Military say Biden must decide by TUESDAY if he will push back Afghan evacuation deadline of Aug 31

Military officials have warned Joe Biden he must decide whether to keep US troops in Afghanistan by Tuesday – otherwise they will miss his August 31 deadline to leave.

CNN reported that the withdrawal decision must come within hours, to give them time to remove all 5,800 US service personnel currently on the ground in Kabul, as well as their equipment and weaponry.   

Any decision is likely to be made at the president’s daily security briefing, scheduled for 9am EST.  

If Biden does decide on Tuesday that the August 31 withdrawal date is final, troops will spend just ‘a few more days’ evacuating Americans, as well as Afghans with special interest visas (SIVs).

They will then begin to draw down troops and fly them out of the Taliban controlled country, with a military source telling CNN those departures could begin by the end of this week. 

Biden will address the nation at noon on Tuesday, after a meeting with G7 leaders which is likely to see him come under fire from other leaders over the United States’ sudden decision to withdraw from Afghanistan. 

He is coming under pressure from US allies, and from some within the US, to extend the self-imposed deadline but is not going to make a decision until his 9am Tuesday security briefing, CNN reported.

On Monday, Biden spoke to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson about the crisis. A readout of the call said the leaders ‘discussed the ongoing efforts by our diplomatic and military personnel to evacuate their citizens, local staff, and other vulnerable Afghans.’

It continued: ‘They also discussed plans for the G7 virtual leaders’ meeting tomorrow, underscoring the importance of close coordination with allies and partners in managing the current situation and forging a common approach to Afghanistan policy.’

Biden refused to be drawn on talk of extending the deadline Sunday, as the Taliban warned of ‘consequences’ if US forces remain in Afghanistan.

He told reporters: ‘There’s discussions going on in the military about extending. My hope is we will not have to extend, but they are going to be discussions.’

Biden said any decision on staying on into September depended on the number of Americans still to be evacuated. So far, the United States has evacuated 37,000 people.  

The US is unable to say how many Americans and Afghans eligible for SIVs remain in Afghanistan, although Biden last week estimated that up to 15,000 Americans required evacuation, as well as 65,000 Afghans.  

Rear Adm. Peter G. Vasely, a former member of the Navy SEALs who is now the top US military officer in Afghanistan, talks daily or near daily with his Taliban counterparts regarding security measures at the airport, Pentagon officials said on Monday. 

Admiral Vasely and Taliban commanders have worked together since the fall of Kabul on August 15 to agree terms by which Americans and some Afghan allies could reach Kabul’s airport. 

Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., the head of the military’s Central Command, first spoke to senior Taliban commanders on August 15 when he was in Doha, Qatar, to help get the evacuation effort off the ground. 

The White House on Monday repeatedly refused to address the August 31 deadline to get US troops out of Afghanistan, dodging questions on the subject and snapping at reporters who asked how the government planned to save the remaining Americans stuck in Kabul.  

The Taliban’s spokesman issued the sternest threat yet to Biden on Monday morning, saying there will be ‘consequences’ if US troops – who are holed up at the airport in Kabul evacuating tens of thousands of people and fending off an increasingly desperate crowd – don’t leave in the next eight days. 

Biden and his administration have no idea how many Americans remain trapped in Afghanistan, unable to get to the airport to get on an evacuation flight out.

With no numbers on how many Americans remain in the country, much less where those Americans are, it’s growing increasingly unlikely that they will be able to fulfill their promise of getting everyone out in eight days. The longer the US citizens remain behind enemy lines in Kabul, the more perilous their situation becomes. 

But the president is refusing to address the increasingly dangerous situation and his team of advisors are not offering any solid information on how they’re going to address it either. 

Biden turned his back on reporters again on Monday after giving a speech on the FDA’s approval of the Pfizer vaccine, walking away while the angry journalists shouted for answers on what he was doing to solve the  escalating crisis. 

He has only given a handful of remarks on the crisis, claiming he made the right decision to withdraw in every one, and insisting his administration has it under control while forgetting basic details of operations.   

Shortly afterwards, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan swerved the issue again at a briefing and Jen Psaki, the White House Press Secretary, snapped at Fox News reporter Peter Doocy for referring to Americans still in Kabul as ‘stranded’. 

‘I think it’s irresponsible to say that Americans are stranded. They are not. We are committed to bringing Americans who want to come home, home,’ she said. 

No one in the administration could confirm how many Americans are still on the ground in Afghanistan and there are believed to be 20,000 SIV applicants waiting to get out.  

Sullivan said it would be down to Biden whether troops stayed past the August 31 deadline and then refused to give information on what kind of talks US military bosses were having with Taliban chiefs to diffuse the situation. He repeated his previous warning that there was a growing threat from ISIS and Al Qaeda at the airport, but offered no solution.  

Sullivan did admit that the reason they don’t know how many Americans are still in Afghanistan is that the only way they keep track of them is by email and if a person leaves the country without ‘checking out’ officially with the embassy first, they don’t know if they’re still on the country or not.  

‘We ask them to register with the embassy…many have left without de-registering,’ he said. 

Despite not knowing how many there were still there or where they are, he then said: ‘We believe we have the wherewithal to get Americans out.’ 

While US officials race to try to track down the remaining citizens, there is a crowd of 20,000 at the airport demanding to be put on flights out of the area. 

Thirty-three C-17 jets are on the way to the airport that could carry 600 passengers each – 19,800 total – out of the dangerous city, but CNN cites an unnamed official who said the policy was changing to only allow US citizens, foreign citizens from other NATO countries, or Green Card holders through the gates.

No one from the White House, State Department or Pentagon has been able to give a number for how many American citizens remain in Afghanistan.  It’s unclear if or when the US will start flying Afghans out again.

‘We’ve been able to evacuate several thousand Americans,’ Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said on Monday morning, without giving a number for how many remain stuck.  

He added that Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans would still be processed to put vulnerable Afghans on flights. 

‘Afghans in need are still being processed and facilitated.

‘The goal is to get as many people out as fast as possible. 

‘The focus is on doing this as best we can by the end of the month,’ he said. 

Biden had said he was confidant he would be able to rescue all remaining US citizens by August 31 and that he would do his best to get as many vulnerable Afghans out as possible, but there has been no promise the US will stay past the deadline to save Afghan refugees once all Americans are out. 

Between Sunday morning and Monday morning, 10,400 people were removed from Kabul on 28 US flights – an average of 371 passengers per plane on flights that can hold 600. 

Other NATO flights evacuated another 5,900 people. 

On every US evacuation flight so far, the majority of the passengers have been Afghans. Some went to Qatar, others are in Germany and the first planes have now arrived at airbases in Texas, where refugees will be housed at Fort Bliss. 

Despite the huge numbers of people leaving every day, the crowd size at the airport in Kabul is unrelenting and becoming more aggressive. 

The hold-up is largely down to paperwork backlogs on the ground, with some people unable to board flights unless they are given visas. An unnamed source cited by CNN on Monday said it would take four days to make a dent in the numbers outside the airport walls. 

The chaos was worsened over the weekend when the State Department started administering nameless, digital SIV visas to Afghan refugees on smartphones and computers.

The refugees screenshotted the documents and shared them with friends and family, which resulted in thousands turning up with approval to board flights. 

‘I don’t think consular, or the administration frankly, realizes how badly they f*****d up by sending that stupid visa and letting everyone in for 24 hours straight. 

‘Some people are saying there’s no way they’ll get even those currently on airport out of here in four days,’ the source said.  

In the city, the Taliban – which had promised to be more moderate and modern – is already resorting to medieval violence. 

Leaders have issued a death sentence for the brother of one Afghan translator who was able to get out. 

It reads: ‘You have been accused of helping the Americans. You are also accused of providing security to your brother, who has been an interpreter.’ 

This morning, the German military tweeted that one member of the Afghan security forces at the airport in Kabul had been killed and three others were wounded by ‘unknown attackers’. 

Speaking last night about the situation in Afghanistan, Biden turned on his heel and ignored a reporter who shouted ‘Mr President what about ISIS and the threat Americans face now?’ at the conclusion of the press conference about the crisis.

Moments before the reporter asked her question, the president said ‘Thank you,’ in an apparent signal that the press conference had ended.

But he has since taken heat from viewers and commentators who said the question was a sufficiently important one to merit an answer.

Biden’s snub came just hours after his own national security adviser Jake Sullivan told NBC News that there is a ‘genuine threat’ ISIS could attack the evacuation effort at Hamid Karzai Airport in Kabul.

Sullivan, who also raised the prospect of sending US troops back into Kabul, said: ‘I know that the scenes around the airport are heartbreaking, large crowds of people wanting to leave.

‘I know that there is complexity and there is turbulence on the ground and in Kabul, and it’s very risky and dangerous because there’s a genuine threat from ISIS. That is the reality of what we are up against, and I’m not going to sugarcoat that reality.’

The tragic scenes around the airport have transfixed the world, as Afghans poured onto the tarmac last week and some clung to a U.S. military transport plane as it took off, later plunging to their deaths. At least seven people died that day, in addition to the seven killed on Sunday.

The Taliban blame the chaotic evacuation on the U.S. military, saying there’s no need for Afghans to fear them, even though their fighters shoot into the air and beat people with batons as they try to control the crowds outside the airport perimeter.

The Taliban have pledged amnesty to those who worked with the U.S., NATO and the toppled Afghan government, but many Afghans still fear revenge attacks. There have been reports in recent days of the Taliban hunting down their former enemies. It’s unclear if Taliban leaders are saying one thing and doing another, or if fighters are taking matters into their own hands.

Over the weekend, Biden also revealed US forces may stay beyond his deadline of Aug. 31 during a speech on Sunday evening he tries to accelerate the operation to rescue Americans after days of chaos and crushes at Kabul airport.

He said that US forces had expanded the perimeter around the airport amid fears terrorists may seek to exploit the operation by attacking Americans or Afghan civilians.

But things were moving in the right direction with some 33,000 people brought to safety, he said.

‘Let me be clear – the evacuation of thousands of people from Kabul is going to be hard and painful,’ Biden said during a speech in the Roosevelt Room of the White House.

‘No matter when it started, when we began, it would have been true if we had started a month ago, or a month from now.

‘There is no way to evacuate this many people without pain and loss and heartbreaking images you see on television. It’s just a fact.’

Biden said that as many as 33,000 people had been evacuated since July, including some 11,000 during a single 36-hour period. 

Defense officials ‘hope’ they will not have to extend the evacuation operation, he added, but ‘there are going to be discussions I suspect on how far along we are in the process.’

It comes as UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson has pleaded with Biden to delay the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. 

As the desperate evacuation continues, the British PM will use a virtual meeting of world leaders tomorrow to push for more time to save people from the clutches of the – something the president has so far refused to commit to. 

James Heappey, Britain’s junior minister for the Armed Forces, said on Monday that 1,800 eligible citizens and 2,275 local allies had been identified, but more were coming forward all the time. 

‘We will get out as many as we possibly can,’ he told Sky News.

However, ministers admitted the rescue mission is reliant on the American military retaining control of Kabul airport. 

Along with losing key air support, British military officials fear Islamic State may also target UK soldiers at Kabul airport in suicide bomb attacks.

Mr Johnson said on Sunday night: ‘It is vital that the international community works together to ensure safe evacuations, prevent a humanitarian crisis and support the Afghan people to secure the gains of the last 20 years.’

As the airlift continues, the US government has activated the Civil Reserve Air Fleet program, requesting 18 aircraft from US carriers to assist in transporting Afghan refugees after they are evacuated to other countries. 

The voluntary program, born in the wake of the Berlin airlift, adds to the military’s capabilities during crises.

Early on Monday morning, a Delta Air Lines flight landed in Dubai and later took off for Al-Udeid Air Base in Qatar, where evacuees are crowded into hangars. 

A steady stream of military transport planes continue to fly people out of Kabul to airfields across the Mideast.

There also have been concerns that a local Islamic State affiliate might target the crowds outside the airport with suicide bombers or fire missiles at U.S. aircraft. Military planes have been executing corkscrew landings, and other aircraft have fired flares upon takeoff, measures used to prevent missile attacks.

Elsewhere in Afghanistan, the Taliban have faced limited armed resistance from fighters in Baghlan province, some 75 miles north of Kabul. 

The fighters claimed to have seized three districts in the Andarab Valley on Sunday, but the Taliban said Monday that they had cleared them out overnight.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the group’s forces have surrounded nearby Panjshir, the only one of Afghanistan’s 34 provinces yet to fall to the militants.

Several Taliban opponents have gathered there, including Amrullah Saleh, the vice president in the toppled government who claims to be the acting president under the constitution. 

Ahmad Massoud, son of the murdered commander of the Northern Alliance militias that partnered with the U.S. to drive the Taliban from power in 2001, is also in Panjshir.

In interviews with Arab media outlets over the weekend, Massoud said his fighters would resist any attempt to take the province by force but were open to dialogue with the Taliban.

Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, said there had been no fighting in Panjshir yet and that his group is seeking a ‘peaceful solution’ to the standoff.

It comes as damaging US cables revealed staff working at the American Embassy in Kabul are ‘deeply disheartened’ by the Biden administration’s withdrawal, with some even saying ‘it would be better to die under the Taliban’s bullet’ than attempt to flee to safety. 

The jarring statement was part of a diplomatic cable from Afghan US Embassy staff, who said they’ve been separated from their children, according to NBC News, which obtained the message.

‘Happy to die here, but with dignity and pride,’ another embassy staffer said, while a third accused the US of prioritizing Afghan government elites with vast wealth and the connections to safely flee. 

Another message sent via cable shared the horror would-be evacuees were met with when they arrived at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai Airport. Staff were warned to prepare for ‘difficult conditions,’ with the cable adding: ‘However, no one anticipated the brutal experience that occurred.’ 

Disturbingly, one Afghan embassy staffer revealed his home had been vandalized with spray paint, in what he fears was a marking left by a Taliban fighter to flag the property up for a future visit. 

The cables were exposed after it was revealed around 300 Afghans asked to get out of Kabul airport and return to their Taliban-run cities because the conditions have spiraled out of control, a State Department official said.  

Temperatures have been between 85 and 95 degrees Fahrenheit around the airport – essentially a dustbowl – nearly every day as the desperate mob of tens of thousands of people with young kids try to save their families from Taliban attacks, stampedes or being crushed against the airport gates. 

US troops are doing what they can to help US civilians and their Afghan allies prevent dehydration and heat exhaustion, with items like water bottles in short supply and needing to be rationed out. 

One US Marine filmed giving water to six young children is being hailed as a hero, but many say that small act of kindness further serves to emphasize the scale of the human catastrophe unfolding. 

Another picture that has been widely shared on Twitter and other social media platforms shows a different Marine assigned to the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) comforting an infant while they wait for the child’s mom during processing. 

But these fleeting moments are like specks of light swallowed up by a black hole. 

‘We’ve seen wrenching images of people hurt, even killed that hit you in the gut,’ Secretary Blinken told FOX News. 

‘And it’s very important to make sure to the best of our ability, because it’s such a volatile situation, that we do something about the crowding at the gates of the airport, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.’ 

Biden said during a Sunday press briefing that about 11,000 people have been evacuated in the last 36 hours, but at least seven people have been crushed to death, including a two-year-old child. 

And now terrorist threats – particularly from the local affiliate of ISIS, which are enemies of both the U.S. and the Taliban – are making the evacuation more complicated, the scene tenser and ramping up the urgency to get people out of the country. 

There’s concern that ISIS leaders see this as an opportunity to kill Americans while challenging Taliban for control of Afghanistan. 

That threat prompted the US Embassy to issue a warning on Saturday telling Americans not to brave the chaos around the airport unless they have been told to report.

In the ensuing hours, details emerged that evacuation flights were dropping flares and making steep combat landings after warnings that terrorists of the Islamic State might try to shoot down a plane. 

To hasten the evacuation pace, six commercial airlines have agreed to help the US government transport people out of Kabul. 

On Sunday, the US called up 18 civilian aircraft from United Airlines, American Airlines, Delta Air and others to carry people from temporary locations after they landed on flights from Afghanistan, leaning on the industry it last called on during the Iraq War in 2003, Reuters reported Sunday evening. 

The move highlights the difficulty Washington is having carrying out the evacuations following the Taliban’s swift takeover. 

American and Delta said they would start relief flights on Monday.   

Meanwhile, British soldiers desperately shouted for medics and stretchers, as unconscious people were carried away, many being pronounced dead and covered in white sheets, according to a Sky News report on Saturday.

Other paratroopers tried to pull people – including young children – from the chaos, and stood atop compound walls, spraying the crowd with hoses to try and cool them down, as medics dashed between casualties.

There were also scenes of people left injured and bloodied, sat amongst piles of papers and discarded clothes near the site, while others stood shoulder to shoulder, amid sounds of screams and gunshots, the Sun reports.

Tweeting from the airport this afternoon, journalist Kim Sengupta said he had witnessed ‘four people, all women, die from the heat and crush’.

Sky News’ chief correspondent Stuart Ramsay also reported that people at the front of the crowd of thousands were being ‘crushed to death’, in what he described it as ‘the worst day by far’ at Kabul airport. 

In a sign the crisis at Kabul is deepening, Germany’s government today warned that access to the airport is not often possible’ and that the area remains ‘extremely dangerous’.

 National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan insists he’s ‘not heard’ if anyone will be fired for the Afghanistan mess amid calls for him to resign for ‘ignoring Taliban warnings because he wanted to do what Biden wanted’

The Biden administration has taken heat from all sides for its messy withdrawal from Afghanistan and blame has increasingly shifted to a key voice in the president’s ear, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who is tasked with warning the president of the consequences of such decisions. 

A reporter squarely asked Sullivan if anyone on the national security team would be replaced for the bungled response ‘Does the president intend to fire, reassign or ask for the resignation of any White House personnel or administration officials who handled the situation in Afghanistan?’  

‘I have not heard him say so,’ replied Sullivan. 

‘It’s, of course, your job to ask those kinds of questions. It’s my job just to keep doing what we’re doing, which is, every day, trying to get as many people out as possible.’ 

Calls have grown for the national security adviser to be fired. 

‘In a national security adviser you absolutely need someone who is able to execute and ensure that any potential problems are identified early and addressed or prepared for. That didn’t happen in this case,’ Brett Bruen, former director of global engagement for President Obama’s national security council, told DailyMail.com. 

‘Ultimately it falls on the national security advisor to tell the president, I understand what you want to achieve, but we have information, we have serious concerns. Let’s explore how we navigate through this. What clearly happened was Jake dismissed those and instead pressed ahead because that was what the boss wanted,’ Bruen continued.

On Sunday, the New York Times reported that a number of Democratic lawmakers have weighed whether calling for Sullivan’s resignation would help Biden ‘reset the narrative,’ after the administration’s hasty withdrawal that seemed to lack meticulous planning. 

‘This was an abject failure. People should be held accountable. There’s no way to spin it,’ Democratic strategist Chris Kofinis told The Hill. ‘It’s not about whether we stay or go. This is about how we left. And you don’t leave like that.’

He noted that Sullivan’s ‘primary job is to forecast ahead the potential of any consequences the president makes.’

Biden, who prides himself on loyalty to those in his inner circle, is reportedly committed to not firing anyone on his national security counsel. To make replacements would be to admit mistake. 

But Bruen, who worked with Sullivan during the Obama years, made the case for his ouster. 

‘While Biden may prize loyalty, our allies also prize loyalty and reliability, both of which are severely strained right now, and they’re going to have a problem dealing with Sullivan. They’re going to be reluctant to bank on his word.’ 

Sullivan, 44, is the youngest national security adviser to a president in more than 60 years. The foreign policy veteran used to advise Hillary Clinton when she served as secretary of state, and Clinton has sung Sullivan’s praises. She called him a ‘once-in-a-generation talent’ and a ‘potential future president.’

Sullivan was also a senior advisor to the Obama administration for the Iran nuclear negotiations, which began in secret throughout 2013.

Bruen argued Sullivan, having no previous experience at an embassy overseas, lives in ‘Beltway bubble.’ 

‘He has never worked overseas at an embassy or on a military base so he lives in this Beltway bubble where things sound smart, but when it comes time to implementing them there are a whole lot of challenges he has failed to account for.’

DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House and National Security Council for comment. 

The most recent mess in the Middle East is not what Biden promised during his campaign, when he touted decades of experience in his ‘first love,’ foreign policy.

‘Biden and Sullivan, they worked in a very different world. Things have so radically changed,’ Bruen said. 

‘A strongly worded statement from Washington ain’t what it used to be. It doesn’t send chills down the spines of our adversaries or warm the cockles of our allies.’ 

In a series of meetings leading up to the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline, military and intelligence officials warned Biden that the consequences of swift withdrawal could include that Afghanistan would capitulate in a matter of days. But ultimately, neither Sullivan nor Secretary of State Antony Blinken pushed back on the president’s desires, knowing where he stood.  

The Sunday Telegraph reported over the weekend that senior White House aides had suggested there was not much pushback on the withdrawal plan because  concerned administration staffers were ‘too afraid’ of challenging Biden and Sullivan. 

An administration official said the Biden administration functions ‘like an autocracy’ and stifles internal dissent. 

Marc Thiessen, speechwriter under President George W. Bush, wrote in the Washington Post last week that Biden’s ‘sycophants’ had enabled him to move forward with the bungled withdrawal and questioned ‘where are the adults in the room?’

And over the weekend, Sullivan essentially admitted defense officials had warned Biden of the consequences of his plan, but he had not heeded their concerns. 

‘So you followed the military advice on closing Bagram but the same military advisers were telling you to keep a force on the ground, they told you not to pursue this withdrawal agreement with the Taliban correct?’ MSNBC’s Chuck Todd asked Sullivan on Sunday. 

‘There are strategic judgments that a president makes and there are tactical judgments that you give absolute premium to commanders on the ground to make,’ Sullivan replied. 

‘When it comes to the fundamental question of whether the US should remain in a civil war in Afghanistan … for a third decade, that is a presidential call, not a call by anyone at the State Department or the Pentagon or any of the intelligence agencies.’ 

Sullivan has also been working to clean up the president’s public statements.

On Friday, Biden said that there were no reports of Americans having a difficult time getting to the Kabul airport for their evacuation flight and that al-Qaeda did not have a presence in Afghanistan. 

‘Why is he misleading with his words here?’ CNN’s Brianna Keilar asked the national security advisor.

‘I reject that characterization. With respect to al Qaeda, right now our intelligence community does not believe al Qaeda in Afghanistan represents a threat to United States homeland, Sullivan said. 

He added that al Qaeda could become a threat in the future, which is why the US was committed to over-the-horizon capabilities.  

At the same time, Sullivan admitted that US forces on the ground in Afghanistan face an immediate threat from ISIS.

‘I know that the scenes around the airport are heartbreaking, large crowds of people wanting to leave,’ Sullivan said. ‘I know that there is complexity and there is turbulence on the ground and in Kabul, and it’s very risky and dangerous because there’s a genuine threat from ISIS-K. That is the reality of what we are up against, and I’m not going to sugarcoat that reality.’

Months ago, Sullivan promised the US would have ‘months of warning’ of an attack from ISIS upon leaving Afghanistan. 

‘We will not have the same level of daily intelligence,’ he said in April of the withdrawal. ‘But at a strategic level, in terms of being able to know whether or not al-Qaeda or ISIS is developing an external plotting capability, which they do not currently possess … we will have months of warning.’ 

Bruen argued that Sullivan’s failures are endemic.

‘What we saw before Afghanistan was a crisis on the border. We saw the miscues on refugee admission, we saw problems with Israel and Cuba. So this isn’t new.

We’re focused on Afghanistan but they keep making these unforced errors. That’s what’s really concerning – while Biden wants to suggest his goal was the right one even if the execution was flawed, the errors in execution keep happening. I worry what the next crisis is going to bring.’