Over the past several days, disturbing reports began to circulate that the US had provided the Taliban with the names of Americans and Afghan allies. That was ostensibly done to help facilitate their passage through various checkpoints, but even still, it underscored the incredibly insane decision to rely on a terrorist group for security in the first place. We first heard the word of the information sharing with the Taliban from Gen. Kenneth McKenzie of US Central Command.
But as the bad press started to pile up from the revelation, the administration decided to do what they do best – lie and obfuscate.
State Dept. on this issue: "MR PRICE: What I can say is that the idea that we are providing names or personally identifiable information to the Taliban in a way that exposes anyone to additional risk, that is simply wrong." Will all the RT's and the columns correct?
— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@JRubinBlogger) August 28, 2021
Putting aside the absurdity that is Jennifer Rubin, who has morphed into Baghdad Bob throughout this tragic ordeal, the administration was obviously playing coy from the beginning. Notice the weasel language about exposing anyone to additional risk while attempting to play it off as a factual denial.
Still, that qualifier does nothing to excuse the situation, and the assertion that there is no additional risk is also clearly a lie. Who gets to decide whether it’s risky to give someone’s name to literal terrorists who want to kill them? Further, that decision has to have been wholly arbitrary as the US has no ability to regulate any Taliban response to such information.
And as expected, by the end of the weekend the administration’s framing had been debunked. Follow-up reporting on a previous story broke last night and it now confirms that we not only gave names but passport information as well regarding American University of Afghanistan students.
NEW: The U.S. military provided the Taliban with a list of names & passport info of hundreds of American University of Afghanistan students, NYT reports.
“We are all terrified, there is no evacuation, there is no getting out”https://t.co/nAM8i1Vkj4
Our story on this practice: https://t.co/E87VSK7x7n
— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) August 30, 2021
Now, the Taliban know the names of some of the most targeted Afghans (i.e. educated women), and they were not evacuated either. Thus, they are absolutely facing additional risk right now.
Couple that with the drone attack that killed seven children yesterday, and the picture of just how incapable the Biden administration is becomes clear. They originally claimed no civilians were hurt and that they hit their target. But even the latter claim is now in dispute.
US authorities have to explain what happened. Claims that vehicle was loaded with explosives and there were huge secondary explosions not supported by anything I have seen
pic.twitter.com/gwzNFSWm38— Bruno Maçães (@MacaesBruno) August 29, 2021
We are watching the most incompetent administration in modern history struggle to function at even a basic level. That no one has resigned yet is a national disgrace. This situation is not going to get better, and it was caused by Joe Biden, Antony Blinken, and the laundry list of officials and military appointees who led this tragic effort.
Lastly, I want to mention that I got “fact-checked” Saturday by CNN’s Daniel Dale for writing that it “appeared” that Joe Biden fell asleep while speaking to the Israeli PM. Clearly, it did appear that he fell asleep (words mean things) as his head hung down with eyes closed for 30+ seconds while the PM awkwardly tried to look at him.
Regardless, whether Biden was technically entering the REM cycle or not is irrelevant. What’s relevant is that fact-checkers continue to ignore actual, consequential lies emanating daily from the administration. Remember that the next time you see an assertion from them.
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