The Taliban is claiming that they are preventing 6 planes full of Americans from leaving their airport. They claim they want some sort of compensation for allowing them to leave. So now Psaki is saying the hostage situation doesn’t exist, it’s a GOP talking point. Yet the Biden admin has no idea whether it’s true or not. The State Dept has admitted that they don’t have the means to know if this is a bluff or not. So it looks like Psaki is lying here…
Just look at the exchange below.
Reporter: (Inaudible) the hostage situation, what’s happening right now on — with those airplanes?
Psaki: “Oh, I thought you were talking about — so that’s an important thing, obviously. I thought you were talking about the Build Back Better agenda.
No, that is not what we would characterize it as. Those were points — that was — those were comments made by a Republican congressman this weekend.
So let me be very clear: We’re in touch with American citizens. We’re working to get them out. There are four who were able to depart overland. Our Secretary of State is in Qatar right now working on a range of options, including getting flights up and operational and going.
And what we have seen is that individuals who have documentation are able to depart, or that — that is what we have seen. But again, we don’t have a great deal of understanding of every individual on these manifests.”
Secretary Blinken however claims the planes are being stalled because Afghan refugees are mixing in with documented Americans that are trying to fly out.
“The flights out of Afghanistan have seemingly been held back, Blinken said, as those eligible evacuees remain intermixed with other people who are seeking to flee the country but are not in possession of the necessary documentation.
>“There are groups of people who are grouped together, some of whom have the appropriate travel documents — an American passport, a green card, a visa — and others do not,” Blinken told reporters at a news conference in Doha, Qatar.
“It’s my understanding that the Taliban has not denied exit to anyone holding a valid document, but they have said that those without valid documents at this point can’t leave,” Blinken said. “But because all of these people are grouped together, that’s meant that flights have not been allowed to go.”
The problem here is that the State Dept has already admitted that we have very little intelligence on the ground in Afghanistan now. So there is no telling as to what is actually going on. It very well could be that the Taliban made demands and the Biden Admin just quietly paid them off. Only time will tell.
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