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Hey, good morning, Playbookers.

It's Monday, August 30th, I'm Bruguma, Vauland.

And this is your Politico Playbook Daily Briefing.

Politico's Laura Seligman has a breathtaking account in today's playbook from inside the Pentagon.

It's based on detailed notes of three classified calls in the hours leading up to Thursday's

terrorist attack outside Abbey Gate at Kabul's International Airport that killed almost 200 people.

Large documents the Pentagon's deepening frustration with reliance on the Taliban to provide

security in Kabul and even drive buses for evacuees,

as well as Biden officials growing conviction that an attack was coming and a fateful decision to keep

the airport's abbey gate open in order to process British evacuees.

One key excerpt among many from the story.

Just 24 hours before a suicide bomber detonated an explosive outside

the airport, senior military officials gathered for the Pentagon's daily morning update on the

deteriorating situation in Afghanistan. Speaking from a secure video conference room on the third floor of the

Pentagon at 8 a.m. Wednesday, or 4.30 p.m. in Kabul, defense secretary Lloyd Austin instructed

more than a dozen of the

department's top leaders around the world to make preparations for an imminent mass casualty event,

according to classified detailed notes of the gathering shared with the Politico. During the meeting,

General Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned of significant intelligence

indicating that the Islamic State's Afghan affiliate, ISIS K, was planning a complex attack,

the notes quoted him saying.

...