Byron York's Daily Memo: Two questions about Afghan refugees

[Valin]

The Washington Examiner

Byron York, Chief Political Correspondent

September 07, 2021

(Snip)

But then there is the second question: Who did we bring out? Recently the Washington Examiner's Tori Richards reported that a Republican congressman from Wisconsin, Rep. Tom Tiffany, toured the Fort McCoy army base in western Wisconsin, where at least 3,000 Afghan refugees have been brought so far. "The refugees at the base have no visas and haven't undergone the standard vetting process," Richards reported.

"Does this mean they have ties to the Taliban, ISIS, or al Qaeda?" Tiffany asked. "Do they have ties to terror organizations yet [the State Department] just says we are fully vetting them? I am concerned that they don't have the information on background to make sure they are fully vetted."

The questions go beyond potential terrorism ties. A more basic question is whether those evacuated from Afghanistan actually helped the U.S. in the 20-year war. The U.S. priority list was always citizens first, followed by those who assisted American forces during the war. Other Afghans who did not aid the U.S., even if they have a legitimate fear of Taliban rule, are not near the top of the list.

The most important point is that, given the frenzied evacuation, U.S. officials do not really know whom they have airlifted out of Afghanistan. Look at this account from the weekend in the Washington Post , which quotes an Afghan named Mustafa who had helped U.S. forces and got on an American plane.

"Many [of those on board] had minimal identification and did not appear to have worked closely with the United States as [Mustafa] had, serving as a translator and analyst," the Post reported. "They were 'just people,' Mustafa said, who took advantage of the disorderly evacuation to flee their turbulent country. 'Nobody knows who was the good guy and who was the bad guy getting into the plane,' said Mustafa... 'It's a risky thing that I believe happened."

So bottom line, it will not be, or at least it should not be, easy for the Biden White House to turn the page from Afghanistan. Of course, they want to talk about the president's agenda. But the Afghan evacuation happened, and now some U.S. citizens remain stranded in Afghanistan and thousands of insufficiently-vetted Afghans are arriving in the U.S. courtesy of the administration. No president can walk away from that.