AFGHANISTAN PROVIDES KABUL A DEFENSE IN DEPTH FOR THE GUNFIGHT: 6/8: Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End Hardcover – by Jerry Dunleavy (Author), James Hasson (Author)
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.6 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 11 May 2025
⏱️ 6 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
1880 KHYBER PASS
https://www.amazon.com/Kabul-Untold-Bidens-American-Warriors/dp/1546005307/ref=tmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1701296521&sr=1-1
America’s chaotic retreat from Afghanistan in 2021 was nothing short of a horror show. Women and children were trampled to death outside the gates of the Kabul airfield. Desperate Afghans fell from the landing gear of departing planes. Taliban fighters mercilessly whipped and humiliated U.S. civilians trying to access the few square miles still controlled by American forces. Countless Afghan interpreters were abandoned to the mercy of the Taliban after risking their lives alongside American troops for years. And thirteen U.S. service members—eleven of whom were still in preschool on 9/11—were murdered in an ISIS suicide bombing that could easily have been prevented.
Still, the full story is worse than anyone imagined. Drawing from hundreds of hours of first-person interviews, investigative reporter Jerry Dunleavy and former Army Captain and Afghanistan veteran James Hasson provide an exclusive, no-holds-barred account of the disastrous events of August 2021. Kabul is packed with shocking and infuriating exclusive details about fatal politics and bureaucracy that contributed to the catastrophe. The authors also tell, for the first time, inspiring stories of the bravery and sacrifices exhibited by countless Americans on the ground.
Kabul's original reporting includes eyewitness accounts from servicemembers of all ranks who participated the rescue effort, inside information from senior intelligence officials, interviews with high-ranking members of allied governments, harrowing stories from Americans and Afghan allies willfully abandoned by craven officials in Washington, and exclusive details about veteran-led rescue missions that continue to this day. Chapter after chapter, Kabul depicts American government at its worst and “ordinary” Americans at their best.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The weather. Tomorrow, expect a biting cold front. Hmm, how naughty. I wonder what I'll be |
| 0:06.8 | wearing or taking off. The night will be wild and untamed. Expect heavy, lashing rain |
| 0:13.0 | that'll soak you to the skin. By Monday, temperatures will rise slowly but surely reaching |
| 0:18.7 | their peak in the afternoon. |
| 0:23.0 | Not in the mood for miserable weather? |
| 0:25.8 | Fly cheaply to Turkey with Sun Express. |
| 0:28.7 | Sun Express, nonstop sunshine. |
| 0:31.3 | This is CBSI in the world. |
| 0:33.5 | I'm with Jared Dunleaving and James Hassan. |
| 0:34.7 | Their new book is Cabell. |
| 0:40.0 | It's the story of the retreat from Afghanistan and Cabell in August of 2021. |
| 0:50.9 | The story is unfinished, but there are pieces we can speak to. The CIA maintained the Black Gate, it was called, opposite the CIA's Eagle Base. |
| 0:56.5 | There's also the concern of the NSU. These are special acronyms that need interpretation. |
| 1:03.8 | James, the CIA was working very hard, out of uniform, in and out, bringing people through what you describe as a hole in the wall. The military, the Marines, and the 82nd Airboard, manning the gates, they knew about this, or some did and some didn't. |
| 1:15.2 | But in general, I take it, this was extremely helpful to get the most critical SIVs and TURPs and members of government, the people in most in danger, plus American |
| 1:29.4 | citizens out. Is that how it was used, James? As a general matter, yes. So as you mentioned, |
| 1:35.6 | there are the main gates that we talked about before. And then there was what was called Black |
| 1:42.4 | Gate, which was essentially a little more than a nondescript hole in the wall, basically a few, you know, well-discized doors that could open. |
| 1:57.3 | And that was kind of basically on a direct line to the CIA's compound in Kabul. |
| 2:06.0 | And that was well known as Eagle Base, is what it was called. |
| 2:10.8 | And that was to the north of the airfield. |
| 2:14.2 | It was kind of to the northeast somewhat. |
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