AFGHANISTAN PROVIDES KABUL A DEFENSE IN DEPTH FOR THE GUNFIGHT: 7/8: 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
⏱️ 11 minutes
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Summary
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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 | I'm John Batchel with Jerry Dunleavy and James Hassan. The new book is Cabell. The airfield is surrounded |
| 0:07.1 | by people who are desperate to leave Afghanistan. At the same time, the airfield is surrounded by the |
| 0:14.8 | Taliban, who are partners, so called, by the State Department and the White House back in Washington. |
| 0:23.2 | The Taliban has a very strong relationship with al-Qaeda. |
| 0:29.0 | It has an unclear relationship with ISIS, ISIS-K, called in the region. |
| 0:34.8 | Why this matters now is because it's unsolved. |
| 0:39.3 | We're going to go to Abbeygate and what happens the afternoon of August 26th. But it's important to prepare the ground here. |
| 0:50.0 | And Jerry, I come to you. You are a principal and and you are an investigator of this matter, and it's ongoing. |
| 0:56.6 | We need to understand what we know so far about the Taliban, their relationship to ISIS-K, |
| 1:04.7 | and especially the Haqqqqani network, which my understanding is, is a stand-in for the al-Qaeda group now today. |
| 1:14.0 | But also there's evidence that they worked with when it suited them. |
| 1:18.9 | ISIS-K. |
| 1:19.7 | Who were the Haqqqanis? |
| 1:21.1 | And where were the Haqqanis during this evacuation, especially on the 26th of August? |
| 1:26.9 | Where were they, Jerry? |
| 1:29.0 | It's a great question. So I am an investigator on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, |
| 1:33.5 | looking into the Afghanistan withdrawal. I'll just note that I'm just here as the author, |
| 1:38.1 | the co-author of this book. But the relationship that the Haqani Network had with all these groups is very important. |
| 1:46.1 | So the Haqqani's are a key force inside the Taliban. |
| 1:53.7 | They also have a longstanding relationship with the Pakistani intelligence services, the ISI. |
| 2:01.3 | On top of that, the Haqqqaeda have a very long relationship with al-Qaeda as well. |
| 2:08.6 | And Sarajidin Haqqani, who's the head of the Haqqqqqqqqq, who is the top Hakani commander in 2021, and who is a top member of the Taliban government today, |
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