Some Afghans couldn’t get to Kabul airport even after U.S. gave Taliban manifests, State official says

By Alexander Ward and Quint Forgey

A U.S. soldier holds a sign indicating a gate is closed as hundreds of people gather outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on Aug. 26, 2021. | Wali Sabawoon/AP Photo

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NatSec Daily listened to a remarkable briefing call today with a senior State Department official, who spoke to us and other reporters on the condition of anonymity to provide context on the Afghanistan evacuation.

Here are the three highlights:

— “The majority” of Afghan special immigrant visa applicants were left behind in Afghanistan due in part to the complications of the evacuation, including the threats from ISIS-K and the fortified nature of Kabul’s airport.
— There were times when the Taliban stopped Afghans from passing airport checkpoints, even after the United States provided the militants with a manifest of would-be evacuees on buses. While the protocol worked most of the time, and some Afghans who didn’t get through the first time subsequently passed in later days, officials acknowledged “there were days it did not work well.”
— Although the administration did a good job evacuating more than 120,000 people, the official argued, “everybody who lived it is haunted” by the decisions officials on the ground had to make throughout the weekslong effort and “by the people we were not able to help depart” during the operation.

That’s a lot, but here are a few things to note.

First, it’s now clear the U.S. military left behind far more people than it would’ve liked to. Not only are roughly 100-200 Americans who wanted to come home still in Afghanistan, but thousands of vulnerable Afghans who worked alongside the United States during the 20-year war remain in harm’s way.

Second, it’s now indisputable that the United States did hand over manifests to the Taliban in service of getting Americans, Afghans and foreign nationals past Taliban checkpoints. While the administration denies that a comprehensive list was ever handed over — which POLITICO did not report — officials from President JOE BIDEN on down continue to confirm that the Taliban did get such manifests from the United States.

Third, it’s worth taking a moment to recognize the effort of the U.S. officials who worked tirelessly to evacuate as many people as they could. We often talk about, well, “officials” or “the administration,” but this was a human-run operation to aid real-life people in danger. Every person helped was surely seen as a victory, and every person left behind stays with those who failed to get them out.

Read more of Alex’s reporting from the briefing here.

FIRST IN POLITICO — U.S. AFGHANISTAN CHIEF HAS COVID: Alex and DANIEL LIPPMAN first reported that Amb. ROSS WILSON , who led the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, has tested positive for Covid-19. However, he is only showing minor cold-like symptoms, per someone familiar.

Back in late June, there was a major coronavirus outbreak at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, leading to at least 159 cases and some people at the embassy having to be put on oxygen or get medically evacuated.

Wilson, reached by email on a plane, didn’t provide a comment on getting coronavirus. But he told POLITICO he was one of the first people in the embassy to get vaccinated and “made many appeals to people to get vaccinated as soon as they became available to us in January.”

“POSSIBLE” U.S. COULD COORDINATE WITH TALIBAN AGAINST ISIS-K: Gen. MARK MILLEY , the Joint Chiefs chair, made a little news during a quick 30-minute news briefing marking the end of the Afghanistan war. Asked if the United States might work with the Taliban to combat terror threats from ISIS-K, Milley briefly paused before responding: “It’s possible.”

But Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN also stressed that the Pentagon was “working with the Taliban on a very narrow set of issues” amid the U.S. evacuation effort — implicitly saying there wouldn’t be any counterterrorism coordination between the former adversaries in the 20-year conflict. Read more from Quint here.

BIDEN AND ZELENSKYY FINALLY MEET: Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY finally got his wish: A meeting at the White House with his American counterpart.

It was a long time coming for the comedian-turned-leader. Former President DONALD TRUMP used Zelenskyy’s desire for a face-to-face against him, employing not-so-subtle language to urge Ukrainian officials to investigate then-candidate Biden and his family. Two years later, Biden was pushed into issuing Zelenskyy’s White House invitation before meeting with Russian President VLADIMIR PUTIN in person.

A senior administration official detailed some of the deliverables from the summit. One is a new $60 million security assistance package, which will include Javelin missiles along with “other defensive lethal and non-lethal capabilities.” That brings the total level of U.S. military support to Ukraine to roughly $400 million this year alone.

The United States and Ukraine also will be signing a “strategic defense framework” under which both sides promise to work more closely on issues such as “Black Sea security, cyber and intelligence sharing, as well as continued support for Ukraine as it faces continuing Russian aggression.”

As for Nord Stream 2 — the nearly complete Russia-to-Germany gas pipeline that circumvents Ukraine as an energy throughway for Europe — the Biden administration will hold firm in allowing the project to be completed. That angers Ukrainians NatSec Daily has spoken to, and presumably led to a tense conversation between Biden and Zelenskyy.

Sen. TED CRUZ (R-Texas), who has placed holds on many State Department nominees until Biden reimposes sanctions on the pipeline, is irate the American president won’t change course.

“Biden-Harris officials continue to behave as if they’re in a university faculty lounge instead of the real world. President Biden is gifting Nord Stream 2 gift to Putin, which will acutely endanger the national security of the United States and our European allies for generations,” Cruz told NatSec Daily. “President Biden needs to implement the law and impose the sanctions mandated by Congress to stop this pipeline.”

TALIBAN VS. RESISTANCE FIGHTING CONTINUES: The Wall Street Journal’s SUNE ENGEL RASMUSSEN reported on the escalating battle between the newly empowered Taliban and resistance fighters throughout Afghanistan.

“The Taliban said it had captured the Shotul district in Panjshir, making gains in the sole Afghan province that the militant group hasn’t captured,” he wrote. “Fighting continued in the valley throughout Wednesday with casualties on both sides, though the exact toll wasn’t clear. A senior Taliban official said the group had tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a peaceful handover of the province. … Sporadic clashes also continued in the provinces of Wardak and Daikundi, which are home to large groups of Hazaras, a mostly Shiite minority, who have formed armed militias.”

These anti-Taliban forces are the kind of groups conservatives want to prop up financially and with weaponry while recognizing their leaders as the people in charge of Afghanistan’s government.

“Supporting the ongoing resistance is critical on humanitarian and national security grounds. They need political, moral, and humanitarian aid in the immediate term,” Rep. MIKE WALTZ (R-Fla.) told NatSec Daily on Wednesday. “We need to move quickly to support these sanctuaries in Hazarajat and the Panjshir before the Taliban and al Qaeda can isolate and destroy them.”

But so far, Democrats aren’t supportive of this plan. “That idea makes no sense,” Sen. CHRIS MURPHY (D-Conn.), a Senate Foreign Relations Committee member, told NatSec Daily in a statement. “It makes the United States look out of touch with reality to recognize leaders of countries who aren’t actually the present leaders of the country.”

Meanwhile, the Taliban are preparing to outline what their government will look like. HAIBATULLAH AKHUNDZADA, the militant group’s top religious leader, is poised to be named Afghanistan’s supreme authority, per The New York Times’ MATTHIEU AIKINS.

KLAIN PUTS KIBOSH ON IMMINENT TALIBAN RECOGNITION: MSNBC’s MEHDI HASAN asked White House chief of staff RON KLAIN on Tuesday night if the United States would be recognizing the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan in the near future. Klain’s answer: Nope.

“I don’t think any time soon. I don’t know if we will ever recognize their government,” he responded. “We’ll see what their conduct is. Do they honor their commitments to allow freedom of travel? Do they respect human rights? I think the question of recognizing a new government in Afghanistan is down the road here.”

Make sure to re-read this backgrounder from Just Security’s TESS BRIDGEMAN and RYAN GOODMAN on what exactly formal recognition requires.

Here’s a taste: “[W]hile the Taliban have governed some parts of Afghanistan on a local level for some time … it remains to be seen whether a Taliban-led government will have both the capacity and willingness to carry out the functions of the state and to honor Afghanistan’s international obligations.”

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EX-U.S. MILITARY FEAR COMMS BREAKDOWN WITH BEIJING: Several former senior American military personnel are sounding the alarm that U.S.-China military crisis communications systems remain highly unreliable, per our own PHELIM KINE . Those inadequacies pose a risk of potential miscommunication that could fuel a dangerous confrontation between Washington and Beijing at a time of heightening bilateral tensions in the Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea.

The warnings come after reports last week that the Pentagon and China’s People’s Liberation Army initiated their first direct contact since Biden took office — a video call carried by the U.S.-PRC Defense Telephone Link that focused on “maintaining open channels of communication between the two militaries.”

SAUDI-RUSSIA PACT’S SIGNIFICANCE: Breaking Defense’s CHYRINE MEZHER explained what a military cooperation deal signed last week by Riyadh and Moscow means for Washington.

FADI ASSAF , who co-founded the Beirut-headquartered Middle East Strategic Perspective consultancy company, told Mezher both sides are making clear that “Moscow is now more involved in regional affairs, while the US shows less interest in the Middle East. … Accessing the Saudi defense market would mean a significant political and economic success for the Russians, who are prospecting for other Gulf markets including the UAE and Qatar, while trying to expand their presence in the Iraqi and Turkish markets.”

The pact also is a way for Saudi Crown Prince MOHAMMED BIN SALMAN to show his displeasure with Biden — and perhaps make the American president a little jealous — after he downgraded the U.S.-Saudi relationship over Yemen and the murder of JAMAL KHASHOGGI.

NIGERIA’S U.S.-BACKED TERRORIST FIGHT: Nigeria now has a squadron of A-29 Super Tucanos , a light-attack aircraft the African country’s air force plans to use against Boko Haram and ISIS. U.S. Africa Command announced that 64 Nigerian pilots and maintenance troops trained in Georgia with the U.S Air Force, and now they have the planes to track and kill the militants.

“The A-29 is a prime tool to help Nigeria combat violent extremism and is vital to sustained deterrence,” Gen. JEFF HARRIGIAN, U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa commander, said in a news release, per Defense News’ TODD SOUTH. “The total package deal — aircrew and maintainer training, precision-guided weapon delivery, and more — highlights our enduring partnership with the Nigerian Air Force and our commitment to enabling their successes where we can.”

NEW 10-YEAR NSA CONTRACT: Hewlett Packard Enterprise won a $2 billion contract with the National Security Agency to work on artificial intelligence and data issues “to harness rapidly growing AI and data needs more efficiently to create insights and other forecasting and analysis,” according to a company news release Wednesday. The new service, using HPE’s GreenLake platform, will go into use next year.

NEARLY $200 MILLION FOR COVID-19 NEEDS: The Pentagon, in conjunction with the Department of Health and Human Services, announced Tuesday two contracts worth $194.5 million “to increase domestic production capacity of test kits and pipette tips.”

The first award, worth $2 million, went to Luminostics to increase its production of Covid-19 test kits to 3.3 million per month by March 2022. The second contract, worth $192.5 million, is for Nalge to increase domestic manufacturing of pipette tips, which are used for Covid-19 sample collection and testing. Per the Pentagon news release, the money will help Nalge ramp up its monthly production to roughly 160 million tips by August 2024.

HASC BOOSTS DOD BUDGET: From our own PAUL MCLEARY : The House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday voted to endorse a nearly $24 billion increase to the Pentagon budget, delivering another bipartisan rebuke to Biden’s military spending plan.

The committee voted to boost the budget topline of the annual National Defense Authorization Act in a 42-17 vote during its marathon markup of the military policy legislation. The increase essentially matches a similar boost endorsed by the Senate Armed Services Committee this summer.

Several Democrats who served in the military or represent military-heavy districts threw their support behind the amendment, including former Navy officer ELAINE LURIA, former Navy pilot MIKIE SHERRILL, and Army veteran ANTHONY BROWN. Rep. JOE COURTNEY , who represents a district in Connecticut that builds submarines, also supported the increase.

The proposal was offered by the committee’s top Republican, Rep. MIKE ROGERS of Alabama. Committee Chair ADAM SMITH opposed the amendment.

LAWMAKERS WANT APPROVED LOCKHEED-AEROJET DEAL: A bipartisan group of 13 lawmakers are urging the Pentagon to sign off on the proposed Lockheed Martin-Aerojet Rocketdyne merger, per our own LEE HUDSON.

Aerojet is the last large standalone rocket propulsion manufacturer in the United States. Lawmakers, in a letter sent Tuesday to Deputy Defense Secretary KATHLEEN HICKS , said a precedent was set for prime contractors to absorb rocket propulsion firms when Northrop Grumman acquired Orbital ATK in 2018.

The proposed $4.4 billion acquisition would guarantee there are two well-resourced rocket propulsion suppliers in the United States, the lawmakers argue. “Your authority to weigh the national security implications of this proposed acquisition is of critical importance,” the letter states.

But Sen. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-Mass.) asked the Federal Trade Commission in July to reexamine defense industry mergers and questioned the proposal from Lockheed Martin to buy Aerojet. Raytheon Technologies also opposes the move.

CONGRESS STILL LASHING BIDEN OVER LEFT-BEHIND AMERICANS: The day after the president dubbed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan a “success,” both Democratic and Republican members of Congress remain unsatisfied with the administration’s strategy for evacuating the 100-200 Americans still stranded in the Taliban-controlled country.

Rep. JASON CROW (D-Colo.), a former Army Ranger who sits on the House Intelligence Committee, said he had “heard the outlines of a plan” for rescuing the Americans, “but I’m not yet satisfied that we have a full plan in place.”

“I’m going to be pushing the administration to present that action, joining with several of my colleagues to send a letter recommending that certain steps be taken,” Crow told CNN — adding that the missive would be delivered to the White House “in the next couple of days” because “we’re trying to gather additional supporters for it.” Crow’s office did not immediately return a request for more details on the forthcoming letter.

Sen. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-S.C.) got more personal. He told Fox News the commander in chief “is a dangerous man when it comes to our national security and our economic well-being, and you really can’t believe a word he’s telling you.” Graham also predicted the administration was ultimately “going to try to bribe” the Taliban with economic assistance in exchange for the evacuations of Americans and Afghan allies. “That is a dangerous way to do business when it comes to terrorism,” he said.

And Sen. TOM COTTON (R-Ark.) offered this scathing assessment of the state of play, telling Fox News: “Joe Biden promised the Taliban we’d be out by the end of August, and he promised American citizens trapped behind Taliban lines we’d stay until we got them out. Joe Biden kept his promise to the Taliban. He broke his promise to Americans.”

— ELISE GIRAUD left her post Tuesday as deputy press counselor at the Embassy of France and will be joining the State Department’s Diplomatic Fellowship program in a few days. “For a year, I’ll be working as a member of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs before going back to France in September 2022,” she wrote in an email to colleagues, obtained by NatSec Daily. BAUDOUIN CARRARD took over Giraud’s duties at the embassy Wednesday.

Be a Policy Pro. POLITICO Pro has a free policy resource center filled with our best practices on building relationships with state and federal representatives, demonstrating ROI, and influencing policy through digital storytelling. Read our free guides today .

— CYNTHIA MILLER-IDRISS, Foreign Affairs: “From 9/11 to 1/6: The War on Terror Supercharged the Far Right”

— MURTAZA HUSSAIN, The Intercept: “ Over two decades, U.S.’s global war on terror has taken nearly 1 million lives and cost $8 trillion”

— JEN KIRBY, Vox: “NATO allies are preparing for a future without America’s ‘forever wars’”

— The Center for Strategic and International Studies, 9 a.m.: “Tunisia – What Now?”

— The Middle East Institute, 11 a.m.: “ Syria Today: How Assad ‘Won’ beyond the Military”

— The Hudson Institute, 12 p.m.: “The Future of the Navy & Marine Corps with Rep. JARED GOLDEN”

— The Institute for Policy Studies, 7 p.m.: “Learning the Lessons of Afghanistan”

Have a natsec-centric event coming up? Transitioning to a new defense-adjacent or foreign policy-focused gig? Shoot us an email at award@politico.com or qforgey@politico.com to be featured in the next edition of the newsletter.

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