State Department upset with the characterization of the lack of urgency on Special Immigrant Visas for the 1000s of Afghan interpreters, though for some reason they're refusing to ask DOD to help evacuate them before withdrawal is complete.
Not reassuring at all, as usual.
.@humeyra_pamuk: "you think you’re going to be able to process these visas past September 11th as well?"
State Department: "that is certainly our intention."
Amazing. Take your time, guys! Not like there's a deadline, literally, for these people.
HASC Chairman @RepAdamSmith explains that the Special Immigrant Visa program requires mandatory spending and Congress will have to waive the requirement: "To get to the numbers we all want to get to [18,000 pending], we only have authorization for... like 7000, maybe."
.@michaelgwaltz says DOD needs to evacuate the thousands of Afghan interpreters.
Helvey: "I think the focus we have is on supporting a peaceful outcome in #Afghanistan."
WTF kind of answer is this.
Kudos to all the @HASCDemocrats & @HASCRepublicans that so emphatically focused on this issue, which has both moral as well as national security implications.
Highly recommend everyone watch them in action trying to hold the administration to account:
.@RepJasonCrow pushes hard on the Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) issue and potential DOD evacuation.
The Biden administration still refuses to ask DOD to evacuate, which they say they could, even though they know the SIV program can't handle what's required. It's madness.
MUST-LISTEN (until 25:30): @SpyTalker interviews @JanisShenwary, an Afghan interpreter who saved the lives of 5 US soldiers but was almost killed by the #Taliban thanks to US bureaucracy, about the Special Immigrant Visa catastrophe on @deepstateradio. thedsrnetwork.com/crisis-and-con…
Listen to the interview above as well as the statements from DOD, State, White House, and HASC.
The answer is simple: DOD must evacuate the interpreters +families ASAP and deal with legalities later.
WTF is wrong with the administration?!
👇👇👇
Yet another infuriating exchange between the Pentagon and @laraseligman (I think) on the Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans that helped us.
As this answer, and the rest of this thread, makes clear, this administration simply doesn't care. Not even enough to pretend to care.
It's not just the US.
12 local embassy staff & 45 Afghan diplomatic/military interpreters, many in hiding because of #Taliban death threats, are desperately trying to get to #Australia. Some already received prior approval for relocation but are now being studiously ignored.
The shameless, murderous cowardice and disloyalty of the West truly knows no bounds.
Self-inflicted defeats, unilateral withdrawals, and the consistent, psychopathic tendency to feed its local allies to the wolves. Absolutely nauseating.
theaustralian.com.au/nation/embassy…
A month until full withdrawal and the Biden administration isn't even remotely interested in the fate of the ~18000 Afghan interpreters and their families.
Pentagon: "There's been no tasking to do anything of that sort or to provide any transportation at this time."
Pentagon reiterates to @Meghann_MT in their silly language that nothing is going to be done to save the nearly 20,000 Afghan interpreters [and their families]:
This @DefenseOne headline is ENTIRELY misleading. All Milley said was time was running out to help them, given there's only a month left until full withdrawal.
There is no plan of any sort, as the above thread makes clear. They are dead men walking. defenseone.com/policy/2021/05…
Told you guys.
White House and Milley clarify there are NO plans to evacuate ~18,000 Afghan interpreters and the only route out is the Special Immigrant Visa program, which is laughably unfit for purpose. foxnews.com/world/top-us-m…
SIV cannot possibly accommodate any of the ~18K still in Afghanistan, and even interpreters that went through the process have been obstructed by the US and then hunted by Taliban.
Tantamount to the US conducting a Katyn-style execution of its allies.
Australia's SIV equivalent, the Locally Engaged Employees (LEE) visas, also not fit for purpose.
~45 interpreters & 12 embassy staff stuck. Scores of other Afghan allies not even eligible. Despite the tiny #, no indication ADF will evacuate. Tick tock.
theaustralian.com.au/nation/politic…
The ADF must evacuate them as part of the withdrawal, visas or no. Same goes for the US.
Anything else is mass murder.
Pentagon reiterates that the ~18,000 Afghan interpreters, their families, and other Afghans that worked for or aided the US are being intentionally abandoned as a blood sacrifice for the #Taliban.
Zero coordination with NATO allies trying to deal with the issue.
Pentagon says it will absolutely not evacuate any Afghans and that the issue is the sole purview of the State Department's Special Immigrant Visa program, which as this thread makes clear is utterly worthless.
One month left until the last American soldier withdraws.
Q: "At what point is it too late for these [Afghan] translators?"
Pentagon: lol dude we literally could not care less
Pentagon reiterates, as it does every day, that this is the State Department's problem and that the SIV program is the sole means for Afghans trapped in the soon-to-be abattoir to escape.
In other words, they are all dead barring a tasking order from Biden that will never come.
This
Editorial in the @smh today:
No repeat of Saigon: "visa applications to bring partners from #Afghanistan are backed up and take more than twice as long as those from Britain...We must not further sully our reputation by leaving our allies in the lurch." smh.com.au/world/middle-e…
With a month left, State Department JUST requested additional funding for 8000 more Special Immigrant Visas and augmented staff for processing.
But no deadline and no need for evacuations, because they can continue processing and interviewing in Kabul even after withdrawal 🤯🤡
Pentagon again says there will be no evacuation of the Afghan interpreters despite increasing Congressional pressure.
The only explanation for this psychopathy is that one of the annexes of the US surrender to the Taliban was to leave our local allies to them.
#Taliban weighs in on evacuating Afghan interpreters:
"None should currently desert the country...They shall not be in any danger"
Extremely disturbing and incomprehensible either way
1000s of Afghans who worked for the US are being denied Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) for minor infractions or no reason at all, with the Taliban actively threatening and hunting them.
>18000 awaiting SIV approval. Beyond shameful. nytimes.com/2021/06/10/wor…
Amazing. US embassy in Kabul has now suspended SIV visa interviews "due to COVID-19 conditions."
In reality, the embassy is unlikely to restart operations. The US knows its diplomatic presence in #Afghanistan is untenable and is packing up under political cover of COVID.
Meanwhile, Jake Sullivan lies that the Afghan interpreter issue is "a massive priority" for Biden, though it is apparently a topic being discussed at NATO with some other leaders.
Asked about Afghan interpreters being hunted by the #Taliban, Pentagon completely ignores the question:
"we're focused on connecting a safe and orderly retrograde, that's the mission that we've been given."
Incredible. Secretary of State Blinken tells @RepMcCaul that there's nothing to worry about regarding Afghan interpreters and Special Immigrant Visas because they'll have time to process them even after withdrawal and everything is gonna be fine.
Blinken tells @RepMcCaul that with less than a month to full withdrawal, there's not enough Special Immigrant Visas and the process hasn't really begun for at least half the ~18000 Afghans. AND there's a massive backlog for the rest.
But whatever! Not like there's a deadline.
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