Six planes filled with Americans and their Afghan allies are sitting on a runway at Mazar-i-Sharif airport in northern Afghanistan waiting for the Taliban to allow them to leave, says Rep. Michael McCaul, the top GOP member on the House Foreign Relations Committee.
The State Department gave the go-ahead for the flights but the Taliban are apparently negotiating for the planes’ release, according to McCaul. McCaul believes the Taliban wants “full recognition” from the United States.
There’s no confirmation from the White House or State Department on the Americans being held against their will, but is that really surprising? This has been Joe Biden’s biggest nightmare since the Taliban overran Kabul — that the Taliban would seize Americans and hold them as bargaining chips. It should not shock us that this explosive news would be kept from the American people.
STUCK ON PLANES: @RepMcCaul says Americans and Afghan interpreters have been held hostage by the Taliban for days at the Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport in Afghanistan. #FoxNewsSunday pic.twitter.com/2gJfxNTIfJ
— FoxNewsSunday (@FoxNewsSunday) September 5, 2021
The Hill:
When pressed by Wallace on what demands the Taliban are making, McCaul said the circumstances are “turning into a hostage situation.”
“Well, they are not clearing airplanes to depart. They’ve sat at the airport for the last couple days, these planes, and they’re not allowed to leave,” McCaul said.
“We know the reason why is because the Taliban want something in exchange. This is really, Chris, turning into a hostage situation where they’re not gonna allow American citizens to leave until they get full recognition from the United States of America,” he added.
The Biden administration has washed its hands of the fate of Americans still in Afghanistan, as well as abandoning the women of Afghanistan and condemning them to a life servitude and slavery. The women of Afghanistan were given a taste of western-style freedom and are apparently willing to die to keep it.
Several hundred women marched for the second straight day in Kabul, seeking guarantees from the Taliban that their newly won rights would be respected.
Fox News:
As the protesters’ shouts grew louder, several Taliban officials waded into the crowd to ask what they wanted to say.
Flanked by fellow demonstrators, Sudaba Kabiri, a 24-year-old university student, told her Taliban interlocutor that Islam’s Prophet gave women rights and they wanted theirs. The Taliban official promised women would be given their rights but the women, all in their early 20s, were skeptical.
As the demonstrators reached the presidential palace, a dozen Taliban special forces ran into the crowd, firing in the air and sending demonstrators fleeing. Kabiri, who spoke to The Associated Press, said they also fired tear gas.
There are reports of sporadic gunfire in the capital which may indicate discord among the various factions of Taliban fighters on how the government goodies will be divvied up. Or they could be executing former interpreters for American forces who were abandoned by the president of the United States.
Biden allies on the left want Afghanistan to go away as an issue as fast as possible. But the Taliban probably won’t allow that to happen. They have the U.S. exactly where they want us and will now taunt us and rub our noses in our humiliating defeat. And that means they will probably take hostages and parade our impotence before the world.
Few are criticizing Joe Biden for ending the war in Afghanistan despite Biden apologists claiming that’s exactly what critics are carping about. We’re not. What the vast majority of critics are complaining about was the chaotic, deadly, incompetent, cynical withdrawal and the humiliation of abandoning allies who had stood next to us in battle for 20 years.
Source: PJ Media
