The Interpreters the U.S. Left Behind in Afghanistan

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 19 August 2021

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This episode contains strong language. Weeks ago, as the Taliban undertook a major military offensive in Afghanistan, the U.S. accelerated its evacuation of Afghans who aided them and feared retribution. Many, however, remain in the country. “I hope we do right by these people, but I hope we do it quickly,” Andrew Vernon, said a former Marine who has sought help for an interpreter he worked with. “But I am fully prepared to be fully disappointed as well.”

Transcript

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0:00.0	From New York Times, I'm Michael Bobaro.
0:04.8	This is the Daily.
0:05.8	The clock is ticking loudly for the Afghan translators who fought alongside U.S. forces.
0:11.7	Weeks ago, as the American military began wrapping up its withdrawal from Afghanistan, and
0:17.7	the Taliban undertook a major military offensive.
0:21.3	The White House has been under growing pressure to rescue Afghans who helped the U.S.
0:25.0	government, or message to those women and men as clear.
0:30.8	There is a home for you in the United States.
0:33.4	If you so choose, we will stand with you just as you stood with us.
0:38.2	The U.S. accelerated its evacuation of Afghans who have helped the American military, and
0:45.3	as a result, fear retribution from the Taliban.
0:49.2	Meanwhile, the first wave of evacuated Afghan interpreters reached Virginia today.
0:52.9	221 landed in Virginia early on Friday.
0:56.5	But tens of thousands more of those Afghans and their families remain stuck in Afghanistan.
1:03.5	And if you do the math, it's very difficult to get all of those people out of...
1:08.8	Many of them had applied for special immigrant visas that would allow them to resettle in
1:14.5	the United States.
1:15.5	But the special immigrant visa program has been mired in bureaucratic delay.
1:19.9	But after months, and in some cases years of waiting, they say that their applications
1:25.8	have either stalled or been rejected at times without explanation.
1:31.2	If I get captured in front of my family, what's going to happen to my daughter?
1:37.1	Now, with the Taliban firmly in control of Afghanistan, they say that they're trapped
	...

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