If the administration won’t do it, the veterans will.
An Afghan interpreter who helped save President Joe Biden and two other U.S. lawmakers in 2008 has escaped Afghanistan with the aid of volunteers working to evacuate stranded Americans and U.S. allies from the country.
Aman Khalili and his family escaped from Afghanistan over the border to Pakistan last week, Khalili told The Wall Street Journal. After hiding from the Taliban for weeks under the care of various volunteer organizations, a group of military veterans smuggled the former U.S. interpreter and his family through numerous Taliban checkpoints and out of Afghanistan.
Khalili’s story recently appeared in the news after he pled for Biden to help save him and his family. Instead, Khalili was left in Afghanistan to the mercies of the Taliban after Biden withdrew U.S. forces from the country in August, leaving behind thousands of U.S. allies, Special Immigrant Visa-holders, and American citizens.
After Khalili’s story appeared in the Journal in an August 31 story, he was flooded with offers to help from volunteer rescue workers in Afghanistan and the Biden administration. However, despite the White House’s pledge to “get you out,” as press secretary Jen Psaki said on August 31, the Biden administration was minimally involved in extracting Khalili from Afghanistan.