Author: Blazingcatfur

KABUL/WASHINGTON, Aug 23 (Reuters) – With thousands of desperate Afghans and foreigners massed at Kabul’s airport in the hope of fleeing Afghanistan’s new Taliban rulers, U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to decide as soon as Tuesday on whether to extend an Aug. 31 deadline to airlift Americans and their allies to safety.

Biden warned on Sunday that the evacuation was going to be “hard and painful” and a lot could still go wrong. U.S. troops might stay beyond Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline to oversee the evacuation, he said.

… A Taliban official said foreign forces had not sought an extension and it would not be granted if they had. Washington said negotiations were continuing.

I think they’re keeping Joe in a closet most of the time.

Elite members of the Canadian military’s special forces unit are operating outside the perimeter of the Kabul airport as senior officials warn the situation on the ground is “increasingly dangerous.”

In a telephone briefing with journalists on Monday morning, senior government officials provided an update on Canada’s efforts to evacuate citizens and Afghan civilians from what one called the “volatile” and “chaotic” environment in the capital following the Taliban takeover last weekend.

Taliban fighters are reportedly flogging Afghan civilians in the streets for wearing ‘westernised’ clothing such as jeans as they cement their power in Afghanistan.

Several young Afghans posted on social media they had been beaten and whipped by members of the Taliban for wearing jeans after being accused of disrespecting Islam.

One social media post says the boys were ‘walking with friends in Kabul,’ when they were confronted by Taliban soldiers.

WASHINGTON — The nation’s top national security officials assembled at the Pentagon early on April 24 for a secret meeting to plan the final withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. It was two weeks after President Joe Biden had announced the exit over the objection of his generals, but now they were carrying out his orders.

In a secure room in the building’s “extreme basement,” two floors below ground level, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Mark Milley, chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with top White House and intelligence officials. Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined by video conference. After four hours, two things were clear.

More than 200 former Guantanamo Bay inmates who were released have returned to terrorism following their release – with 151 still at large, according to newly declassified documents.

The declassified Office of National Intelligence report, which is dated December 18, 2020, highlights that 229 former Guantanamo prisoners have reengaged in acts of terrorism and killing Americans since their release.

Data included in the report shows that 125 former prisoners are confirmed to have reengaged in acts of terrorism since their release, while an additional 104 are currently suspected of reengaging.

Ministers today revealed people on the UK’s terror ‘no fly list’ have already tried to infiltrate RAF flights in Kabul – amid fears of an ISIS suicide bomb attack.

Alarm has been raised that troops are ‘having to keep their fingers on the trigger in one hand while holding a baby in the other’ with desperate crowds trying to get away from the Taliban.

Defence minister James Heappey insisted there are ‘people trying to take advantage of this process to get into the UK to cause us harm’.

h/t TB