GRP 159-Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change: A CIA Officers fight to bring American Allies home
Global Recon
John Hendricks
4.8 • 592 Ratings
🗓️ 29 September 2021
⏱️ 81 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
GRP 159-Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change: A CIA Officers fight to bring American Allies home. My guest for this week's podcast is a former CIA Officer, U.S. Army veteran, and author of "Watches Without Time: An American Soldier in Afghanistan." Matt Zeller. Matt is the Co-Founder of No One Left Behind, which works to get American allies out of harm's way in combat zones.
Matt has spent months sounding the alarm and warning high-level government officials that there will be severe consequences if they choose not to act. We discussed his time in Afghanistan, his experience in getting Afghan allies out, digital Dunkirk, and much more.
Main Episode Takeaways
- Working as a combat advisor in Afghanistan
- Joining the CIA
- The problem with the Afghanistan pullout
- An Afghan interpreter saved his life during combat.
- The mission of No One Left Behind
Connect with Matt Zeller
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Quick update this morning on some breaking news. We brought you in the last hour, and that is the Pentagon confirming there has been an explosion outside Kabul airport where thousands of people have gathered to try to evacuate the country. |
| 0:11.0 | Initial report suggests it was caused by a suicide bomber and that there are casualties. |
| 0:17.1 | Dozens of people, including U.S. troops, have been killed in Afghanistan at suicide bombers' targeted Kabul's airport. |
| 0:24.0 | With the recent attack, the airlifting of tens of thousands of Afghans desperate to flee the countries, |
| 0:29.8 | since the Taliban, the government has drowned to a halt. |
| 0:33.0 | The Pentagon says that there were at least two explosions, one of which appeared to be a suicide bombing. |
| 0:39.0 | 13 U.S. service members were among the casualties. |
| 0:43.0 | How important is it to get our Afghan allies out? |
| 0:48.0 | We confirmed yesterday that there were about 1,500 Americans in Afghanistan, but we've heard there could be |
| 0:56.0 | many thousands more Afghan citizens who have worked for and were loyal to the U.S. war effort |
| 1:04.6 | and government over the past couple of decades. |
| 1:07.3 | Well, soldiers do not leave fellow soldiers on the battlefield. It's that simple, and these Afghan |
| 1:13.4 | interpreters are the same way. They were with us on the battlefield, no different from any |
| 1:19.7 | other soldier in that squad, that platoon of that company. So we have a moral obligation to do |
| 1:25.1 | everything we can to get as many of them out as possible |
| 1:28.6 | because we know what their fate will be under the Taliban. |
| 1:33.6 | How is it possible to do that after the Taliban has taken over the entire country, including |
| 1:41.3 | U.S. military bases and taking possession of U.S. weapons technology. |
| 1:47.0 | Well, it's certainly going to require more resources, and candidly it's going to require |
| 1:53.0 | a lot of bravery on the part of those American troops that are going in to get them. |
| 1:58.0 | But I don't know an American troop that has told me they're not willing to take that risk. |
| 2:01.6 | I can tell you right now that there are, there's this underground railroad, this digital Dunkirk being done by |
... |
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