Thread by @tobyharnden

THREAD. My Afghan translator R has been trapped outside #KabulAirport for a week. I have applied for an SIV for him. I am a US citizen. No reply. Pending cases are not being allowed through the gates. Every day R gambles with his life to try to get in 1/10

When R gets close to the gate, he calls me on WhatsApp, hoping a US soldier will talk to me, so I can vouch for him. He carries the application I sent, and photos of us working together, including this one of us beside the memorial to CIA officer Mike Spann. 2/10

R was with me in Mazar-i Sharif last November. Wise & resourceful, he helped me research the first days of the war (just after 9/11) for my book First Casualty. He tracked down two doctors who witnessed the last seconds of Mike Spann’s life as the CIA man died fighting. 3/10

On Saturday, I was woken by R calling. He was breathless. I could hear shouting and wailing as the crowd surged near the gate. "Get off the f---ing wall! I mean it!" shouted a British paratrooper, the fear in his voice apparent as he tried to corral people. R was turned back 4/10

Even as R faces death - if he is left behind, the Taliban will kill him - he reports each day, sending me info. At #KabulAirport, he has seen people crushed to death. R’s feet were badly mangled in a crush of people. This is his lacerated left foot. Apols for gruesome image 5/10

Here is R after treatment. He went straight back to #KabulAirport. R understands that he is a lower priority, behind US citizens and those who worked for US govt. I have no big media company backing me. R was working for an independent author & journalist, a freelancer 7/10

But President Biden has promised to get people like R out, to do "everything that we can, to provide safe evacuation for our Afghan allies, partners and Afghans who might be targeted because of their association with the United States" 8/10

R is desperate. If he can't get into the airport, he might try to head to Iran or Uzbekistan. But to do that he would have to cross Taliban checkpoints everywhere. It would be a huge risk. But so is staying in Kabul, waiting for the knock on the door & the bullet to the head 9/10

If anyone from the US govt. can help expedite the SIV for R, please contact me. Or anyone from UK govt. who can help - I am a UK citizen too. Any advice on how he can get to the airport, a password, a point of contact. Please, anything for R 10/10