlift animals out of Afghanistan when grilled about it on BBC Radio 4 on Saturday morning.

“Our priority has been to evacuate human beings,” Carter said, according to Bloomberg Quint. “We obviously worry about everything that needs to be evacuated, but of course these are very difficult times, and there are very difficult judgments to be made.”

However, in an interview with LBC Radio on Saturday, Conservative MP Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the U.K. Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Select Committee, was a bit more blunt.

“The difficulty is getting people into and out of the airport, and we’ve just used a lot of troops to bring in 200 dogs, meanwhile my interpreter’s family are likely to be killed,” said Tugendhat, according to the BBC.

“As one interpreter asked me a few days ago, ‘Why is my 5-year-old worth less than your dog?’”

However, is Farthing the one to blame? Sam Ashworth-Hayes, writing in the conservative British publication The Spectator, doesn’t think so. Instead, in a piece published Sunday, he said the issue was a government too willing to give into Farthing’s cause instead of focusing on evacuating Britons.

“We can try to spin this as a heart-warming effort as much as we like. I’m sure some politicians will. But the job of government is to make difficult decisions, and ours caved in under pressure from an animal-loving mob,” he wrote.

“If you asked the public tomorrow if the government should set up a National Veterinary Service with a budget equal to the NHS, you would be laughed out of town. Basing policy on what people say in the heat of the moment rather than trying to understand their long-term preferences is a terrible idea. But weak leadership means that we spend far too much time worrying about cute animals on the front pages.

“We’ve left behind 150 Britons and a thousand Afghan support staff. Now consider that for some paratroopers ‘the last thing they do before leaving themselves is putting Pen Farthing’s cats and dogs on a plane,’ and tell me this was still a heroic and noble act.”

But at least there’s a happy ending for the dogs and cats, right? “As you can imagine they’re not short of homes for these animals,” McGill told the BBC.

Shame about Farthing’s staff and Tugendhat’s translator, though.

C. Douglas Golden, Contributor,

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VIDEO: Afghan TV anchor tells residents ‘don’t be afraid’ as Taliban fighters stand behind him with guns

Reported by PHIL SHIVER | August 30, 2021

With Taliban fighters standing behind him brandishing guns, an Afghan news anchor nervously urged viewers over the weekend not to be “afraid” amid the fall of the Afghan government and the formation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.

The bizarre scene demonstrates the danger that Afghan journalists are likely to face under Taliban rule and foreshadows the end of journalistic freedom in the country.

Armed Taliban militants stormed into the building of Afghan television network Peace Studio during a live recording on Sunday, proceeding to hold the anchor hostage while he granted favorable coverage to the new regime, Republic World reported.

“Don’t be afraid,” the anchor reportedly said during the broadcast.
“With the Taliban militants breathing down his neck, the TV anchor addressed the news bulletin, talking about the collapse of the Ashraf Ghani-led government and the formation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” the news outlet reported. “Visibly afraid and uncomfortable, the presenter then went on to tell the nation to not be scared of the Taliban.”

Video of the incident has since gone viral, having been viewed more than one million times on social media.

Afghanistan TV – surreal

This is what a political debate now looks like on Afghan TV, Taliban foot soldiers watching over the host. The presenter talks about the collapse of the Ghani govt & says the Islamic Emirate says the Afghan people should not to be afraid #Afghanistan pic.twitter.com/oEverVgLOE
— Yalda Hakim (@BBCYaldaHakim) August 29, 2021

“Afghanistan TV – surreal,” tweeted BBC World News anchor Yalda Hakim along with a video of the incident.
“This is what a political debate now looks like on Afghan TV, Taliban foot soldiers watching over the host,” she added. “The presenter talks about the collapse of the Ghani govt & says the Islamic Emirate says the Afghan people should not be afraid.”

A subsequent photo posted on Twitter by Afghan journalist Zaki Daryabi shows that at least eight Taliban fighters were involved in the news station storming.

“This is what [we] can’t accept,” she tweeted along with the image. “If so, we will stop our work.”

Amid its takeover of Afghanistan in recent weeks, Taliban leaders promised a “lenient” government and “amnesty” for individuals who worked with Western governments and organizations over the last 20 years of U.S. military occupation. But their promises have been empty ones. In reality, Taliban fighters have been “hunting down” journalists and persecuting women and religious minorities, including Christians. The bloodthirsty militants reportedly murdered the relative of an Afghan journalist partnered with German news outlet Deutsche Welle last week. They also killed a 33-year-old Afghan who had translated for U.S. Special Forces and who worked with newspaper Die Zeit.

Republic World added that “the Taliban barred two women journalists … who worked with the public broadcaster Radio Television Afghanistan” and “also attacked two other members of the press for covering the anti-Taliban protests taking place in the eastern Nangarhar province.”

Their actions have reportedly caused many journalists and activists to flee the nation in fear.

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Mom of 20-Year-Old Marine Who Was Killed in Kabul Bombing Makes Surprise Call to On-Air Show, Places All Blame on Biden

Reported By Jack Davis | August 29, 2021

The mother of one victim of the terrorist attack in Kabul sharply criticized President Joe Biden on Friday. Kathy McCollum, the mother of Rylee McCollum, 20, was notified of her son’s death on Friday. He was among 13 U.S. service members killed in the bombing the previous day at Kabul’s airport.

“My son was one of the Marines that died yesterday,” she told the call-in show “The Wilkow Majority.”
“Twenty years and 6 months old, getting ready to come from freaking Jordan to be home with his wife to watch the birth of his son, and that feckless, dementia-ridden piece of crap just sent my son to die.”

Mother of U.S. Marine Rylee McCollum, who died in the Kabul bombing: “all you Democrats… who voted for [Biden], you just killed my son… never would have happened under Trump.” pic.twitter.com/74eZ24jwaE
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) August 28, 2021

“I woke up at 4 o’clock this morning. Two Marines at my door telling me my son was dead,” she said.

Voice breaking with anger and emotion, she raged at a previous caller who framed the fall of Afghanistan as a diplomatic event with no consideration for its human toll. The attack was the deadliest day for the U.S. military in Afghanistan since 2011, according to The Wall Street Journal.

“I just want all you Democrats who cheated in the election, or who voted for him legitimately, you just killed my son. With a dementia-ridden piece of crap who doesn’t even know he’s in the White House who still thinks he’s a senator. So I’m gonna try and calm down, sorry,” McCollum said on “The Wilkow Majority.”

Noting that Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado was coming to her house in Montrose in an attempt to console her, McCollum said with bitterness, “My son did die in vain.”

“This was an unnecessary debacle that could have been handled properly. They had months and months to remove everyone from Afghanistan and they chose not to,” she said.
“And so they sent in freaking what, 6,000 troops? And my son, through the law of statistics, my son was one of the ones who just got blown up in a freaking terrorist bomb yesterday. … So instead of grieving and crying, I’m just getting mad.”

She spoke about the son she lost.

“My son was a genius child, an IQ of 156,” McCollum said. “He could have done anything he wanted to do in the military, and he chose to be a Marine sniper, and that was his choice.’
“Instead of just being fast-tracked, he chose this course, but I never thought in a million years he would die for nothing.”
“For nothing,” she repeated, “because a feckless, dementia-ridden piece of crap decided he wanted a photo op on September 11th.”

She said she never expected to suffer such a loss while seeing a president “smirk on television while he’s talking about people dying.”

Amid a stream of insults directed at Biden, McCollum said he “needs to be removed from office. It never would have happened under Trump.”

Boebert shared a letter to McCollum, according to KCNC-TV.

“Kathy, on behalf of a grateful nation, we mourn with you for the loss of your son,” the letter said in part.

Jack Davis, Contributor,

Jack Davis is a freelance writer who joined The Western Journal in July 2015 and chronicled the campaign that saw President Donald Trump elected. Since then, he has written extensively for The Western Journal on the Trump administration as well as foreign policy and military issues.

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Today’s TWO Politically INCORRECT Cartoons by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Victor Gets The Spoils

A.F. BRANCO on August 28, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-victor-gets-the-spoils/

Biden’s plan of “Built Back Better” has come true, but only for the Taliban terrorists.

American Blood and Treasure — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2021.**

A.F. Branco Cartoon – No Man’s Plan

A.F. BRANCO on August 30, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-no-mans-plan/

Biden says he used Trump’s evac plan. Some say minus a few putting Americans first details.

Parler Facebook Twitter Pinterest Flipboard TAGGEDAFGHANISTAN AFGHANISTAN PULLOUT JOE BIDEN

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US Special Ops Veterans Form Their Own Squad, Travel to Kabul for Extremely Dangerous Rescue Mission

Reported By Dillon Burroughs | August 27, 2021

A volunteer group of American veterans launched a final mission on Wednesday night, dubbed “Pineapple Express,” to reportedly help hundreds of members of Afghan elite forces and their families reach safety. The group, dubbed Task Force Pineapple, operated in darkness to help those at risk.

“As of Thursday morning, the group said it had brought as many as 500 Afghan special operators, assets and enablers and their families into the airport in Kabul overnight, handing them each over to the protective custody of the U.S. military,” ABC News reported.
“That number added to more than 130 others over the past 10 days who had been smuggled into the airport encircled by Taliban fighters since the capital fell to the extremists on Aug. 16 by Task Force Pineapple, an ad hoc groups of current and former U.S. special operators, aid workers, intelligence officers and others with experience in Afghanistan who banded together to save as many Afghan allies as they could.”

The group was led by Army Lt. Col. Scott Mann, who leads an organization called Rooftop Leadership. Mann is a retired Green Beret commander.

“We made a commitment to get them out and this is our chance to do the right thing. And I’m telling you if we don’t, Brianna, it’s going to haunt us for a very, very long time,” Mann said during a CNN interview on Monday.

They're called "Task Force Pineapple" – one of many networks formed by US soldiers, vets, fmr contractors mobilizing to save Afghan lives@RooftopLeader: "We made a commitment to get them out.. I'm telling you if we don't, Brianna, it will haunt us for a very, very long time." pic.twitter.com/7qQ45y6l1s
— Brianna Keilar (@brikeilarcnn) August 23, 2021

A GoFundMe page offered supporters an opportunity to donate to the group’s expenses. A video from Mann also explained the purpose behind the group’s effort.

More than $68,000 had been donated as of Friday morning.

The news comes as more than 100 people were killed in Kabul on Thursday. A total of 13 U.S. military personnel were killed, with more injured.

The U.S. continued evacuation flights from the Kabul airport on Thursday. The Hill reported 12,500 people were evacuated from Afghanistan between early Thursday to early Friday morning.

“Of the 12,500 evacuees, roughly 8,500 of them were on 35 U.S. military flights out of Kabul, which included 29 C-17 planes and six C-130 planes. Another 4,000 people were carried on 54 coalition flights out of Kabul,” The Hill reported.
“White House officials said that since Aug. 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of about 105,000 people out of Afghanistan.’
“Since the end of July, approximately 110,600 people have been relocated.”

Dillon Burroughs, Breaking News/Media Reporter

Dillon Burroughs reports on breaking news for The Western Journal and is the author or co-author of numerous books.@dillonburroughs

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Congressmen Across The Board Demand Biden Respond To ‘Murderous’ Terrorist Attack, Keep Americans Safe

Reported by MICHAEL GINSBERG | GENERAL ASSIGNMENT REPORTER | August 26, 2021

Senators Meet For Weekly Policy Luncheons On Capitol Hill — **(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)**

Members of Congress in both parties are demanding that President Joe Biden respond to the ISIS-Khorasan Province terrorist attack that has killed at least 12 Americans.

The attack outside Hamid Karzai International Airport made Thursday the deadliest day for Americans in Afghanistan since Aug. 6, 2011, and the third-deadliest day throughout the 20-year-long war. Two ISIS-Khorasan Province suicide bombers detonated explosive vests before gunmen opened fire on a crowd, U.S. Central Command Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie told reporters.

“This murderous attack offers the clearest possible reminder that terrorists will not stop fighting the United States just because our politicians grow tired of fighting them,” Senate Minority Leader and Kentucky Republican Mitch McConnell said in a statement. “I remain concerned that terrorists worldwide will be emboldened by our retreat, by this attack, and by the establishment of a radical Islamic terror state in Afghanistan. We need to redouble our global efforts to confront these barbarian enemies who want to kill Americans and attack our homeland.”

McConnell’s counterpart, Democratic New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, declared that “it must be made clear to the world that the terrorists who perpetrated this will be sought and be brought to justice.”

“The U.S. cannot and will not be silent in the face of these attacks – we must bring to justice the terrorists who committed these heinous acts as we work to extract others from harm’s way,” Democratic Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen added. “We must work to establish stability on the ground and remain focused on securing the safety of U.S. citizens, our troops, and our Afghan partners.”

House Minority Leader and Republican California Rep. Kevin McCarthy called on Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi to “bring Congress back before Aug. 31 so we can be briefed thoroughly by the Administration and prohibit the withdrawal of our troops until every American is safely out.”

House Republicans were briefed by Biden administration officials on Tuesday.

Pelosi did not commit to bringing the House back from recess, but she did say that “Committees of Jurisdiction will continue to hold briefings on Afghanistan.”

Democratic New Jersey Sen. Bob Menendez appeared to take a shot at the Biden administration’s withdrawal policy, declaring, “We can’t trust the Taliban with Americans’ security.”

Republican Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse urged Biden to “rip up the Aug. 31 [withdrawal] deadline and defend evacuation routes by expanding the perimeter around the Kabul airport or by retaking Bagram” Air Force Base.

Four Republicans, Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Georgia Rep. Mark Green and North Carolina Rep. Mark Walker called on Biden to resign.

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Mourning In America

A.F. BRANCO on August 27, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-mourning-in-america/

13 U.S. Troops were killed during Biden’s Afghanistan pullout disaster on August 26, 2021.

U.S. Troops Killed During Pullout — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2021.**

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WTH? More Than Two Dozen California School Students, Parents Stuck in Afghanistan – Unable to Get to Kabul Airport

Reported By Cristina Laila | Published August 25, 2021

More than two dozen students from Cajon Valley School District in San Diego, California are currently trapped in Afghanistan and unable to get to Kabul airport.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the families traveled to Afghanistan for a summer trip on special visas for US military service.

Cajon Valley School Board President Tamara Otero said the families had tickets to fly out of Afghanistan, “but unfortunately they were not able to get to the airport.” – The Times reported.

The Los Angeles Times reported:

At least 24 students from the Cajon Valley Union School District in El Cajon and 16 parents are stranded in Afghanistan after taking a summer trip abroad. They are among thousands of individuals waiting to leave the country amid political unrest caused by the U.S. military pullout after 20 years of occupation. The U.S. government is accelerating efforts to rescue Americans as the Taliban takes over the country.

Cajon Valley Supt. David Miyashiro told school district board members via text message Tuesday that he and other Cajon Valley staff met virtually with U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Bonsall) and his staff about the situation. Miyashiro said that the families are on special visas for U.S. military service and that the Department of Defense considers them allies. He said that the district was able to provide information on the families and that government officials are working to locate the children and their families. He said he was encouraged by the assistance.

Meanwhile Joe Biden is smirking and cracking jokes when asked if he will help Americans trapped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan.

Cristina Laila

Cristina began writing for The Gateway Pundit in 2016 and she is currently the Associate Editor.

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Afghan Christians ‘Panicking’ as They’re Turned Away from US Evacuation Flights: Report

Reported By Jack Davis | August 26, 2021

In what conservative commentator Glenn Beck slammed succinctly in an Instagram message as “Afghanistan betrayal,” Afghan Christians are being turned away from the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, as time ticks away for them to escape the Taliban, according to new reports.

A report by the Catholic News Agency said that although the Taliban have made no secret of the group’s antipathy to Christianity, Christians were not given priority status by the Biden administration, which bestowed it upon women, journalists, academics and other populations the administration considered important. And that means Christians will be left behind when the frenzied flight to find safety ends before the Aug. 31 deadline for U.S. forces to leave Afghanistan.

“I was told by contacts from various groups working to rescue those still in danger in Afghanistan — who must remain anonymous — that the State Department, at least at a certain point, was not implementing the lists that they require the organizations to compile — even though they have sent them multiple times,” said Faith McDonnell, director of advocacy at Katartismos Global, an Anglican nonprofit group, according to CNA.
“It seems at present as if no one is getting any priority unless they have some sort of special connection inside the airport.”

Republican Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia said Tuesday that Christians are in danger, according to Townhall.

“The environment, obviously, under Sharia law, creates an extremely dangerous situation for anyone who is of any other faith, probably, the top of which, is Christians. And of course, not only us but many offices have been in contact with many Christians who are being literally hunted by the Taliban right now. Every effort possible is underway to try to evacuate those individuals and I’m sure those efforts will continue with unceasing resolve until we get those people to safety,” Hice said. “[T]heir lives are our biggest concern.”

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom said priority for fleeing Afghanistan should go to “Afghan religious minorities, in recognition of the severe risks they already face, which will only heighten after the end of the U.S. evacuation,” according to a statement by USCIRF Commissioner Frederick A. Davie.

According to CNA, McDonnell said that in the rush to pack planes, lists prepared in advance amount to just so much confetti.

“Several organizations have reported that even though these organizations‘ aircraft have passenger manifests, the airport personnel are loading different people [from] those on the manifest onto all the aircraft that are departing,” she said.
“Others have reported that at times, one government agency is rejecting people that another government agency has approved and tried to bring into the airport,” she said.

Amid the chaos and cross purposes, Beck’s nonprofit group, The Nazarene Fund, is working independently of the Biden administration to rescue Afghan civilians. Beck, who posted a moving message about the crisis on Instagram Wednesday, has said that based on the more than $25 million received, he hopes to get 7,000 people out of Afghanistan by Friday

The Biden administration is NOT telling you the truth about what's going on in Afghanistan. TONIGHT on GlennTV, I join you from the Middle East as the Nazarene Fund's rescue mission continues. pic.twitter.com/YZi8bFPcqI
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) August 26, 2021

“I’ve started receiving panicked emails from Afghan Christians through their Western contacts. They are not being allowed to board USG [U.S. government] flights in Kabul. I’m advising them to try to board Glenn Beck’s flights instead,” Shea said, according to CNA.
“Kabul is falling apart and our people are panicking. The next 72 hours are going to be very dark,” Jason Jones, a podcaster who runs a nonprofit humanitarian organization called The Vulnerable People Project, wrote in an email to CNA.
“Kabul has descended into chaos and confusion and our citizens and friends are collapsing into despair. People are being contacted by the State Department and told to go to the airport only to be sent away,” he wrote.

Jack Davis, Contributor

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoons by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Dirty Jobs

A.F. BRANCO on August 25, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-dirty-jobs/

It’s going to take more than democrats expert media wordsmiths to clean up Biden’s mess in Afghanistan.

Biden Created a Mess — **Political cartoon A.F. Branco Cartoon ©2021.**

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Surrender In Chief

A.F. BRANCO on August 26, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-surrender-in-chief/

Biden’s surrender to the Taliban in Afghanistan has put blood on his hands.

08 Biden Surren LI 1080 — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2021.**

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International Politics, Islamic News, Political

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Taliban declares it will no longer allow Afghans to leave the country, will not extend deadline for Americans to get out

Reported by PHIL SHIVER | August 24, 2021

The Taliban announced Tuesday that it will no longer allow Afghan nationals to go to the Kabul airport in order to flee the country.

“We are not in favor of allowing Afghans to leave,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told reporters during a news conference Tuesday morning, according to BBC News. It’s a new development that comes just one week before the U.S. and other NATO forces are slated to fully depart Afghanistan. Mujahid reiterated that Americans can continue evacuations until the Aug. 31 deadline, but made clear that Afghan nationals are not to be a part of that process.

“They [the Americans] have the opportunity, they have all the resources, they can take all the people that belong to them but we are not going to allow Afghans to leave and we will not extend the deadline,” he stated.

Mujahid said that evacuating foreign nationals beyond the Aug. 31 deadline would be a “violation” of the agreement the U.S. established with the militant regime.

“We are not in favour of allowing Afghans to leave”

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid adds it would be a “violation” of the agreement to allow evacuations of foreign nationals beyond 31 August

Latest: https://t.co/PgvjrfQUeS pic.twitter.com/bs8TPYooZz
— BBC Breaking News (@BBCBreaking) August 24, 2021

“The way to the airport has been closed now,” the spokesman continued. “Afghans are not allowed to go there now. Foreigners are allowed to go, but we have stopped Afghan nationals to go because the crowd is more, there is danger that people will lose their lives, there might be a stampede.”

The news comes as President Joe Biden considers pushing back the end date for withdrawals as an unknown number of Americans and Afghan nationals who worked with the U.S. government remain trapped inside the country. Those individuals are believed to be in imminent danger. Several reports have surfaced in recent days indicating that Taliban fighters are executing door-to-door searches and carrying out execution campaigns on women, Christians, and those who worked with the West during the last 20 years of U.S. military occupation.

Yet with the deadline quickly approaching, the Taliban has warned that the U.S. could face “consequences” should they fail to depart the country by the end of the month.

“It’s a red line,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said this week. “President Biden announced that on Aug. 31 they would withdraw all their military forces. So if they extend it, that means they are extending occupation.”

Nevertheless, Biden is set to raise the topic of extending the evacuation date with foreign leaders Tuesday at the G-7 summit.

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Today’s TWO Politically INCORRECT Cartoons by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Guess Who?

A.F. BRANCO on August 21, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-guess-who/

Biden stabs pro-American Afghan translators, military, and women right in the back.

Afghan Translators Betrayed — **Political cartoons by A.F. Branco ©2021.**

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Wizard of Odd

A.F. BRANCO on August 23, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-wizard-of-odd/

Everyone is pointing at Biden for the Afghan disaster but not the master behind the scenes.

Obama’s Puppet — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2021.**

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Foreign Policy, International Politics

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Watch: Harris’ Face During Biden’s Afghanistan Presser Tells Us Everything We Need to Know About State of USA

By Isa Cox August 20, 2021 at 4:40pm

Earlier this week, as President Joe Biden’s administration scrambled to spin its disastrously botched withdrawal from Afghanistan following the fall of Kabul to Taliban forces, Vice President Kamala Harris was suspiciously absent from the public eye. Suddenly, the “Harris” part of “Biden-Harris” was nowhere to be found and poor old Joe was forced to face the nation alone.

They apparently managed to briefly get Harris out of hiding on Friday, however, and she appeared loyally by Biden’s side as he addressed the nation for a second time on the crisis in Afghanistan and vowed to evacuate the untold number of Americans who are still stranded in the now-fallen nation. As it turns out, the administration may have done better to just let Harris remain in hiding.

Twitter users were quick to notice that while they may have convinced her to show her face in public with the president to demonstrate unity, it was her face that said it all.

“[L]et me be clear,” Biden said at the White House on Friday, flanked by his clearly uncomfortable vice president. “Any American [who] wants to come home, we will get you home.”
Biden said his administration has been in “constant contact with the Taliban, working to ensure civilians have safe passage to the airport” amid reports the insurgent forces are beating Americans who try to enter the Kabul airport.
“[W]e’ve made clear to the Taliban that any attack — any attack on our forces or disruption of our operations at the airport will be met with a swift and forceful response,” Biden said, according to a White House transcript.
“We have no indication that they haven’t been able to get — in Kabul — through the airport,” he added. “We’ve made an agreement with the — with the Taliban. Thus far, they’ve allowed them to go through. It’s in their interest for them to go through.’
“So, we know of no circumstance where American citizens are — carrying an American passport — are trying to get through to the airport. But we will do whatever needs to be done to see to it they get to the airport.”

Harris, who was wearing a face mask, probably should have worn sunglasses — because her eyes alone spoke louder than any words could have.

She knows he’s lying… pic.twitter.com/LP4QfF7F3F
— The Cocaína (@MrNukemCocaine) August 20, 2021

Before a clutch of journalists and Biden’s own defense secretary later refuted his lies about the situation at the Kabul airport, Harris’ face betrayed the falsehood outright.

After Biden’s address, Harris promptly departed the country on a pre-planned trip to Asia to visit Singapore and Vietnam (the latter visit couldn’t have been more poorly nor ironically timed considering the parallels between the fall of Kabul on Sunday and the 1975 fall of Saigon).

Amazingly, she’s just about the only person who isn’t calling out Biden’s lies, and by the look on her face on Friday, it appears even that was a struggle for her.

Biden’s claim that the administration knows of “no circumstance ” in which Americans are having a difficult time getting to the airport in Kabul was hotly contested by establishment media reporters.

.@DavidMuir: "The president said he has no intelligence that the Americans have not been able to get [to the Kabul airport]. The question, obviously—does that square with reporting on ground?"@IanPannell: "I mean—just totally not."

Read more: https://t.co/6U5QW2IOjc pic.twitter.com/DTuyOZBmmn
— ABC News (@ABC) August 20, 2021

Meanwhile, Politico reported Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told House lawmakers during a call on Friday that indeed, multiple Americans had been beaten by Taliban fighters as they tried to reach the airport.

“We are in huge danger. Please help”
LISTEN: The voice of US permanent resident trapped in #Kabul

More on ⁦@ABCWorldNews⁩
Sayed Harris Khelwati via Storyful pic.twitter.com/SENiXjQQuh
— Ian Pannell (@IanPannell) August 19, 2021

“We’re also aware that some people including Americans have been harassed; even beaten by the Taliban,” Austin said, according to multiple sources on the call. “This is unacceptable and [we] made it clear to the designated Taliban leader.”

Considering how horribly Biden is bungling this thing as our countrymen are subjected to violent assault at the hands of Islamic extremist fighters who just made him look like a fool, one certainly understands why Harris had such a hard time appearing the least bit confident in our commander-in-chief. It’s her job to have his back, and she seemingly couldn’t even do that. Our country is in the hands of these people.

Does anyone in the administration have faith in Biden right now? Or anyone anywhere for that matter?

Isa Cox, Contributor

Isa grew up in San Francisco, where she was briefly a far-left socialist before finding Jesus and her husband in Hawaii. She now homeschools their two boys and freelances in the Ozarks.@crunchyconmama

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Taliban fighters are ‘hunting down’ journalists, carrying out revenge executions against Afghans who worked with the West

Reported by PHIL SHIVER | August 20, 2021

Despite promising “amnesty” to Afghan residents who worked with Western governments and organizations during the last 20 years of U.S. military occupation, Taliban forces in Afghanistan are now reportedly “hunting down” journalists and other supposed dissidents in order to execute them.

According to German news outlet Deutsche Welle, bloodthirsty militants on Thursday shot and killed a family member of an Afghan journalist who works with the Western media organization.

DW director general Peter Limbourg said the heinous attack was carried out during a house-to-house revenge search, during which another one of the unnamed journalist’s family members was seriously injured. The journalist is reportedly safe, having escaped to Germany.

In a statement, Limbourg called on the German government to take action, exclaiming, “We are running out of time!”

“The killing of a close relative of one of our editors by the Taliban yesterday is inconceivably tragic, and testifies to the acute danger in which all our employees and their families in Afghanistan find themselves,” Limbourg said. “It is evident that the Taliban are already carrying out organized searches for journalists, both in Kabul and in the provinces.”

The New York Times on Friday detailed several other reports of the Taliban carrying out violence against Afghan journalists over the last several days:

Amdullah Hamdard, 33, who learned English as a teenager and translated for U.S. Special Forces — they gave him the nickname “Huggy Bear” — had spent the last four years working with Die Zeit newspaper. He was murdered by Taliban fighters on the street near his home in Jalalabad, the paper reported …
… On Thursday, Taliban fighters beat two Afghan journalists while violently dispersing a protest in the eastern city of Jalalabad.
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a New York-based watchdog group, noted other attacks against journalists in recent days, including the fatal shooting on Aug. 9 of a radio station manager in Kabul, and the kidnapping of a reporter in Helmand Province. Afghan press freedom groups blamed the Taliban for both incidents.

An American journalist, Wesley Morgan, tweeted this week, “Taliban searching my former interpreter’s house (he’s hiding out elsewhere and can see it via the app on his phone from his home security cameras).”

The violence is in direct contradiction to the public messaging espoused by Taliban leadership since taking control of the country in recent days.

“I must remind you that we forgive everyone because it is in the interest of peace and stability in Afghanistan,” Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid announced during a news conference on Tuesday. “All the groups that were confronting us are all forgiven.”

However, it is revenge — not forgiveness — that has been observed, and not only against journalists. Taliban fighters have descended on communities to hunt down women and Christians, as well.

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International Politics, Islamic Alert, Islamic News

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Today’s Politically INCORRECT Cartoon by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Botched Pullout

A.F. BRANCO on August 20, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-botched-pullout/

Biden has removed the Trump policies that prevented the meltdown at the border and the Afghanistan disaster.

Biden is a Disaster — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2021.**

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Taliban Official Announces Group Will Rule Afghanistan with Sharia Law and ‘No Democratic System’

Reported By Jack Davis |August 19, 2021

Sharia Law is triumphant in Afghanistan and democracy is dead.

Although leaders of the Taliban are making up some pieces of how they will govern the conquered country as they go along, those are the foundational principles, according to Reuters.

“There will be no democratic system at all because it does not have any base in our country,” senior Taliban leader Waheedullah Hashimi told the outlet.
“We will not discuss what type of political system should we apply in Afghanistan because it is clear. It is Sharia Law and that is it.”

Sharia Law is a strict code of behavior supported by some Muslims. Taliban officials have tried to present a softer side to the world in the aftermath of their victory.

“We assure the international community that there will be no discrimination against women, but, of course, within the frameworks we have,” spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said Tuesday, according to The Washington Post.

Since taking power, the Taliban has tried to put a gloss on its image to the extent where one CNN reporter characterized a group of Taliban fighters as seemingly “friendly.”

“The entire world now recognizes that the Taliban are the real rulers of the country,” said Mawlawi Abdulhaq Hemad, a member of the organization’s media team, according to The New York Times. “I am still astonished that people are afraid of Taliban.”

A spokesman for the United Nations’ high commissioner for human rights, Rupert Colville, expressed skepticism about what the words actually mean.

“Such promises will need to be honored, and for the time being — again understandably, given past history — these declarations have been greeted with some skepticism,” he told The Associated Press. “There have been many hard-won advances in human rights over the past two decades. The rights of all Afghans must be defended.”

For example, Fox News reported Thursday that the Taliban “killed a woman in Takhar province after she went out in public without a burqa.”

According to Aliya Kazimy, 27, of Mazar-i-Sharif, women who went shopping alone were told they had to go home and return with men as chaperones.

“I am from the generation that had a lot of opportunities after the fall of the Taliban 20 years ago,” she told the Times.
“I was able to achieve my goals of studying, and for a year I’ve been a university professor, and now my future is dark and uncertain. All these years of working hard and dreaming were for nothing. And the little girls who are just starting out, what future awaits them?” she said.

Hashimi indicated to Reuters that Afghanistan would likely be run by a ruling council, while the group’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, would keep overall control. When the Taliban previously ruled the country from 1996 to 2001, it had a council making day-to-day decisions, according to the Post.

Jack Davis, Contributor

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Shocking videos show just how many US military weapons are now in the hands of Taliban terrorists

Reported by CHRIS ENLOE | August 18, 2021

Jake Sullivan, national security adviser to President Joe Biden, admitted Tuesday that “a fair amount” of United States military weapons fell into the hands of Taliban terrorists when they swiftly took control of Afghanistan.

But what, quantitatively speaking, is a “fair amount”? New videos suggest that Sullivan may have been understating just how many American arms the Taliban seized.

With the American military presence now limited to the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, billions of dollars’ worth of military arms were left behind as American forces were ordered to leave their installations and Afghan security forces, which were armed in part by American tax dollars, collapsed.

Videos circulating on social media show Taliban forces seizing thousands of firearms and ammunition.

One video showed thousands of various rifles, a seemingly endless number; body armor; and other assorted military equipment — all now in the hands of Taliban terrorists.

The Taliban looted a massive cache of U.S. weapons from a deserted weapons depot on the way to Kabul. pic.twitter.com/OnAgpdtbCO
— Ian Miles Cheong @ stillgray.substack.com (@stillgray) August 18, 2021

Another video showed Taliban terrorists raiding a weapons depot, putting hundreds of rifles into the back of a truck.

In the city of Mazar-e Sharif, the Taliban captured and unboxed numerous U.S. weapons, armored vehicles, body armor, and assorted equipment. pic.twitter.com/MQ8e3RfagL
— Ian Miles Cheong @ stillgray.substack.com (@stillgray) August 18, 2021

How did this happen?

The Washington Post detailed the Afghan government corruption that helped facilitate the Taliban’s swift victory and also explains how so many American arms fell into the hands of terrorists.

From the Post:

The spectacular collapse of Afghanistan’s military that allowed Taliban fighters to walk into the Afghan capital Sunday despite 20 years of training and billions of dollars in American aid began with a series of deals brokered in rural villages between the militant group and some of the Afghan government’s lowest-ranking officials.
The deals, initially offered early last year, were often described by Afghan officials as cease-fires, but Taliban leaders were in fact offering money in exchange for government forces to hand over their weapons, according to an Afghan officer and a U.S. official.
Over the next year and a half, the meetings advanced to the district level and then rapidly on to provincial capitals, culminating in a breathtaking series of negotiated surrenders by government forces, according to interviews with more than a dozen Afghan officers, police, special operations troops and other soldiers.

By all accounts, the amount of American military equipment seized by the Taliban cost billions of taxpayer dollars. Still, neither the Biden administration nor the military have given any indication that U.S. firepower will be recovered.

When asked by a reporter on Monday what steps the U.S. military was taking to recovery U.S. military assets, Maj. Gen. Hank Taylor said, “I don’t have the answer to that question.”

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Islamic News, Political

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Shot, stabbed Afghan woman whose eyes were knifed out by Taliban says they ‘torture us,’ feed remains to dogs

Reported by SARAH TAYLOR | August 19, 2021

An Afghani woman by the name of Khatera says that the Taliban will not respect or honor women’s rights despite the terrorist group’s assertions otherwise.

In a Monday interview with India’s News18, Khatera, 33, recalled the horrific attack that took place in 2020 when her father — a former Taliban fighter — tipped off the Islamist militant group that his daughter was employed.

Women, under Sharia law, are not permitted to work.

In October, Khatera said that her father, who remains unnamed at the time of this reporting, purportedly conspired with the Taliban to stage an attack on her as she returned home from work one day.

During the attack, Khatera — who worked for the police at the time — was shot at least eight times, stabbed, and had her eyes knifed out of their sockets before Taliban fighters left her for dead.

She was pregnant during the horrific attack.

“It’s tough for the world to imagine what we built in the past 20 years,” she told the outlet. “We built dreams. Now they are gone. It’s all over for us. Women who work with the government or police were being hunted and threatened even before the Taliban had taken over the country. Now, the concern has gone beyond letting women work. At this point, I am scared if they would leave these women alive. They don’t just kill women — they make animals feed on their bodies. They are a blot on Islam.”

Khatera said that the Taliban does not view women as “living, breathing human beings,” but “merely some meat and flesh to be battered.”

“[The Taliban] first torture us and then discard our bodies to show as a specimen of punishment,” she said. “Sometimes our bodies are fed to dogs. I was lucky I survived it. One has to live in Afghanistan under the Taliban to even imagine what hell has befallen on women, children, and minorities here.”

After the attack, Khatera fled with her husband and child to Delhi, where she continues to be treated for injuries sustained in the attack.

“The Taliban don’t allow women to visit male doctors, and at the same time, don’t let women study and work,” she told the outlet. “So then what is left for a woman? Left to die? Even if you think we are just reproductive machines, there is not common sense but pure hate. How does a woman deliver her child according to the dictum of these men with guns without medical care?”

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Today’s THREE Politically INCORRECT Cartoons by A.F. Branco

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Burning Man

A.F. BRANCO on August 17, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-burning-man/

Biden is a disaster with Afghanistan, the Border, Law & order, and the economy while blaming Trump.

A.F. Branco Cartoon – Service With A Smile

A.F. BRANCO on August 18, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-service-with-a-smile/

China is looking at how easily Biden gave up Afghanistan and now thinking hard about Taiwan.

Biden Give Afghanistan to Taliban — **Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2021.**

A.F. Branco Cartoon – General Oblivious

A.F. BRANCO on August 19, 2021 | https://comicallyincorrect.com/a-f-branco-cartoon-general-oblivious/

Woke General Milley says he didn’t see the Taliban overrunning the Afghan army coming.

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