Sean Hannity Show - Afghanistan Could Have Been Avoided - August 26th, Hour 1

Aug. 26, 2021 - Sean Hannity Show

30:23

Afghanistan Could Have Been Avoided - August 26th, Hour 1

We have left 83 billion dollars of equipment in Afghanistan when we had every indication that the Taliban had spent the entire Spring growing and expanding. There are 75,000 armored vehicles and over 200 Blackhawk helicopters. If you don't think this is a tragedy, you're wrong. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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	America trapped behind enemy lines.
	Day number 12.
	12.
	Day 12, Americans, hostage behind enemy lines.
	And as we predicted, it has gotten dramatically worse in just the last 24 hours.
	Let me just say something up front here.
	This is not the America that we are capable of, the America that I know exists.
	This is not the America that has the best intelligence gathering capabilities in the entire world.
	It's a fact.
	This is the same America that has the best, the greatest military on the face of the earth.
	That too is a fact.
	You know, this is not the America where it is based on love thy neighbor as thyself and never leave an American behind.
	Because that's exactly now what is going to unfold.
	And all of it was preventable, as we have been telling you.
	It started when I saw this last night.
	I said, uh-oh, because we have, we don't know how many Americans are caught behind enemy lines.
	In private meetings, the State Department, Tony Blinken State Department is saying 4,100.
	Publicly, he's saying 1,500, maybe even less.
	So they're speaking out of both sides of their mouth.
	They've not been telling us the truth.
	We had Congressman, what Congressman we had on yesterday, was it McCall or Mike Waltz was on.
	Mike Waltz confirmed for us everything I'd been told.
	And that is our intelligence community did their job here.
	Our defense intelligence did their job here.
	The CIA pulled out weeks and weeks ago.
	We've confirmed that now from numerous sources because they saw what was happening, but they didn't just pull their people.
	They said to get everybody out.
	The warnings were coming as early as April and even March that the Taliban is on the march.
	And we keep showing this time-elapsed map on Hannity where, okay, where were they in March and April, mid-April, late April, early May, mid-May, late May, early June, mid-June, late June, early July.
	You get the point.
	And last night when I read, uh-oh, U.S. citizens were now being told to stop going to the airport, their only path out.
	Because Joe Biden, sure, we have full control of the airport.
	Apparently, you do not.
	But the Taliban had full control of the perimeter to the airport.
	And it even now reports of them confiscating American passports and turning people away.
	And in other words, they are completely stranded.
	Where are you going to go to get a new passport?
	Not that it would even matter at that point.
	And so the warning came in.
	Kabul airport, they were told around 3.30 a.m. local time that three gates to leave the areas immediately.
	The State Department tweeting out.
	Now, there's been a number of tweets that they've sent out saying, don't go to the airport.
	Go to the airport.
	Go to the airport, but we can't guarantee your safety to the airport.
	We can't guarantee you'll get into the airport.
	And then I haven't heard any problems, Joe Biden said, and he answered one of the five questions that he's taken during the entire crisis.
	That's it.
	So we now have unknown thousands of Americans actively looking to escape from behind enemy lines, the perimeter controlled by the Taliban.
	The numerous checkpoints.
	Now the State Department races out there with, I don't know, maybe they posted it on Twitter and Facebook.
	Follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest updates on how to get into the airport.
	And meanwhile, other countries are sending in their special forces behind enemy lines, rescuing them, putting them on helicopters, and getting them the hell out of Kabul and getting them to Hamad Karzai International Airport so they can get their citizens out.
	So we have untold numbers of Americans caught behind enemy lines, and Biden lets the Taliban dictate all the terms of our evacuation.
	You know, they had one or two or three missions that pulled less than 20 people out of Kabul after they were embarrassed on the world stage by the French, the Brits, the Dutch, and Americans are still stranded.
	We got 24 students and parents from a California school district.
	We can't find them.
	We can't find them.
	The reports emerged less than 24 hours after Biden said the Taliban needed to let people leave those not already at the airport have now have little chance to escape as the Taliban has already stopped all Afghan citizens from reaching it.
	So now the question is, what is Biden going to do?
	Because based on today's terror attack, now the latest reports are we lost over a dozen of our brave men and women, service members, with this explosion at the airport that were killed in this terrorist attack at the airport.
	Estimates now of about 50 people dead.
	That number expected to rise, according to Fox's own Jennifer Griffin, who's done some amazing reporting for Fox.
	And she reported now that all the gates at the airport were immediately closed.
	The time is ticking down.
	The deadline is Tuesday, but it's really before Tuesday, according to Senators Cotton and Graham and Rubio and others that I've been in touch with and other congressmen that I've been in touch with like Michael Waltz.
	And now the evacuations are over.
	By the way, Donald Trump will be on Hannity tonight.
	Tomorrow night, the vice president of Afghanistan, who did not flee the country, is working with the resistance in northern Afghanistan.
	We'll actually be a guest on my TV show.
	But as of right now, at this hour, the evacuations are not taking place.
	And that was why Joe Biden's not been asked, why do you trust the Taliban?
	Why did you leave behind, Joe, $83 billion in military equipment?
	I mean, the best military equipment in the world.
	As I look at the, now that we're getting the specifics of what was left behind, when we had every indication the Taliban was on a quick march straight to Kabul all throughout March and April and May and June and July and they did nothing and they left behind, they could have planned logistically the removal of all of this weaponry, $83 billion worth that you paid for.
	But now we're talking about 75,000 armored vehicles, 208 Black Hawk helicopters and other aircraft.
	We got now Taliban flying Blackhawk helicopters, $200 million worth of our drones, 600,000 military-grade guns and other weapons.
	And don't forget the thousands of night vision goggles, uniforms, bulletproof vests, other protective gear.
	And to top it off, the Taliban also has access to all of the data of every member of every Afghan citizen that helped us the last 20 years.
	And on top of it, we've got the biometrics database left behind as well, which means they will start saying to people in Afghanistan, look into this computer.
	And if they come up with a match, you're dead.
	You will die.
	That is your death warrant because we're certainly not getting them out because no Afghan ally of ours is making it to the airport at this time.
	So this terrorist attack now, likely, at least for the time being, in the short time that we have left, now leaves Americans again behind enemy lines, held hostage based on the whims of the Taliban, the terrorist group.
	There's a great piece in the New York Post.
	I don't have a lot of time to talk about it, by a former Army Ranger, Jariko Denman is his name.
	And he served in Afghanistan as a volunteer with a group.
	He was working with other vets to get former Afghan colleagues and families out of the country.
	He described the desperation at the airport.
	What's it like to get someone past the gates at Hamid Karzai International Airport?
	Okay, he said, and people seem to think it's like signing in your girlfriend when you live in the barracks.
	Not quite.
	It's not that simple.
	It's more like trying to pick up someone who doesn't speak your language out of a crowd, an effing death metal concert at Madison Square Garden, and it's at triple capacity, and only one door is open, and the place is on fire.
	I'm not a religious person, but the words that come to mind is biblical.
	It's Hurricane Katrina and on steroids, pretty much, he says.
	Then he goes on to say, having been deployed, I mean, we have a whole bunch of stories like this of Americans, you know, spending their own money, devoting their own time, energy, resources to helping people.
	Franklin Graham's group has been getting people out from Samaritan's purse.
	God bless him.
	U.S. is still searching for Americans as now the window is closed.
	All of this, Joe Biden has blood on his hands.
	He is responsible.
	Apparently, our intelligence agencies were screaming at them.
	That's why Adam Schiff came out the other day, because they all know that eventually you, the American people, will see what they were being told and when they were being told and how they were being warned.
	And it does not connect with what they've been telling you because they've been lying to us the whole time.
	Because of Biden, our fellow citizens will be at the mercy of terrorists.
	God help them all.
	Because certainly we're not in a position to control anything here.
	And there's, well, Hannity, what about our military?
	There's not a good option.
	I'm not saying not to do it.
	I'm just saying it ain't a great option.
	And it's almost a guaranteed death sentence for many.
	No American has been even rescued outside of Kabul, we learned today.
	The White House, we're told, is in total chaos, finger-pointing blame everywhere.
	Journalists from U.S. government-run Voice of America, they're still trapped behind enemy lines.
	White House is still out there defending.
	They're negotiating with the Taliban and trusting the Taliban.
	And the Taliban has ensured safe passage of Americans.
	Totally disconnected from the reports that are on the ground of people being beaten, their passports being stolen, being turned away and sent back.
	The Taliban has controlled this from day one, and they've slow walked it, knowing this chaos would ultimately end up this way.
	So now we got somewhere around 50 people dead, over a dozen service members killed in this terrorist attack.
	Apparently, ISIS, they believe, is responsible for it, or ISIS-K is in the vicinity and apparently remains in the vicinity.
	And the terror attacks on Kabul airport may put an end, as Jennifer Griffin was reporting all day, that it may put an end to any further evacuations based on the deadline that Biden had agreed to.
	Tony Blinken said yesterday, well, we'll continue.
	Even after the 31st, we'll be using our diplomatic channels and our economic sanctions and so on and so forth.
	Oh, you mean you're going to pay a ransom for the remaining Americans?
	And they think that's the way to resolve the problem and justify leaving Americans behind enemy lines?
	Because there's no excuse for that with the United States of America.
	And I'm sorry, that's just an unacceptable answer.
	You know, we impeached Donald Trump, didn't we?
	Over a phone call.
	Biden's incompetence is getting Americans killed and left behind enemy lines.
	And we let him go hide in the basement and he was protected by the media.
	But that's a different issue.
	Now, there are calls for military action against the Taliban.
	But as I've been pointing out, they have a lot of leverage right now.
	We don't know how much because we don't know how many of our fellow Americans are behind enemy lines.
	General Jack Keene, a Fox News senior analyst, said today, or yesterday rather, that Biden's withdrawal has consigned stranded Americans to be potential hostages.
	He's saying what I've been thinking and, well, basically saying without saying it, because I really didn't want to say it.
	That's the leverage they have.
	And how horrific this will be if we can sign possibly hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans to be hostages behind enemy lines inside of Afghanistan.
	And certainly our Afghan allies will be put to death with all the information, courtesy of Joe Biden, all the tools, all the weaponry of war, thanks to Joe Biden.
	The Pentagon has confirmed that no Americans, by the way, that's just breaking, have been evacuated from outside of Kabul or since this terror attack.
	We have dozens of children that are stranded, including preschoolers remaining stranded in Afghanistan.
	We have families, including 16 parents, two dozen children, some of whom witnessed the shootings and other violence in and around the airport in recent days.
	The children range from preschoolers to high school students.
	None are doing well, obviously.
	We'll have more on the other side as we continue our coverage.
	Sad day for this country.
	Now the death toll is rising over 50 people murdered today.
	And, you know, and then I see this State Department official Ross Wilson yesterday blaming the Americans in Afghanistan for failing to heed his department's warnings about the country deteriorating.
	You warned about this in the cable.
	We put out warnings every three weeks to Americans going back to, I think, March or April.
	Well, you've been telling Americans in the last two weeks since the fall of Kabul while Joe stayed on his vacation, well, you might want to consider making your way to the airport, but we cannot ensure your safety.
	And then last Saturday, don't go to the airport today.
	Then last night, if you're at the airport at a gate, get out now, get out now.
	And then, of course, the terrorist attack, killing Americans, killing soldiers, killing innocent men, women, and children.
	And you're going to put the blame on the Americans there and you're not providing them safe passage out of Kabul.
	And you didn't make it a top priority to send in our military when we controlled Kabul in March and April and May and June and July.
	And you're going to blame them for your disaster, for Joe's disaster?
	You've got to be kidding me.
	Demand's growing for Biden to resign.
	This is why you cannot have somebody that is weak and frail and a cognitive mess as your commander-in-chief.
	But that's an issue for another day.
	Rubio, Biden to blame for arming the Taliban.
	All right, 25 to the top of the hour.
	The Defense Department is now confirmed.
	Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, 12 U.S. service members have been killed.
	15 have been wounded in this suicide bombing attack that took place.
	By the way, something that Joe Biden said last month would never happen.
	Said it wouldn't happen.
	Oh, no, that can't happen.
	No, that's never going to happen.
	The Islamic State has officially claimed the Kabul airport attack and released pictures of one of the suicide bombers identified by ISIS.
	Not that it matters.
	Why give them any recognition at all?
	Detailed statement from the Islamic State Agency indicates the target were U.S. soldiers.
	Does that surprise anybody?
	The U.S. now looks so weak and so pathetic around the world.
	What ally will ever, ever trust us with him as president ever again.
	And what does this do to embolden China?
	China's moving right into Afghanistan with their support.
	By the way, things have gotten so bad today.
	Even Putin now is pulling his people out of there, and they've been extremely supportive of the Taliban.
	A United States military general officer just told the world, yep, we're relying on the goodwill of the Taliban to protect us.
	That's how stupid this whole so-called foreign policy, if that's what you want to call it, is.
	That's how dumb this is.
	That's how reckless and irresponsible this is.
	But no, let's go blame Americans.
	Well, you know, you should have gotten out when we told you to get out.
	Oh, really?
	That's your answer?
	You know, there are a lot of questions that have not been asked Joe Biden since this all started.
	He's only answered five questions.
	By the way, Jennifer Griffin is reporting that the death toll is going to go much higher.
	One suicide bomber got so close to the Marines that it's apparently at the gate that the bomb was detonated, and these Marines were, in fact, either about to or were in the process of patting down this bomber.
	Obviously, the bombers have been trying to get onto the tarmac.
	That would be a goal of whoever's carrying out, now ISIS is claiming responsibility, these terrorist attacks.
	What's their relationship with the Taliban that Joe has put all his faith, hope, and trust in?
	Because they set up the perimeter.
	They're in control of all the checkpoints.
	They keep sending Americans back.
	They're the ones saying that nobody, none of our, no Afghanis can go to the airport.
	The U.S. is in constant coordination with the Taliban.
	That's what Joe keeps telling us.
	General McKenzie said that they have no indication as of right now that the Taliban were involved in any way.
	They're tight at the hip.
	He did say they're actively trying to, you know, attribute this attack.
	Two suicide bombers at one Abbey gate, one at the Barron Hotel.
	There were no Americans there.
	The British service members were.
	No indication any British service members were killed.
	Also, no indication State Department officials were killed in the attack.
	But, you know, what is very clear from the general is the mission continues and they will continue evacuations and that they ramped up security, supposedly.
	And it's clear that somehow the bomber just got past the so-called Taliban security that was on the outer perimeter with all their checkpoints.
	They're going to try and push, I guess, the crowds back further.
	But you're still going to need troops to do that.
	They're still going to be in harm's way.
	General McKenzie was clear that they have AC-130 gunships, that they have AH-64 Apache helicopters, and a lot of that at the airport.
	And I guess there'll be a number of ways in which the U.S. military tries to indicate that any further attackers may better be aware before approaching the airport.
	They have to be coordinating with the Taliban.
	How else do they get there with a suicide vest on?
	Really?
	You just, yeah, it's a little hot today.
	And, you know, I get cold easily.
	That's why I'm bundled up with suicide bombs.
	But, you know, that was the latest reporting on the ground.
	Jenna for Griffin has done a great job for the Fox News channel.
	Nobody's asked, Joe, and Joe's only taken five questions throughout all of this.
	Why?
	This is the most pressing question, because this gets to the heart of it.
	Because none of what's happened today and none of the situation we now find ourselves in had to happen.
	None of this had to happen.
	So why didn't Joe Biden expedite the withdrawal in March, April, May, June, July, as the Taliban kept securing one province after another province, more territory and more territory and more territory at record speed.
	And why didn't he evacuate every American while we had full and complete control of Kabul and the airport and the perimeter and the entire city?
	Why were there no contingencies made to remove or at least destroy what is the estimated $83 billion in equipment?
	I've given you the whole list.
	The Taliban now is in possession of all of this.
	Why, Joe Biden, can you please explain to the American people why you were so wrong less than a month ago in telling us this wouldn't happen?
	I'll play it to remind you, but Joe Biden promised us that this couldn't happen.
	This wouldn't happen.
	Meanwhile, it had been happening.
	We have all the maps, all the territory that they had accumulated since March, April, May, June, when he made these comments in mid-July.
	Listen.
	Is a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan now inevitable?
	No, it is not.
	Because you have the Afghan troops have 300,000 well-equipped, as well as equipped as any army in the world, and an Air Force against something like 75,000 Taliban.
	It is not inevitable.
	There's going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy of the United States from Afghanistan.
	No circumstances, under no circumstances, are you going to see Americans lifted off a roof?
	Well, we saw it.
	No, it's not inevitable.
	Well, they'd already been on the march for months, Joe.
	And your own CIA saw it.
	Your own intelligence community saw it.
	I am not faulting the intelligence community here.
	Let me be very, very clear.
	I'm critical of the 1%.
	I'm not critical of the 99%.
	The 99% are phenomenal, the best in the world.
	I'm not critical of our military.
	I am sad.
	It is heart-wrenching to me to know that these military service members died today needlessly because they did not see the Taliban march and it was clear as day.
	They were warned repeatedly.
	When this story comes out and the paperwork backs up everything I'm saying and I know it exists, it's not a matter of if it exists.
	I've been told it exists.
	I have sources who have seen it with their own eyes that are telling me what's in it.
	Our intelligence assessments were dead on accurate.
	They weren't wrong.
	The lies told by Biden and Jensaki and everybody else in charge right now, there'll be a day of reckoning.
	It says we don't have time for that today.
	Our goal should be one thing.
	This isn't liberal.
	This isn't conservative.
	This isn't Republican.
	This isn't Democrat.
	I want every American in Afghanistan brought home safely.
	And now we've got to have some contingency other than ransom or, quote, diplomatic channels, which is what Tony Blinken said yesterday.
	Why weren't there contingencies made to seeing that the Taliban was taking on massive, massive geographical areas in record time in their march to Kabul?
	Why did Joe Biden get it so wrong when they were telling him just the opposite?
	President's only answered five questions since this crisis began.
	When will he himself answer the questions the American people deserve answers to?
	Because we now have dead Americans and we have Americans trapped by enemy lines and they still can't answer how many Americans are behind enemy lines.
	Joe Biden last week, any attack on our forces or disruption of our operations at the airport will be met with a swift and forceful response.
	Okay.
	Said that last week, Joe.
	What's your swift and forceful response?
	Because we're waiting.
	It's unbelievable.
	We're in constant contact with the Taliban, working to ensure civilians have safe passage to the airport.
	Any attack on our forces or disruption of our operations at the airport will be met with swift and forceful response.
	Biden said last week, flanked by Vice President Kamala Harris, repeatedly missing in action.
	Fox News, Jennifer Griffin reporting, she has been on her A-game, which she always is anyway.
	And her sources have been impeccable, gut-wrenching these attacks in Kabul.
	Safe to assume now that after these terror attacks that have killed now confirmed 12 American servicemen and women, 15 injured, total now is about 50, and the numbers going higher of total casualties.
	We don't have a number on civilian injuries, but now what is the likelihood?
	When do they resume evacuations?
	Now, we're really told, Marco Rubio said, Sean, it doesn't stop Tuesday.
	I mean, this deadline will end way before that.
	Senator Rubio said Democrats and Republicans on the Intel Committee on the Senate have been warning the administration.
	The Intel community apparently has been beyond itself, frustrated that they weren't being listened to.
	And the same with certain people.
	Now, what I don't understand is why some people haven't said, I cannot, I cannot put up with this and I'm resigning.
	Because we had warned them and they did nothing.
	So now suicide bombers are targeting a staging area for American evacuations.
	These explosions in Kabul, now where U.S. helicopters have been previously evacuated, you know, and now they're saying it resulted in all these deaths and injuries.
	Terrorism experts predict that there's going to be more of this, unfortunately.
	I hate to even report it, but I will.
	A former U.S. intelligence officer being an American in Afghanistan is now a death sentence.
	The leading suspect in this morning suicide bombing, they've now taken credit, is ISIS.
	The case stands means it's just the Afghanistan branch of ISIS.
	Otherwise, it's the same MO, including videotaping beheadings of their captives.
	Many of you have not watched them when they were released in previous years.
	I have.
	It changes your life.
	And if you want to have some peace in your mind and not have images haunt you, I suggest you not look at it.
	But I need it's my job to look at it.
	It's my job to know the truth, to know the reality, and then to tell you about the truth and the reality.
	And watching our fellow Americans being beheaded is one of the worst things you will ever see in your life.
	But it happens.
	Former intelligence officer Michael Pregnant telling Fox News his greatest concern now is that Americans, Afghan allies, will not only be targeted by the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, and ISIS-K members will make examples out of them.
	We're going to have an American wind up on their knees with an ISIS flag behind them on the video camera, and being an American in Afghanistan is a death sentence.
	Being an Afghan with a U.S. passport is a death sentence.
	Or if you're on their database or biometrics database that we left behind, that too will be a death sentence.
	Signed, sealed, and delivered by Joe Biden, President of the United States.
	One video shows a Taliban pilot operating one of the U.S. Black Hawk helicopters that have been left behind.
	Videos circulating all over social media to show the Black Hawk helicopter taxiing at Kandahar Airport in Afghanistan.
	And the report, the Taliban captured, yep, our Black Hawks, 208 helicopters and aircraft in total.
	That news comes after the National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said last week that the Taliban had seized a fair amount of U.S. weaponry, a mere $83 billion worth.
	Former Afghan translator says that the Taliban is now publicly executing U.S. allies.
	This is another Fox News report.
	Former translator, high-ranking U.S. Army Ranger, telling Fox News they have begun to publicly execute allies of the U.S. in provinces away from the media attention of Kabul.
	The interpreter that remained nameless warned of the Taliban's retaliation, and he's losing hope to free his family of American citizens still trapped in the country.
	They're hunting them down all over Afghanistan and executing them in public, like they did that police officer that we reported earlier in the week.
	By the way, At Jack, Taliban spokesman that you still allow on Twitter is now saying Bin Laden was not responsible for the 9-11 attacks.
	Is that fake news?
	You're going to cancel that account yet?

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