In a shocking report, Politico claims that a “majority” of special immigrant visa applicants – Afghans who worked with us for years as translators and in other positions, which would put them and their families into extreme danger from the Taliban – were left behind in Afghanistan. This was allegedly due to security threats at the airport, the Taliban checkpoints around the airport and the airport design.

https://townhall.com/tipsheet/leahbarkoukis/2021/09/02/report-state-department-official-believes-majority-of-sivs-were-left-in-afghanistan-n2595191

An unnamed senior State Department official also said that any electronic credentials they tried to give out were immediately disseminated far and wide, making them unreliable for ID purposes.

As sad and infuriating as this is, it’s not surprising. It’s also horse apples to blame the airport design, or the attacks on the airport, or the Taliban surrounding the airport or the problems with last-minute electronic credentials for these allies being left behind in grave danger. That’s because all of those issues occurred at the last minute, after the Taliban moved in and took over. In fact, these people are stranded in Afghanistan and fearing for their lives because the White House failed to speed up the molasses-in-January paperwork processing to approve their SIVs.

I reported way back on May 19th, a good six weeks before Biden assured us that it was highly unlikely that the Taliban would take over, that Congress members sent the White House a bipartisan letter, complaining about their delay in processing these visas because leaving our allies behind would be a death sentence. That was from a report that was also in Politico:

https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/18/lawmakers-visas-afghans-us-troops-489290

In short: the White House knew about this issue months ago, but didn’t take it seriously enough. They should’ve moved heaven and earth to cut through the bureaucracy and get our allies out faster (you know Trump would have), or at least to some safe spot outside Afghanistan until the paperwork was completed, but that’s yet another thing they failed at. If it results in the deaths of those who helped us for years and their families, it will be even more blood on the incompetent hands of this Administration.