US officials in Kabul burned PASSPORTS of Afghan visa applicants while destroying embassy documents as the Taliban rapidly approached the capital and the Biden administration panicked, report claims
U.S. embassy workers in Kabul incinerated the passports of Afghan citizens who had applied for America visas in the rush to leave the facility last week.
On Friday, Politico published a tick-tock of the five days leading to the fall of Kabul on Sunday, including the rushed effort that started last Friday, August 13, to evacuate the U.S. embassy in Afghanistan's capital city as the Taliban took over.
Rep. Andy Kim, a Democrat from New Jersey, told Politico about the burned Afghan passports, which would make it impossible for those individuals to be identified as they tried to leave the country.
'It is standard operating procedure during a drawdown to minimize our footprint and reduce the amount of sensitive material remaining. Embassy Kabul’s drawdown was conducted in accordance with this standard operating procedure,' a State Department spokesperson told DailyMail.com.
The spokesperson pushed back on Kim's claim that Afghans wouldn't be able to travel without their passports.
'Our drawdown procedures will not prevent people who are otherwise eligible for evacuation from traveling,' the spokesperson said. 'The U.S. government has other ways of confirming traveler identity. We will not go into additional detail for security reasons.'
A U.S. Chinook helicopter flies near the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan on Sunday. Embassy staff reportedly burned the passports of Afghans who were applying for U.S. visas as they destroyed documents in order to evacuate the facility
Afghans check into their evacuation flights at the Hamid Karzai International Airport on Wednesday. Without passports, it's unclear how Afghans applying for U.S. visas will be able to leave the country
A crush of people wait at Kabul's airport on Wednesday. The Biden administration was caught flat-footed by the Taliban that took over Kabul on Sunday, leading to a crowd of westerners and Afghans trying to escape the country
Taliban fighters stand guard near a checkpoint near the U.S. embassy in Kabul. Embassy staff burned American flags and other items with U.S. government logos to avoid them being used in Taliban propaganda efforts
Embassy staff was also instructed to burn American flags and items with U.S. government logos to avoid them being used in Taliban propaganda efforts, according to a memo issued to embassy personnel and obtained by Politico.
The day before - Thursday, August 12 - President Joe Biden had gathered his national security Cabinet in the Situation Room in the early morning.
Intelligence officials were now telling the president that Kabul could fall 'within weeks or days,' Politico reported, as opposed to the assessment given just a few days before - that the Taliban takeover could take months or even up to two years.
'It was a pretty sobering moment,' one official told the publication. 'We thought we had months ahead of us to draw down the embassy and do processing and relocation.'
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin endorsed sending in U.S. troops to evacuate the embassy and protect the Hamid Karzai International Airport.
The Cabinet unanimously agreed with Lloyd's assessment, Politico said.
That was the 'oh, s***' moment, said the source.
Politico also reported that both Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken had been in touch with Afghanistan's President Ashraf Ghani through the weekend - and he gave no indication that he would flee the country.
'He represented himself as willing to stay and fight,' a defense official told the publication.
Ghani was gone by Sunday.
Biden and his national security team are taking heat for underestimating the Taliban and not preparing earlier for a mass evacuation of American citizens and Afghan allies.
While the official word is of increased capacity at the Kabul airport, reports from the ground maintain that the situation is increasingly chaotic and dangerous.