the biden administration making
arrangements for the taliban to give the
thousands of americans left in
afghanistan quote safe passage to the
kabul airport as taliban fighters
surround the premises the president
making this decision only six weeks
after expressing that he does not trust
the terrorist organization joining me
right now is former defense department
chief of staff he is the former deputy
assistant to president
for counterterrorism cash patel is here
cash it's great to have you this morning
thanks very much for being here i want
to ask you about the taliban and
trusting the taliban but first take us
back to
your time
at the white house because there was a
plan in place and it had had to do
with promises kept in terms of getting
our troops out of there what went wrong
with president biden's plan
yeah thanks so much for having me maria
we had a simple and uh conditions-based
plan under president trump and that is
the afghans and the taliban would come
together to form an interim government
but it was backed by security measures
and requirements such as a total
rejection and repudiation of al qaeda
and a promise to allow americans to have
a seat at the table and also a lasting
impact that if one american was harmed
president trump would order the defense
department to unleash in afghanistan and
they respected that and that's why we
were able to successfully issue a
conditions based withdrawal we left that
plan in place for the transition team at
the department of defense and they
refused to probably even read it and
they didn't want to abide by because of
president trump's plan now had they
abided by that plan and had they the
respect that president trump had from
the taliban and the afghan government
and the fear that they had in the for in
our matter for protecting american lives
i think the transition team
is now probably thinking we should have
looked at president trump's defense
department transition plan for the
security afghanistan because that's not
a political issue that's the safety of
americans and unfortunately now we're
seeing the cost of the of not following
an actual plan with merit and thousands
of americans are stranded
exactly and it's a very steep and
significant cost cash
i don't understand how it is possible
that you have a plan to remove troops
from a country that we've been for 20
years and there's no plan to ensure that
we get all of our armament
the the guns and armament that were on
the ground that now can be inspected by
everybody from the taliban to the
chinese communist party
as well as leave these tens of thousands
of people on the ground how does that
happen
it happens because this is what happens
when you politicize the national
security apparatus of the united states
look the defense department
creates these things called concepts of
operation we create for a planning
purpose we create for contingency
purpose and we create for we plan for an
emergency purpose and that was done
under president trump and the only way
that it does not happen is if the
commander-in-chief and his cabinet
secretaries refused to acknowledge the
situation on the ground because of
political headwinds they're getting and
just because president trump succeeded
so they didn't want to adopt his plan
and let me just give you an example to
put this sort of in perspective imagine
a homeowner moving his home now times
that by one trillion that's the amount
of logistical planning and requirements
that need to go into place for months
and months on end to remove our manning
our equipment our machinery and our
weapons from afghanistan and we had
planes the size of four greyhound buses
by the thousands prepared to remove not
just our manning are just our equipment
and machinery but more importantly as
you said are american citizens the other
thing is
and i was shocked to hear jake sullivan
say this they said the 10 000 americans
in country were being asked to call a
number at an embassy and await a message
and then instructed those americans to
get to kabul that's not what the
department of defense does we don't ask
americans who are in trouble to come to
us we plan to go get them we put armored
personnel carriers on the ground with
our troops with overhead assets with
rotary wing and we go get americans and
bring them home like we did under
president trump that statement was just
a shock
failure of leadership
well i agree that is an incredible
statement and now we're supposed to
trust the taliban they've constantly
gone back on their word they are a
terrorist organization president biden
two weeks ago said that he doesn't trust
the taliban and yet the safety of
americans on the ground there
is being entrusted with the taliban
really i'm i mean you're
it's unfortunately uh another tragedy
compounding this already tragic
situation how are we to rely on a group
of of as you said likely terrorists uh
to
safeguard the transport of american
people when right now they're too busy
uh being led by former terrorists from
guantanamo bay and also brutalizing
women in country how can president biden
who just four weeks ago said that the
taliban takeover afghanistan was not
inevitable to the world media he was
dead wrong how can he possibly go out
into the media and say we're relying on
the taliban what happened to an american
leadership plan based upon our military
and our allies on the ground because
we're not the only ones unfortunately
who have left citizens on the ground
there the europeans have done the same
and they don't have a plan because this
administration has failed to follow the
plan that president trump had laid out
and had they you and i would not be
having a conversation about americans
left behind
well you talk about women i mean taliban
fighters shot and killed a woman
yesterday because she wasn't wearing a
burqa
right after the group pledged to respect
women's rights so there's
all of that happening i i you know it's
unlikely women are going to be able to
show their faces
anymore and then there's the social
media aspect of it you've got twitter
continuing to have a a a a a twitter
page the taliban has a twitter page
twitter refusing to ban it saying that
the terrorist group can stay active as
long as they
follow the rules oh yes they're going to
follow the rules all right then as
facebook says that the taliban is
sanctioned as a terrorist organization
under u.s law they've banned them from
their services all of this of course as
we know uh donald trump is is banned
this this loophole facebook's end-to-end
encrypted messaging service whatsapp uh
which the taliban has been using to
communicate directly with afghans
despite the company prohibiting it under
the rules against dangerous
organizations i mean the whole thing
it's it's just extraordinary
it's it's unfortunately the height of
hypocrisy coupled with a mainstream
media and big tech who want to see
political narratives
trump national security interests and
they don't want to see anything
president trump did succeed i mean
putting aside my own problems with
twitter this this highlights the issue
of the day with big tech as you said
they are allowing known terrorists to
utilize twitter and facebook's messaging
platform to reach thousands and millions
of people in afghanistan and in the
middle eastern region to do to plan
attacks to brutalize women to prevent
americans from being rescued and what do
you have twitter and facebook and the
likes saying oh it's a different uh it's
a different matter we're going to
continue to allow these animals these
criminals to use our american
infrastructure system to terrorize women
in afghanistan and to conduct further
acts of terrorism and prevent americans
from being rescued in afghanistan it is
just something that you could not even
imagine on your worst day
i mean you would think that there was
some plan
at least give them a lifeline those
americans that are stranded in
afghanistan so they could communicate
instead they prioritize well the leader
of the taliban can still have the page
as long as he follows the rules it's
it's just incredible cash it's great to
see you thanks very much and thanks of
course for your service to this great
country uh we'll talk soon we appreciate
you joining us this morning thanks
marias