President Biden has decided not to extend an Aug. 31 deadline to remove all American troops from Afghanistan, a U.S. official tells Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson.
The development comes shortly after a Taliban spokesperson – following a meeting between leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and CIA Director William Burns in Kabul – said there will be “no extensions” to the Biden administration’s Aug. 31 date.
Defense Dept. Press Secretary John Kirby said Tuesday that the White House is still “aiming toward the end of the month” for a complete withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.
Read more at Fox News
Pentagon Briefing Tuesday before the announcement of Biden’s decision, 8-24-21
Related Story: US troops will have to begin Afghanistan pullout Friday to meet deadline; Taliban says it won’t extend
GOP Leaders and Veterans Respond
Earlier story is below:
Biden faces decision on Afghanistan airlift, Taliban edict
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. ramped up its round-the-clock airlift of evacuees from Afghanistan to its highest level yet on Tuesday, but President Joe Biden faced a pressing decision on whether to shut down the massive military airlifts in a week, as the Taliban are insisting.
Biden has been considering whether to extend his self-imposed deadline for completing the airlift by Aug. 31, taking into account the continued security threats, the Taliban’s resistance to an extension and the prospect that not all Americans and at-risk Afghan allies can be evacuated by next Tuesday.
America’s European allies as well as U.S. lawmakers, veterans groups and refugee organizations are urging Biden to continue the evacuations as long as needed to get out all foreigners, Afghan allies and others most at risk from the Taliban. At a news conference in Kabul, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Tuesday his group will accept “no extensions” of the deadline.
Amid the tense operation to get people out of the country, CIA Director William Burns secretly swooped into Kabul on Monday to meet with the Taliban’s top political leader, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.
Related Story: CIA Director Burns Secretly Met With Taliban Leader in Kabul
About 21,600 people were flown safely out of Taliban-held Afghanistan in the 24-hour period that ended early Tuesday, the White House said. That compares with about 16,000 the previous day.
Thirty-seven U.S. military flights — 32 C-17s and 5 C-130s — carried about 12,700 evacuees. An additional 8,900 people flew out aboard 57 flights by U.S. allies.
Pentagon chief spokesman John Kirby said Monday the faster pace of evacuation was partly due to coordination with Taliban commanders on getting evacuees into the airport.
“Thus far, and going forward, it does require constant coordination and deconfliction with the Taliban,” Kirby said. “What we’ve seen is, this deconfliction has worked well in terms of allowing access and flow as well as reducing the overall size of the crowds just outside the airport.”
CIA Director Burns and Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s top political leader, secretly met in Kabul on Monday as the evacuations continued. The Washington Post first reported Burns’ meeting. The U.S. official later confirmed the meeting for the AP.
The senior U.S. military commander at the Kabul airport, Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, has been communicating daily with Taliban commanders in an effort to facilitate the evacuation, but the last known contact between the military and Baradar was when Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, flew to Doha, Qatar, to meet with him and other Taliban officials last December. Milley tried to persuade the Taliban to reduce their attacks against Afghan forces, ultimately to no avail.
With access to the airport still difficult Monday, the U.S. military went beyond the perimeter to carry out another helicopter retrieval of Americans. U.S. officials said a military helicopter picked up 16 American citizens Monday and brought them to the airfield for evacuation. This was at least the second such rescue mission beyond the airport; Kirby said that last Thursday, three Army helicopters picked up 169 Americans near a hotel just beyond the airport gate and flew them onto the airfield.
President Joe Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said at the White House on Monday that talks with the Taliban were continuing as the administration looks for additional ways to safely move more Americans and others into the Kabul airport by the end-of-August deadline.
He said ultimately it will be Biden’s decision alone whether to continue military-led evacuation operations beyond Aug. 31. That’s the date Biden has set for completing the withdrawal of troops.
California Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff, chairman of the House intelligence committee, told reporters after a committee briefing Monday on the Afghanistan withdrawal that “it was hard for me to imagine” wrapping up the airlifts by the end of the month. He also said it was clear there had been “any number of warnings” to the administration “of a very rapid takeover” by the Taliban.
After more than a week of evacuations plagued by major obstacles, including Taliban forces and crushing crowds that are making approaching the airport difficult and dangerous, the number of people flown out met — and exceeded — U.S. projections for the first time.
Army Gen. Stephen Lyons, head of U.S. Transportation Command, which manages the military aircraft that are executing the Kabul airlift, told a Pentagon news conference that more than 200 planes are involved, including aerial refueling planes, and that arriving planes are spending less than an hour on the tarmac at Kabul before loading and taking off. He said the nonstop mission is taking a toll on aircrews.
“They’re tired,” Lyons said of the crews.
On a positive note, Lyons said that in addition to the widely reported case of an Afghan woman giving birth aboard a U.S. evacuation aircraft, two other babies have been born in similar circumstances. He did not provide details.
The Pentagon said it has added a fourth U.S. military base, in New Jersey, to three others — in Virginia, Texas and Wisconsin — that are prepared to temporarily house arriving Afghans. Maj. Gen. Hank Williams, the Joint Staff deputy director for regional operations, told reporters there are now about 1,200 Afghans at those military bases. The four bases combined are capable of housing up to 25,000 evacuees, Kirby said.
Afghan evacuees continued to arrive at Dulles International Airport outside of Washington. Exhaustion clouded the faces of many of the adults. A journalist asked one man how it felt to be in the U.S. “We are safe,” the man answered.
An older woman sank with relief into an offered wheelchair, and a little girl carried by an older boy shaded her eyes to look curiously around. The scramble to evacuate left many arrivals carrying only a bookbag or purse, or a plastic shopping bag of belongings. Some arrived for their new lives entirely empty-handed.
Biden said Sunday he would not rule out extending the evacuation beyond Aug. 31. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who will meet with Biden virtually on Tuesday in a G-7 leaders’ summit on the chaotic withdrawal, is expected to press Biden for an extension to get out the maximum number of foreigners and Afghan allies possible.
Lawmakers, veterans organizations and refugee advocates in the U.S. also are urging Biden to keep up the U.S. military’s evacuation out of the Kabul airport as long as it takes to airlift not just Americans, but Afghan allies and other Afghans most at risk from the Taliban.
But Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen, in an interview with Sky News, said that Aug. 31 is a “red line” the U.S. must not cross and that extending the American presence would “provoke a reaction.”
Monday’s warning signaled the Taliban could insist on shutting down the airlifts out of the Kabul airport in just over a week. Lawmakers, refugee groups, veterans’ organizations and U.S. allies have said ending the evacuation then could strand countless Afghans and foreigners still hoping for flights out.
Since Aug. 14, the U.S. has evacuated and facilitated the evacuation of more than 58,000 people.
Associated Press writers Nomaan Merchant, Darlene Superville, Aamer Madhani, Lolita C. Baldor, Hope Yen, Alexandra Jaffe, James LaPorta, Jonathan Lemire, Matthew Lee and Dan Huff contributed to this report.
Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
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“‘There Will Be Consequences’: Taliban Warn US And Britain To Get Out, Saying August 31 Withdrawal Deadline Is A ‘Red Line’”
“Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar and CIA Director William Burns in Kabul — said there will be “no extensions” to the Biden administration’s Aug. 31 date.”
“Biden Won’t Extend Aug. 31 Afghanistan Withdrawal Deadline,”
And our wimpy, demented Democrat Party’s puppet president Biden say “Yes sir”.
🙁 🙁 🙁
Thousands of American civilians are stranded and being held hostage by radical Islamic terrorists. Tens of thousands of brave Afghan allies are being hunted down and brutally murdered.
If all Americans are not evacuated by Aug. 31, they are on their own, let them eat cake.
🙁 🙁 🙁
The Democrat Party’s intension: “RULE and RUIN”. 🙁 🙁 🙁
We the greatest country on earth has become a disrespected WOKE country. 🙁 🙁 🙁
“The Afghan military was falling apart while the Joint Chiefs of Staff head Milley was defending critical race theory.”
This Democrat Party has reduced or country’s military into a racist, LGBTQ, Democrat Party’s socially accepted social club.
🙁 🙁 🙁 👿
Pity we can’t DEADLINE BIDEN out of office.. RIGHT ALONG WITH all the other traitors there..
Ya, What The Taliban Said, ” No Extention Of The Dead, ” Dead Americans Left Behind After Joe Biden’s, Cut And Run, August ” Dead ” Line, We’re Out of Here, Says democrat Marxist president Joe Biden!
After today’s bombing, that CERTAINLY seems like they meant “THE LINE OF THE DEAD”, not a Deadline…
America’s Military Leaders apparently Have their heads stuck up their ” Asis and just like Joe Biden, are pupetts with their stringes being controlled by Anti- American foreign puppeters.America no longr has a military to fight and protect this country, but the military, if this is any comfort, are ” Politically Correct. “
Good for nothing Joe, leaving American citizens behind, so they can be tortured to death and murdered by the Taliban. Joe, a corrupt criminal communist, bowing down and kissing the hands of terrorists.
You might add kissing their backside and a few other things that I can’t write.
Well he armed them, so i can certainly see him, kissing their ring, JUST LIKE OBAMA DID To the king of Saudi.
So what does this moran of a president plan on doing when the evacuation is not complete by the 31st?
We are so screwed with this administration.
So the nation with the strongest military in the world is going to bow down to a rag tag bunch of fighter who kill their own and will probably be doing horrible things to women.
Biden is a coward and has completely lost it.
Call it a day, and pull out the 6k troops.. PROBABLY AFTER LEAVING YET MORE guns, ammo and equipment behind.
TheAnti- , zhate- America, Must belive tha when and if, the Socialist Communist Government over runs America that they of the elite Government won’ t be among some of those inGovernment who are Going to Be removed and replaced by Conrades whom the Communists like and trust to obey their orders more than the elite now betraying America… The Communist Leaders may feel, ” once the traitors betray America, they can’t be trusted not to betray them as well..
Time to bomb, drone, and blow them out of the water or dessert once and for all. Isn’t this a result of the humiliation we suffered from them 20 years ago. Let military go independent of this president and do the right thing.
That would require military leadership, something the US doesn’t have currently. Current leaders are fretting over diversity and white rage, etc. Maybe how to accept transgenders into the military. Half of the men, or probably more, will be needing wigs and lipstick so they can shower with the women.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Tuesday his group will accept “no extensions” of the deadline. The US military has no leadership currently, thanks to the democrats ( American trash ) in charge in congress and WH. The nation will be overrun with muslim refugees and illegals. Those demanding that they be supported by the government are fast exceeding the numbers of working taxpayers. Mujahid should be told that they are not making the rules nor drawing the red line. However, they are. And they know it. When cowards all run then it is time to take advantage. When Goliath drops his slingshot and runs then that is the time to take over.
I wonder, will those rapefugees, get prefential treatment, AHEAD OF THE MILLIONS OF ILLEGAL INVADERS that have been brought in by biden!
Borrowing Biden’s words regarding Trump: I’d like to take him out behind the gym. But that would be too quick and undeserving—he needs to suffer—he needs to personally feel and experience the emotional wrangling he is putting the citizens of this country through—both here and the ones in Taliban jeopardy.
“But Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen, in an interview with Sky News, said that Aug. 31 is a “red line” the U.S. must not cross and that extending the American presence would “provoke a reaction.” Supreme A**h*** Shaheen—if you were dealing with me as President as opposed to Joe Biden—I would have a reaction for you—one you wouldn’t soon forget. But what are we to expect from the election thief? He will not deal with domestic terrorist organizations—they are allowed to riot, loot, destroy, and kill with no consequences. He allows them to demand and dictate—the Taliban knows this, so they have him wrapped around their little finger.”
Our voices are ignored and we are sold out by his actions on a regular basis. His own people—our fellow citizens—are in danger of not making it back home. Biden is a traitor to his own country. He has blasphemed his oath of office failing this country at every turn. Total dereliction of duty.
Impeach Biden
Suffering to Biden at this point would be no ice cream for a week.
I would be for kicking democrat Marxist president out of office but i know. the Vice President, Kalama Harris would be much worst than Joe Biden . Besides, replacing Joe Biden With Kalmala Harris has always been the Communists of Americas game plan all along.
So your idea, is to just KEEP THE DEVIL WE HAVE, because the alternative may be worse?
I’m going to be sick. Our president turning his back on American troops. He. Must. Go. or we are lost as a country.
I hate to say it, but part of me, fears we are already beyond saving…
I also have been thinking that our constitutional republic is gone and the United States of America will cease to exist. This country is more divided today than at any other time in our history, even during the first civil war. The second civil war is just about ready to begin
Assuming we on the right, ARE WILLING TO fight that civil war.
so if we don’t have all of our citizens and Afghan Dependents out by the 31st he is just going to say “Oh well, so sad??”. What kind of kickback is the Biden Crime Family getting from the Jihad for selling out our country and our allies???? What’s he going to say and do when videos of American’s and their Afghan Associates turn up on the internet being decapitated and stoned to death??? Is he going to pull a Hillary and say “At this point what difference does it make???” The treasonous behavior, indifference and incompetence of this jacked up tyranny sicken me to the core of my soul.
Yup.. “Too bad, so sad.”.. That’s exactly what i predict will happen.
Followed by the inevitable, dozens of new videos on farcebook/commietwitter, with beheadings, like we saw during the reign of ISIS IN IRAQ!
Coward backs down !!
Wait one! These whackadoodledoos ruining this country already has an open invite for these Barbarians to enter the country. All they need do is trip on down to that WIDE OPEN Southern (non)border! C’mon In, FREEBIES for all, plenty of targets in America to use those children outfitted in suicide vests! WELCOME, the Barbarians are NOT at the gate, they are already here, just take a peek at our (non)government!
Biden may have a few cards up his sleeve. Note cards that he has not read yet.
I am pretty sure he has no clue as to what’s really going on but even if he did he would not have the spheres to do the right thing for America.
He would do it for money though.
Perhaps conservatives should hold a web-a-thon to raise cash to pay him off for doing something positive for the country.
WITH the millions he’s worth, WHY THE HELL should we ‘pay him’, to do something right for our nation.
EITHER THAT IS WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED to do, as President, OR GET THE HELL OUT of the white house!
America has lost it’s position on the world stage because we lack a moral compass and leadership. We earned the right over the years to be admired for our freedoms and a country by the people and for the people, to become a country with no leadership and one who has abandoned it’s allies and it own citizens, to death squads intent on killing and slaughtering all that disagree with them. We have gone from GOD Bless America to GOD Save America in 7 short months.
I pray that we have the ability to save our democracy and insure the freedoms for my Grandchildren! But somehow, I have lost faith in our country.
Can the Commander-In-Chief be court-martialed?
HE should be hung, for HIGH treason!
“…. Biden has decided….” This escapee from an Assisted Living facility has no ability to ‘decide when to change his Depends!’ The Evil puppeteer pulling this poor man’s strings should be found, tarred, feathered and run outta the country by whatever ‘painful’ means!!
white flag joe!
The evil this spawn has injected into America has now started to take root. This clown must be removed from office. His oath was to protect Americans and he has turned his back on all Americans on foreign soil and on American soil. We must wear a mask, be vaccinated & succumb to all orders set forth by this clown and his circus while our border is open to every sick criminal terrorists who are free to roam our country from sea to shining sea without a mask and without being threatened by a questionable vaccine. What in the hell is wrong with this picture?