Situation Report: Biden Administration claim that Afghan evacuation is on track doesn’t match the situation on the ground

Despite claims by the Biden Administration, American citizens and high-priority Afghan allies continue to struggle to be evacuated from Kabul.

At a substantially delayed speech on August 24^th, which was scheduled for 2:00 pm Eastern time but did not take place until two hours later, President Joe Biden claimed that the Afghanistan evacuation was on track to meet the August 31^st deadline which the Biden Administration established, and which Taliban leaders say they intend to enforce. CNN reported that the White House claims U.S. forces are exceeding daily evacuation goals:

The White House said Tuesday morning that at least 12,700 people had been evacuated by 37 US military flights and 8,900 had been evacuated by coalition flights over the past 24 hours. The Pentagon added that there are “a little bit above 5,000” people at the airport in Kabul waiting to board flights, which are now leaving about every 45 minutes.

That rose-colored view was seemingly contradicted by two U.S. Congressmen, Seth Moulton and Peter Meijer, who traveled to Kabul Tuesday to observe the evacuation for themselves.

“After talking with commanders on the ground and seeing the situation here, it is obvious that because we started the evacuation so late, that no matter what we do, we won’t get everyone out on time, even by September 11,” Moulton wrote in a series of twitter posts following his return to the U.S., “Sadly and frustratingly, getting our people out depends on maintaining the current, bizarre relationship with the Taliban.”

Meanwhile, evacuations have been further hindered by reports of a terror threat from Islamic State forces. Australian, Turkish, Polish and UK forces have all issued alerts warning of the deteriorating security situation, with some foreign militaries reportedly withdrawing security personnel.

There continues to be questions about the make-up of evacuation flights as U.S. citizens and high priority Afghan military translators are reportedly denied space on flights or told not to appear the Kabul airport.

Speaking to Fox News’ Shannon Bream, Rep. Michael Waltz said, “I can tell you multiple instances… with American citizens that are being denied by the State Department after they make it through multiple Taliban checkpoints.”

Pentagon Spokesman John Kirby said the U.S. is in “daily communications” with Taliban commanders over “who we expect them to let in” and what credentials to accept.

Of the 82,000 people evacuated from Afghanistan in the past two weeks only 5% have been Americans, according to numbers released by the Pentagon. That’s 4,400 of the estimated 15,000 American citizens believed to have been in country when Kabul fell to the Taliban. The State Department claimed there were only 4,100 American citizens remaining “who are still actively seeking to get out of Afghanistan” according to a briefing late Wednesday August 25^th. That number was subsequently walked back by State according to Fox News reporter Jacqui Heinrich.

While French, UK and other allied forces deployed military patrols outside of the Kabul airport in order to secure their citizens, early reports indicated that U.S. forces had not actively sought to rescue Americans. That appears to now have changed, as the Wall Street Journal reports that clandestine operations using CIA and Special Operation Forces have deployed to rescue American citizens outside the immediate vicinity of the airport.