The State Dept denies it is turning away Afghan allies in favor of US citizens...........

[riversedge]

The NYT makes this a headline. It is mess heartbreaking no matter who goes first.






U.S. is turning some Afghan allies away from the Kabul airport, an official says.


Some Afghan military interpreters and other close U.S. allies, a stated priority group for evacuation from Afghanistan, are being turned away from the Kabul airport by American officials in order to give priority to U.S. citizens and green card holders, a State Department official said on Monday.


The details, given on the condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to brief the news media, were supported by interviews with Afghans who have approached the airport in recent days, and with American veterans’ groups and other organizations that have tried to organize departures for Afghans who are at risk of retribution from the Taliban because they worked with the U.S. government.

The pace of evacuations has accelerated, and it is not clear what proportion of eligible Afghans — people who have secured Special Immigrant Visas to settle in the United States — are now being turned away, or how long that will last. Many of them said they had received emails from the United States instructing them to get to the airport for evacuation.

On Monday night, the State Department denied the accounts of Afghans’ being turned away. In a statement responding to The Times’s questions, the department said, “Our overriding priority remains to put as many people as possible on departing planes as quickly as possible.”

Just getting to the Kabul airport is a perilous ordeal, with jostling, desperate crowds braving Taliban checkpoints, clogging the roads and risking injury or death in the melee. Overwhelmed troops and diplomats are trying to limit the number who make it through the airport gates and sort out the would-be travelers.................



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U.S. Marines guarding the perimeter of the airport in Kabul on Sunday.Credit...Jim Huylebroek for The New York Times

[OAITW r.2.0]

1. Anonymous sources NYT?

Really?

[dalton99a]

2. Many Afghans who approach the airport have fake visas

By Sunday morning, the number of people at the airport awaiting flights had swelled to 18,500, with another 2,000 at the gates waiting to get in, a source familiar with the situation told CNN.

One reason for the chaos was the decision to issue electronic visas to Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants, without names or document numbers. The visas were then copied as screen shots and sent by Afghans to thousands of other Afghans who were not eligible for access to the airport, the source said.

https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/22/asia/kabul-airport-chaos-evacuations-intl/index.html

[Sogo]

3. It may be a matter that the allies can't get through

the exit visa process because Steven Miller sabotaged it....

[Hoyt]

4. How can they deny that? Americans are in the first tier, right or wrong.

Digging deeper and deeper.

[Lovie777]

5. Hopefully 10k will be leaving daily . . .

[tulipsandroses]

6. Why would that even be a story? Of course

Americans and Greencard holders should get priority. These media folks have lost their minds. If it’s the opposite, then they would report Americans left behind while Afghanistans get priority.

[tirebiter]

7. Joe said fill all the seats on all the airplanes...

[Klaralven]

8. I would hope that American citizens get priority over others.