President Joe Biden has been widely criticized over the handling of his troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, and that criticism intensified after 13 American military personnel were killed in an attack reportedly carried out by ISIS-K terrorists.
What’s more, many of Biden’s critics are pointing to a decision, Politico reported, that they say could cause the number of dead Americans and Afghan allies to grow, substantially, over the coming days and weeks.
What happened?
Politico reported Thursday that U.S. officials allegedly furnished Taliban leaders with a list of American citizens, green card holders, and Afghan interpreters.
The information is said to have been provided in order to facilitate their passage through Taliban checkpoints erected around Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport, where evacuations are taking place.
As Washington Examiner columnist Kaylee McGhee White noted in an opinion piece on Thursday, the president did not deny the report during a Thursday press conference.
Biden admits it
“There have been occasions when our military has contacted their military counterparts in the Taliban and said, ‘This,’ for example, ‘this bus is coming through with X number of people on it, made up of the following group of people. We want you to let that bus or that group through,'” Biden said during the presser.
“So, yes, there have been occasions like that,” the president acknowledged. “To the best of my knowledge, in those cases, the bulk of that has occurred, and they have been let through.”
“I can’t tell you with any certitude that there’s actually been a list of names,” he said, adding, “There may have been. But I know of no circumstance.”
“It doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist, that here’s the names of 12 people, they’re coming, let them through,” Biden continued. “It could very well have happened.”
“Borderline treason”
White pointed out that “the U.S. has no way of guaranteeing that the people on the alleged list will get out of Afghanistan safely,” stressing, “There is a very good chance that many of those people will be left behind.”
“The Biden administration just made it even easier for the Taliban to identify their targets,” she concluded, calling the decision “horrifying.”
White is far from alone in condemning the move, with Texas congressman and former U.S. Navy SEAL Dan Crenshaw tweeting that the decision to provide the Taliban with such intelligence amounted to “borderline treason.”
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