BREAKING: US Holds “Diplomatic” Meeting with Taliban

This is Logan Sekulow with Breaking News. The U.S. holds diplomatic meeting with the Taliban and a special sneak preview of our new documentary series, The Revenge of the Taliban.

Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. For the Taliban, they very much want to be seen to be negotiating with representatives of the most powerful country in the world. And incidentally, the American round of the talks has just finished and they've moved on to talking to the Europeans, so that too will burnish their image or at least make them look as if they're a legitimate government. We want to hear from you.

Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. What they really want from America is about $7 billion worth of frozen assets. It's held in U.S. bonds and in gold in the U.S.

So when the Taliban took over and showed up at the central bank thinking, great, let's get our hands on the money to run the country, it wasn't there. And now your host, Logan Sekulow. Welcome to Sekulow.

This is Logan Sekulow, joined in studio by executive producer of Sekulow, Will Haynes. We are going to be taking your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110 on the issues at hand. Of course, we're leading with that the U.S. delegation met with the Taliban over the weekend, maybe their first what you'd call diplomatic meetings with the Taliban. We're seeing some of that obviously as chaos is still new stories are coming out from Afghanistan. We're seeing new things coming from that and we have a brand new documentary series that I've been working on with our team for the last month and a half or so in real time documenting how people feel, the thoughts, the emotions and some of the top leaders in Washington and around the world. We have a series called Revenge of the Taliban that's going to be available very soon. If you want to be the first person to know, be amongst the first people to know when and how to get this groundbreaking series, really something that I feel very passionate about. It's originally going to be a 90-minute film. It probably will be later on, still down the line, but these interviews, these 20, 30, 40-minute long interviews were so intense and were filled with so much good content. We thought we're going to release these as full as we can and you'll be able to get as much of this content to you and be able to share it with your friends. It's something that is going to be coming out very soon.

We don't have the release details exactly yet, but it really helps us out because it helps not only gauge how we're going to release it, what we're going to do, but it gives you first and exclusive access. What you need to do is go to aclj.org slash Taliban, T-A-L-I-B-A-N, Taliban. Fill out the basic form and you will be amongst the first to know anything that goes on again with our new series Revenge of the Taliban that I host. We have some excellent, excellent guests who are on. Obviously, you'll hear from people who you see on this show all the time, like my dad, Jay Sekulow, Jordan Sekulow. You'll hear from Mike Pompeo. You'll hear from Rick Grinnell. You'll also hear from former Attorney General John Ashcroft, from Nikki Haley, from Senator Langford, from Tulsi Gabbard.

We had on that. It was one of the last interviews we conducted with Wes Smith as well and many others. We're going to be playing clips from that coming up here in the next few segments. If you want to see what that's going to look like, there really were amazing interviews.

I think you're going to enjoy them and take in a lot of information. Minium heartbreaking. Minium will make you cry.

Minium will get you amped up and upset. I'm not going to lie. There are many times we left these interviews feeling pretty down, but we're going to play a lot of these clips because it's good. You need to know the real information. Look, we have people, again, from both sides of the aisle, whether that is a Tulsi Gabbard or whether that is a Mike Pompeo.

Then we have people who historically can look back 20 years, like John Ashcroft. A really interesting piece that we are putting together right now as we speak. You're going to see some clips from that in the next few segments.

Phone lines, again, are open at 1-800-684-3110. We're going to discuss, again, Will, that there was this U.S. delegation that met with the Taliban. We'll get into why they were doing that coming up in the next segment.

That's right. They did meet in Doha, Qatar over the weekend, though, and there were some very specific agenda items on their agenda that they wanted to talk about. We've got a readout from the State Department on that and some other information that we can give our analysis on when we come back from the break. Yeah, we get back again. We're going to start playing some of those clips, also give you some analysis on that. But, right now, when we're in break, if you want to know, be the first to know how to get this brand new series, Revenge of the Taliban, they need you to go to aclj.org slash Taliban.

When you do that, you'll see a simple put in your name, email address, click Go, click Submit, and we'll notify you as soon as those details are there, as soon as we have them. So, again, aclj.org slash Taliban to be the first to know when our exclusive new series premieres. We'll be right back. The challenges facing Americans are substantial. At a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack, it's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena.

And we have an exceptional track record of success. But here's the bottom line, we could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms. That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side.

If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at aclj.org, where you can learn more about our life changing work. Become a member today, aclj.org.

Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. We'll show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at aclj.org slash gift. Welcome back to Sekulow, taking your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110. Again, Will, we're going to discuss not only some clips and play some new clips from our brand new series, Revenge of the Taliban, but we also are going to discuss what happened over the weekend, which a lot of you probably didn't see. It's not necessarily making your mainstream news headlines, and this is that a U.S. delegation met with the Taliban in their first high-level talks since our pullout of Afghanistan.

This was to, try again, have one of those meetings, a diplomatic meeting, it's like, you're going to hold up your end, right? You're going to be good, you're going to make sure Al Qaeda stays out, you're going to stick to what we agreed upon, but it does unsettle the nerves. Well, and one thing that kind of unsettled our nerves, as you said, back during the chaos in Kabul, was the way they kept referring to the Taliban as business-like and used these descriptors that were positive towards the Taliban, a terrorist group. But in Ned Price's readout of the meetings that took place Saturday and Sunday, and this is a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, he said the discussions were candid and professional, with the U.S. delegation reiterating that the Taliban will be judged on its actions, not only its words. Well, one, it's cringe-worthy to hear them again say candid and professional when talking about their talks with the Taliban, but also they'll be judged by their actions, not only their words. We're already seeing a return to the dark ages of Afghanistan, where women are oppressed, minorities are oppressed, religious minorities are oppressed, and being killed for their faith or their gender or their race. This is something that is already reverted back to by the Taliban in just the last month, and yet they're saying they'll be judged on their actions, not only their words. Well, I think that we can start making judgments now about how Taliban 2.0 is going to unfold. Yeah, and they're saying this meeting isn't about granting recognition or confirming legitimacy, but we all know that legitimacy has already been confirmed. I think that, yes, maybe on the global stage, in all technical senses, have all the i's and t's been crossed or i's and dot's and t's been crossed?

No. But do I think that we have decidedly said that in essentially the way that we've created the tone? One of the questions, we're producing this series, a lot of times I ask very similar questions because, again, we originally started making it. It was going to be an 80-minute, 90-minute feature-length documentary.

You'll see that I ask similar questions because you want to be able to edit back and forth. Well, one of the questions I often ask, which is, how can you, as a U.S. representative, as a former attorney general, or whoever it was, hear the name the Taliban and hear it treated with respect? It's something that is very disheartening. It's very upsetting to a lot of people who grew up with it. Again, most of my adult life was spent with the Taliban as a terrorist regime. Now, in the last 90 days, 60 days, it's become a legitimate government, according to our administration and officials.

So, it's a pretty rough time. Now, with that, we've produced this new series, and I'm very proud of this series. I think our team did a wonderful job, whether it was Will arranging a lot of the interviews or our production. We did a lot of all these virtually. We did these via Skype, but it's shot really cool. We'll have some clips here soon.

Do we have clips already? Yeah. One of the things I think we could jump into is maybe that specifically, which is how the Taliban has gained some respect.

So, you'll see me ask a question and you'll see it from a guest. So, maybe we'll start with Representative Walz. That's right. Congressman Walz from Florida. And we have the clip ready.

We'll go ahead and play it. But he is someone who was a, he's the first Green Beret elected to Congress. And so, it's a, he has both the experience as a veteran of Afghanistan and now a member of Congress.

Yeah. And he was involved in like the Bo Bergdahl hunt. Begrudgingly, he represents an area of Florida that's like the Daytona area of Florida. He is an intelligent guy.

You've probably seen him on Fox. I will say this, looking at this list of people, if you want to know who's going to be the next generation of the conservative party, it's pretty much this entire lineup of people, especially the people who are younger. Obviously, some like your Ashcroft, those guys are legacy pieces at this point, but there are so many that have really showed themselves in this series. So, if you want to see who's going to be probably your who's who in the next election cycle or next five election cycles, I think a lot of them are going to be people that I interviewed.

I really do. These people are intelligent, smart, are understanding, are not, are new, they are nuanced. No one had, what I found was interesting, no one had the same answers. So, you're going to hear some of the same questions, but completely different versions of this spectrum.

So, let's start though with Waltz. Take a look. Listen, the Taliban haven't changed. The only thing that's changed is they have tuned up their propaganda program and they're dealing with the same administration that they got their five top draft picks out of Guantanamo for Bergdahl.

Right. But let me tell you something. I've seen principals of schools, of girls schools run out of town and their families murdered when they tried to make a stand. I've seen a girls school machine gunned with the girls still in the school. One of my interpreters was stopped at a Taliban checkpoint and had documentation on him. They took him home and beheaded him along with members of his family to send a message. We had in my last tour, a seven year old boy was hung because he had dollar bills on him. They hung him and shoved him in his mouth. I know this is all harsh and graphic, but this is, these are brutal, brutal Islamic extremist thugs.

And we've now not only handed them the powers of a state with a central bank and currency and a functioning airport to send terrorists anywhere around the world. But we also, this is the part they just get off the most, is allowed billions of dollars of American equipment, our old equipment, to fall into their hands that future American soldiers are going to have to fight with when we have to go back to deal with this problem. It's, it's, again, it's unconscionable.

It's unforgivable. Again, so that is just a small clip. That was obviously Congressman Mike Waltz from Florida, who again, as Will said, the first Green Beret to serve in Congress. Very, now that interview, that's just two minutes of what was probably roughly half hour discussion about the details. So he obviously served in Afghanistan, was there. We had a lot of people who served in Afghanistan, family served in Afghanistan or were part of the war on terror in general, whether it was in Iraq or in other parts of the world. Again, that's just two minutes of what is probably a four or five hour special, obviously separated and episodically.

And then that will be edited down later on. And if you want to be one of the first people to get and receive and figure out how to get Revenge of the Taliban, our new series. It's very simple.

We set this up today. So those who are watching the dedicated few who are, who are so intensely paying attention to what's going on in the world. I was a few dedicated audience who are really care about what's happening. Even when the news media shifts. We encourage you to go to ACLJ.org slash Taliban, and I'll take you to the Revenge of the Taliban slash page. There's a simple form.

First name, last name, email address, zip code, and you will be the first to know when this series is coming and when it will be released and how to get it. And I think that clip that we played from Congressman Waltz was really important to play today and to kind of lead this discussion because as we're hearing that the US delegation is meeting with the Taliban in Doha, I met with them over Saturday and Sunday of this weekend. And to hear the things that they're talking about, like Reuters points out that they it's a top priority to hold the Taliban to its commitment that it will not allow Afghanistan to again become a hotbed for Al Qaeda or other extremists. Well, other extremists could be the Taliban. It is already now a hotbed for terrorism because the Taliban controls the territory in the country.

So no matter what, they can't live up to that commitment. That's what it is now. But we also talk about the future of Al Qaeda, future of terrorism worldwide. That's something we got into with Tulsi Gabbard, who we have been in communication with for about a month knowing that we were going to be able to get this interview with her. And if someone from the other side, not traditionally a straight up conservative person, obviously someone who a lot of conservatives do respect, she was a military personnel. What a lot of us didn't know is during this time she was active in Africa on a mission against Al Qaeda.

So we discussed that. We'll play a clip from that when we get back because that's a pretty aggressive thing to think about that there's all these missions already happening. It's not just about Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a small piece to the global puzzle that still is this war on terror, whether you want to label it or not, whether they're going to engrave 2021 into the Iwo Jima statue with all the wars.

It doesn't matter because this is an ongoing battle and ongoing discussion. And again, we can't wait for you to see this new special Revenge of the Taliban multi-part episodic interview series. It's going to be available to our audience first.

What you can do is go to aclj.org slash Taliban, fill out that simple form, and you'll be the first person to know. And it's coming very soon. We're not talking about months down the road. We're talking about a couple of weeks.

You're going to be able to see this series in its entirety. It's really an amazing piece. And I look forward to hearing all of your responses because look, like I said, people go different directions. Some people thought we should stay. Some people thought we should go. Some people thought the war should have ended 10 years ago.

But you know, what's interesting about this is everyone has an opinion and these are all senior level people with incredible knowledge that I can't wait for you to see. Again, that's at aclj.org slash Taliban. If you have a phone call, want to give us a call 1-800-684-3110. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected, is there any hope for that culture to survive? And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at aclj.org slash GIFT. The challenges facing Americans are substantial. At a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack, it's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights, in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. And we have an exceptional track record of success.

But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at aclj.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today.

aclj.org. Welcome back to Secula. We're discussing the fact that the U.S. just every time we think the Afghanistan topic is wrapped up.

We wrapped up this documentary series production-wise a couple days ago. And every time we think there's not a news item, there is. And that is that the U.S. delegation met with the Taliban for the first time to discuss keeping al-Qaeda at bay, making sure that you're not going to be running, making sure you keep your checks and balances going in terms to ensure you're not running terrorist regime, Taliban. It's a ridiculous thing to say. We all know that. But of course, we have to keep up this level of airs and talks.

It's ridiculous. But we want to talk about al-Qaeda. We've heard a lot about it. Well, it's something that's a discussion point for a lot of people, whether al-Qaeda is growing, whether it's rising, whether it's something that is happening in Afghanistan. But we also need to look beyond Afghanistan. And I think that's something one of the last interview we did was with Tulsi Gabbard, who again, as I said, you knew her maybe from the Presidential debates of 2020. You maybe knew her as many different things, but she is a soldier currently active serving and the last month or so. Plus, she has been in the Horn of Africa on a mission against al-Qaeda. So we need to remember that that's all happening. And we have a great clip from her. And I think I think we should go to that.

Yeah, we're going to roll this now. This is with former Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii. But for you, we found out just a few weeks ago you were actually in Africa serving a mission essentially against al-Qaeda. And we've heard about al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda through this last month as for Afghanistan, we don't have to worry about them anymore. That's one of the reasons we left.

No problem. But they haven't gone away. Maybe they're currently not occupying Afghanistan. We don't know exactly the situation. But what should we know about those terror threats that are worldwide?

As someone who was on the ground dealing with this days ago. What we need to know is the truth, which is that this Islamist jihadist threat that is posed to us, the American people, our country, coming from terrorist groups like al-Qaeda and ISIS, they're very much alive and well and thriving. This is something we need to keep an eye on in Afghanistan and be prepared to go in very quickly and immediately to try to eliminate these groups, should they start to grow, should they start to get a stronghold there. But we also need to understand the truth and the reality that this is not just an issue related to Afghanistan. I think that's important to point out because you hear a lot of talking heads on TV talking solely about Afghanistan as it relates to this terrorist jihadist threat. But in reality, we've got to look at how and where this threat is posed to us around the world.

As you said, I just got back from an active duty tour and a deployment to the Horn of Africa. And we see how these Islamist terrorist groups and their affiliated groups, al-Shabaab in Somalia, we see other groups in West Africa, in countries like Mali, Niger and Chad and others who are very strong, who are growing and who are very active and whose goal is to establish an Islamic caliphate, an Islamic governance fueled by this Islamist ideology. Islamist ideology is distinct and different, not the same as the religion of Islam, but it's this political Islamist ideology that's fueling these jihadist groups that really does pose a great threat. And also is the thing, and I want to point out, is the thing that really has never been challenged. When I say in order to defeat this jihadist threat, we have to defeat them militarily and ideologically. And there really has never been an effort on the ideological front to defeat this threat. So that again was Tulsi Gabbard, someone who we had the pleasure to speak to for an extended period about not only her time in Africa recently, but even her time serving in the war on terror, what inspired her to be there. Obviously a lot of it all goes back to 9-11, but that shows that this threat is still there and it's still happening.

That's right. And we started production on this, we started talking about it really, when we were hearing that things were probably not going to go smoothly in Afghanistan. We started to have talks and you were like, should we start production or looking to production on a piece that, we don't know what the ending is going to be yet because we were watching it start to unfold, but we need to document this and we need to understand mistakes, successes, and what the future looks like. And so we started reaching out to these people and Congresswoman Gabbard was someone who we wanted to get her insight because she has a very nuanced view that was not necessarily the same as a lot of the other panelists. Yeah, a lot of them came out with very traditional, as a documentarian you have to ask a lot of questions and then dig a little deeper to sometimes get the long answers. Because a lot of these people are people you see on the news, on Fox News, they're used to giving a 12 second answer. That's not what I'm interested in.

I want the two minute answer, the three minute answer, give me the meat of it. I'd say a lot of people did great at that. She was one of them that we wanted to reach out to early, as you mentioned, because not only is she nuanced, but technically comes from the other side of the aisle.

Again, ran against President Trump, ran for the Democratic nomination. Some of these interviews felt very political. Hers oddly did not. Hers was all about military engagement and what led us here and what we can do for the future.

Right. And like you had brought up before, we reached out to her, got a positive response like, yes, this is a very important topic. I would love to be a part of it and have my voice as a part of this. And then it kind of just went radio silent for about a month. And it wasn't something that was like, oh, did we do anything wrong or anything? It was just like, oh, we're just not getting a response about when we can schedule it.

Then we see her post on Instagram that she had been deployed because she's in the Army Reserves to Africa on a mission with U.S. Special Forces. And so had to go radio silent because they were combating an al-Qaeda operation in Africa at the time. So just the ability to have these voices at a time when everything was unfolding and people are still actively fighting is really quite incredible. And I wanted to show, again, a little bit of both sides of this. We wanted to hear discussion boards. Now, obviously, we invited a lot of people from maybe the other side of the fence that maybe did not say yes to doing this.

But you know what? She was brave enough to say yes. We've got to give her props for that.

I know a lot of people are commenting, I'm not so sure how I feel because she obviously ran against President Trump. We wanted to make sure we had a broad spectrum of people giving a lot of different nuanced answers. And I think that is the future of politics. We even discussed that as well. We're going to keep going. There's a lot more to cover and there's a lot more content that happened during this documentary series that we've been producing for last month.

As Will said, I'm curious, if you're watching on social media, Facebook or YouTube, comment and let me know. So at the beginning of each interview, just for our own internal purposes, I would say where we were. So let's say we recorded it on September 20th. I would say it's September 20th and we are here with whoever guessed. Because I wanted not only for our editors and for our team to know, but maybe possibly for you to know where we were as things were unfolding.

Because some of these were done very early September and some were done up until three days ago. Obviously a lot has changed. So would you like to know that? As we're finishing the edits, maybe you could tell me whether you would like to know when I'm doing these interviews.

You obviously know they're not in real time, they're not live. Where we were. So we can do a flashback, show you maybe a montage. Here's where things were when we did this interview.

Because so much has changed the last two months. So I'm curious, put that in the comments. I'd love to hear your thoughts on the way we roll this out.

That's part of the reason I'm saying go to our website, go to aclj.org slash Taliban to sign up. I want to gauge interest. I want to see how many of you are interested in this extensive long form series. You're going to learn a lot. It's very entertaining. It's very interesting.

I learned a lot. Look, I'm probably like a lot of you listening right now. I always say, you know, my brother and my dad are the legal experts. And I'm one of you. And I'm the one asking the questions. Because generally, I'm not the smart one here. I want to hear from the people and the experts. And I do that job by interviewing them and talking to them and discussing this out. Asking the important questions that you want to know.

So just curious of that thought. But while you're at it, go to aclj.org slash Taliban. Sign up to be the first to know with this brand new series from our incredible team at the ACLJ is coming.

We'll be right back with more on secular. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines, protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress and in the public arena. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at aclj.org, where you can learn more about our life changing work. Become a member today.

aclj.org We will fight for the right to live in freedom. Keeping you informed and engaged now more than ever. This is secular. And now your host, Logan secular.

Welcome back to secular. We are discussing not only the breaking news coming out of the weekend, which is the U.S. delegation met with the Taliban for the first time to discuss making sure that this diplomatic talks that they stayed on what they were supposed to be doing in terms of handling terrorism. As Will said, this is the Taliban. We're talking to the Taliban about how they're going to handle future terrorism.

So let that sink in for a minute. Obviously, we had a lot of our top names who you know from this show and you've known for the last, you know, however many years, including your Rick Grenell's Mike Pompeo, you had on Wes Smith and my dad and my brother. But let's go to Mike Pompeo this again from our brand new series. If you're if you're just watching right now, if you just tuned in a lot of you are we have a brand new series documentary interview series that is going to be available very soon. It's called Revenge of the Taliban. We've been producing it in real time.

The last month is all this has unfolded. And if you want to be the first person to know how to get this series, it's very simple because I want this specifically for you guys who are watching, who are dedicated to this show each day, go to ACLJ.org slash Taliban. Do that.

Fill out the simple form. We'll email you as soon as we have release details. Now, talking about talking with the Taliban, negotiating with the Taliban, let's flip over to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Let's see what he has to say about that.

Again, this from our new series. Take a listen. I can't help but also look to the current secretary of state who has stated we have shifted to a diplomatic chapter with the Taliban. Do you think that that you've sat down with them? Do you think that's a feasible goal, that having a diplomatic relationship? It sounds crazy coming out of my mouth that someone who for the last 20 years has heard the Taliban as a terrorist organization last 20 years. And then I was like, we're going to have a diplomatic relationship with them.

It's hard for Americans, hard for me to even fathom it. But you've been there. You've met with them. Is that a goal? No, this is still the same Taliban that harbored Osama bin Laden and caused all kinds of challenges for the United States of America. They are still playing footsie with al-Qaeda. They've not turned a new leaf.

I didn't see Thomas Jefferson sitting across the table from me or any near replica of that. The thing they understood was power. The thing they understood was the resolve of someone to push back against them.

That was the only thing that could shape their behavior. It wasn't some kind word or some debarche that we issued to them. And I think that's a really important clip to play as we hear about the U.S. delegation meeting with the Taliban over the weekend. Because the Trump administration did meet with the Taliban to get concessions from the Taliban, assurances, before we withdrew. And that's something the Biden administration criticized President Trump and Secretary Pompeo for doing. But they were doing it at the right time. After you pull out and you give up all of the leverage, all of the military machinery, all of the security there, and you leave Americans behind, then you're negotiating from a position of weakness.

And that's what we're seeing from the Biden administration, unlike what Secretary of State Pompeo did, was trying to negotiate from a position of strength so that we could leave in a better position than we are in now, which is in a very dire position. Yeah, and they'll just say, well, you know, we're negotiating now because, you know, we have all of this financial things that we can impact them with, you know, not give them billions and trillions of dollars. How about we don't do that in the first place?

No? Does that not seem like a good enough plan that maybe we shouldn't be funding the Taliban? As we know that that's maybe historically something we've done in the past. But, you know, we'll discuss that, too, in this new series, Revenge of the Taliban. We had the Rise of ISIS, the book that my dad wrote. This is the Revenge of the Taliban.

Not too far off because we look at what's happening there with ISIS and ISIS-K, Taliban 2.0. Again, a bunch of things all under a bunch of the same problem all under a bunch of titles. And we can get bogged down with that in the media. We discussed that as well. We discussed the origins. We go through all of it. So you are informed and engaged, as we say here, because it's important to have all this information. Again, this was supposed to be a 90-minute movie that we're going to throw out to you guys.

We still are going to do that. But these interviews were so intense and were so nuanced that we thought we need to give people a broad spectrum of what is going on in this fight against terrorists worldwide. So we're doing that in the new series Revenge of the Taliban. Be the first to know when it's coming for you in the next few weeks.

All you need to do is go to aclj.org slash Taliban. Sign up. We'll be right back with more on Sekulow. If you want to give us a call, you can do it now. 1-800-684-3110.

We'll take some calls coming up too. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand up for your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. And we have an exceptional track record of success.

But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at aclj.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work.

Become a member today. aclj.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

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Phone lines are ringing 1-800-6-8-4-3110. We'll try to get some calls up about what's going on in Afghanistan. Obviously, our meetings with the Taliban and our brand new series, Revenge of the Taliban, which will be coming very soon. We've been showing you a sneak preview. We've already shown you clips. If you want to go back and watch them from these extensive interviews with people like Tulsi Gabbard, people like Representative Waltz. We've gone through a lot of great content.

Mike Pompeo. We're going to keep going. We're going to play some more. One person we had on, had the pleasure to talk to was Nikki Haley. One of the questions I ask a lot of these guests is how do we earn back the respect of not only the people of our country, but of our allies? We talk a lot about our adversaries, China, Russia, these big picture ideas.

We do talk about that a lot in this series. What about our allies? What about the UK?

What about France? We discuss that. Let's hear from Nikki Haley. Let's talk about that and our allies who have relied on the U.S. Look, for a lot of people it's saying maybe too much, but rely on the U.S. for what they need are now seeing the imagery, are seeing the verbiage coming out of the President's mouth. There is a deep concern, it seems, from even not just our adversaries, but from our allies that the United States may not be the future strong voice that it's been. How do you combat that?

I'm just curious. It's amazing that when I was at the United Nations, no one wanted to meet unless the U.S. was in the room. Now you've got the fact that NATO is having meetings and they don't even think the U.S. needs to be in the room. That's how far we've fallen. That's how dangerous it's gotten.

There's a lot of repairs that need to be made here. I know Biden came and said at the U.N., the U.S. is back, we're back with diplomacy, we're back with all this. Countries don't want the niceties. That's not what they're talking about. They want to know you're going to have their back. They want to know that you're going to lead and they can follow.

They don't want to wonder what you're thinking that day when you wake up in the morning. And I think that you see it where France is trying to tell the EU that they need to become less dependent on the U.S., not less dependent on China, less dependent on the U.S., which is shocking. The idea that the U.S. is now asking Russia for help in dealing with Afghanistan, which is unthinkable. And the idea that we have no plans on how we're going to go encounter terrorism. And not once did Biden say we should not acknowledge the Taliban as the head of the Afghanistan government. I mean, that was a prime opportunity for the U.S. to lead the charge that we cannot acknowledge the Taliban. We can't give them aid.

We can't in any way recognize them. And he missed the mark on that again. Again, that was from Nikki Haley, former ambassador. And obviously, you know her from all of her time in South Carolina and obviously involved in the Trump administration. But something we discuss also is her family served in Afghanistan, her husband, and it was a very intense conversation. I'll say that with Nikki Haley. Some of these have a very educational tone, but hers got very passionate, very intense because it impacted her directly.

Right. And as you mentioned, there are many interviews here that are very personal, that we get the policy. They're all experts in one way or another about the things we're talking about, but also a lot of them had so many personal angles to it.

And the way that a lot of these people, they've grown up, their careers in government have all been in the shadow of 9-11, so to speak, where a lot of the policy decisions and a lot of what formed them are that attack on 9-11 and on the United States from Al-Qaeda and how this entire war was in the backdrop of their public service. And so it was an important thing for us to get those personal side stories out as well. And I think you did that very effectively with many of these guests. And so it's not just a documentary with talking heads about this is what we should have done or shouldn't have done.

It really does hit in a different way because as we're watching it unfold, they're also having this emotive response to what they're seeing as well. Yeah, that's one of the reasons when we decided to make this, I said, I want to make this right now because I don't want this to be something we're talking about in two years and going, remember back in 2021 when we got out of Afghanistan? No, some of these interviews are done days after. We interview Colonel West Smith, who you've heard on the show every week for many years now. We don't go into a lot of detail with him. He essentially created the dignified transfer where the fallen, the bodies of the fallen are brought to Dover, transferred to their families. There's a whole, that whole ceremony that we saw. He created that. That was his concept. He and a team led that under President Obama, led that because originally it was not something that was, that family went to, the public went to. And he said, I think that the public needs to be here. And he said to Colonel Smith, as well as a team said, develop this. So we discussed that a lot. You need to deal with that every day.

This wasn't something that we just see once a, you know, every time that something like this big tragedy happens, 13 people, you know, obviously died. This is something he had to deal with each day. He worked there as he developed this. It's a really interesting perspective and yeah, and maybe we should just go to that.

That's not necessarily we're going to go, but we're going to go to West Smith. You've heard on the show many times. He talked about this sort of, sort of how I wrap up each interview. I wrapped up each interview asking about the feelings of the families of the fallen or, or of people who, who served in Afghanistan, who feel like maybe they served in vain as we saw it all come crumbling down. Here's his answer to that question. Again, this is Colonel West Smith. You've heard him here countless times.

Let's take a listen. A lot of people who have family in the military, specifically ones that those that lose their life or critically injured or have major complications, even mentally from this, they do question whether it was worth it, whether it was worth their family member to do it. I know that that'd be a question I'm sure that you got asked all the time, which, you know, did my son, daughter, brother, sister die in vain? Was this worth it at the end of the day?

For those who were just recently had their dignified transfer and for those previously involved in the entire war in Afghanistan, you could say 20 years, feels like 20 years got unraveled in the last three days. Do you feel, or what would be your statement to those people when they would come to you? What's the response you can give to someone who is saying is did my child, you know, die for a good reason? Yeah, and I got asked that a lot during my three plus years at Dover Air Force Base and officials and even those of us who just have friends have been asked that same question recently.

You know, did my loved one die in vain? And my answer to that is always the same that anytime you stand up to evil and you fight it, it's never in vain. Politicians and sometimes generals and admirals make mistakes, but we have an all volunteer military. All of us who have served for the last 30, 40 years, we raised our right hand and we volunteered to serve. And so the military, by design, we follow orders and it's a professional organization. And so when you die in the service like that, every person in the military takes a sacred oath. They raise their right hand and they take an oath and we live by that oath and by that honor system. And if you die honoring your vows, you have not died in vain.

And in the case of the global war on terror, none of these people who have died have died in vain. And I was very quick to tell the families that. That was just a small clip of a roughly 40 minute interview we did with Colonel West Smith and a highly emotional experience to discuss all of this with him. I think you will, you know, when you look at the list of names, you obviously have the ones that will pop out, whether that's Nikki Haley or Mike Pompeo or even Tulsi Gabbard or any of the senators or congressmen and all these people we had on. But I'm so happy that we were able to have a really deep discussion with West because he's someone who you hear all the time.

You maybe go, well, why is this person even on this show? What's his part to play in the world? When you hear this, there'll be no question. And he'll give you a perspective on his career that you'll never be the same.

You'll never see him the same way because of the stuff that he not only created, but had to deal with on a daily basis for so many years as a chaplain and as the creator, essentially, of the dignified transfer. So we're going to deal with that each and every day. It's a very intense interview, one that even in my preparation did not go the way I thought it would go, which happens when you make movies and you make series.

You want to be able to pivot with it when an interview takes you to a different place. And it did. That one is probably the most emotional one we had, filled with a lot of tears, a lot of sadness. We did that interview, I believe the dignified transfer happened on a Saturday or Sunday, and we did it immediately the next morning, Monday morning, whatever it was, to discuss what that experience was like after we all watched it in sort of horror throughout that entire experience.

Again, we don't want you to forget what that felt like to be there. Well, and also it's a testament to the robustness of the team that is here at the ACLJ. This documentary series is mixed of outside and inside the ACLJ. And because of the support of the members of the ACLJ, we have such a strong team that can comment on this and give credence to the historic nature of what this documentary is telling. Yeah, and if you want to be the first to know when this series is coming out, you're going to have exclusive first access, go to ACLJ.org slash Taliban, but also support the work of the ACLJ while you're there. We couldn't do these amazing series put together, I think, with the best film crews in the world without your support.

And that is an ACLJ.org. Make your donation today. We really appreciate it. But obviously sign up as well. We'll take some phone calls when we get back. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected.

Is there any hope for that culture to survive? And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. The challenges facing Americans are substantial at a time when our values, our freedoms, our constitutional rights are under attack. It's more important than ever to stand with the American Center for Law and Justice. For decades now, the ACLJ has been on the front lines protecting your freedoms, defending your rights in courts, in Congress, and in the public arena. And we have an exceptional track record of success.

But here's the bottom line. We could not do our work without your support. We remain committed to protecting your religious and constitutional freedoms.

That remains our top priority, especially now during these challenging times. The American Center for Law and Justice is on your side. If you're already a member, thank you. And if you're not, well, this is the perfect time to stand with us at ACLJ.org, where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today.

ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Secular, wrapping up our discussion about what all is going on when the U.S. met with the Taliban over the weekend. But also, we're previewing our brand new series, Revenge of the Taliban, which is coming very soon. A documentary interview series, a long-form series that you're going to be very engaged by.

You're going to also learn a lot. I did, by doing these interviews. One was from our guest, Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, who not only is a senator, is also a member of the Homeland Security Committee. So obviously, he had a lot to say about that.

But we talked about, amongst many things, but I want to play this. We all watched those images of the thousands and thousands of people trying to flee the airport. The thousands that were getting on the airplanes to come to America to try to leave what they knew was going to be a terrorist regime in their country.

After 20 years of relative freedom. Senator Lankford is one of those people who stood up and said, you know what? Oklahoma will take those refugees, or at least some of those refugees, and we're happy to do it. Look, a lot of Republicans did not. And I look at the heart of it and go, well, as someone who is a Christian, a believer, you're sure they need to be vetted?

Make sure these people are who they say they are. But I hope that a lot of us can agree that we should be welcoming a lot of them into our country as they seek refuge beyond the terrorist regime. That, look, you can say whatever we want.

Sadly, we were a part of the fall here. So let's hear from James Lankford. The Afghan people, whether it be the translators or people that fought alongside the Americans, were kind of metaphorically thrown under the bus from the Biden administration as people who abandoned ship, ran away quickly. That's the opposite of what I've received in these interviews that I've conducted over the last few weeks. It seems like very compassionate people, very sweet people. And we as Americans are compassionate people. I think conservatives often get labeled in a way that I don't really appreciate, because we can all look to those scenes that happened a month ago and see the horrors that they were and say, how can we help?

What can we do? I know you were one of the people who discussed taking in refugees in Oklahoma. Somewhat controversial thing, but not really. I think it becomes a very loud minority online that people think represents conservatives or Republicans and think these are not compassionate people who don't want to help. I want to know, though, what was your decision making to come to that conclusion?

Because look, some of the states and some other people in your own party have taken an opposite approach. So I would say that the first thing that came to my mind was that all these different veterans of the war in Afghanistan, they came to me and said these are folks that I know. They fought alongside of me. I know them. I know their families. These are folks that laid their life on the line. These are freedom-loving people. These are the folks that are fighting against the Taliban.

These aren't terrorists. These are the exact type of people that we want to advance and that we want to be able to support. And so how I came to that decision was talking to so many veterans of the war in Afghanistan and what they were saying about those individuals and how they want them to be able to get out.

So that's the first part. The second part is in Oklahoma, we took in a lot of Vietnamese 48 years ago when they were fleeing during that time period. Those are thriving members of our community at this point, very engaged with lots of Vietnamese churches in Oklahoma.

We have lots of communities that are engaged and business people and all kinds of folks. We did this as a state five decades ago with the Vietnamese. We will do this again with Afghans that are coming into our country. In Oklahoma, we'll probably have about 1,800 to 2,000 Afghans that will move into Oklahoma. Those should be vetted individuals. Those should be folks that have worked alongside of our military, worked alongside of our State Department. I don't want to just randomly grab people in Afghanistan to be able to move into Oklahoma. They need to be fully vetted. They need to go through the process. But most of these folks that are moving this direction are exactly that.

For those that are not fully vetted, they don't need to come to the United States at all until we know who they are and what their background is and how they were trying to be able to flee out of Afghanistan. That says a lot about you, though. It says a lot about the state of Oklahoma that you guys would support this kind of move in general.

I think that it's the Christian thing to do. As someone who I know is a person of faith, that it's important to disconnect maybe partisan politics and actually look at the heart of it. Again, that was Senator Lankford, James Lankford from Oklahoma. Another one of our incredible guests on the brand new series Revenge of the Taliban coming very soon. You can be the first to know about how to get that at ACLJ.org slash Taliban.

Fill out a very simple form. We'll notify you as soon as there is more information, and you'll know first before anybody. And it is an in-depth, incredible experience.

I hope you enjoy as much as you can. I hope it lights a fire for some of you in what we can do and what we can do in the future. We discuss all of that. Speaking of the future, though, we did also look to the past. We looked to 20 years ago, to September 11th, to the creation of the War on Terror and one of the people who was very deeply involved in that, which is Attorney General John Ashcroft. A somewhat controversial figure to some people. A guy who was deeply involved in that original decision to start the War on Terror, to start the war in Afghanistan and Iraq. And again, we provided a myriad of different points of view, because you had some people who were very much for the War on Terror, very much for the war against Afghanistan, and some who were not supportive of the war in Iraq and the future that came out of it.

So again, I wanted to give you guys a multi-layered approach. So here is John Ashcroft, former Attorney General of the United States. You were someone who was there, day one from the War on Terror. Knowing the ending, knowing that we did have 20 years of a lot of good that happened, but knowing the ending, do you believe that this decision was the right decision to make to get involved in Afghanistan?

Yeah, I do. You know, I think you have to look at the 20 years of relative calm in the United States and in a variety of other settings that came from the displacement of the terrorist agenda in Afghanistan. It was the maintenance of the peace.

It was fighting them there instead of fighting them here. And I think we would always hope that we could eventually have a long-term peace, but we would also say that, you know, we've got to be grateful for what we avoided in terms of terrorist activity. And I think, so what I'm saying is the last 20 years were pretty successful in repressing terrorist activity. And you look at a variety of other terrorist groups that sought to assemble resources and gain momentum there. They were either taken out or severely diminished in their capacity during the 20-year period, and that's valuable. I don't know that you do anything that has infinity or forever involved, but 20 years is something to be grateful for, and I think it marks some success.

To end it all, though, with a collapse undermines the idea of the success which had been attained. Again, that is just one of, just a short clip of these extensive interviews like we've had. We've played, there's multiple we haven't even gotten to. Rick Grenell, my dad, my brother, so many great guests. Obviously, if you didn't join us at the very beginning of the show, people like Nikki Haley, like Representative Waltz. We had on Wes Smith, again, Senator Lankford, who we just saw just a few minutes ago.

Tulsi Gabbard, incredible list of people who joined us to discuss all that was happening in Afghanistan and what's continued to happen with what we call the Revenge of the Taliban. As we wrap up this show, I want to thank you all for watching. Thank you all for listening. If you're on social media, make sure you're following us. Subscribe, like, you know what to do. Make sure you get notified. Turn your notifications on for when we go live. Follow us on Instagram, follow us on all these sources, and share it with your friends.

And most importantly, right now, as we wrap up this show, I want to hear from you. If you want to be the first to know, to see this brand new series in its totality, and I want you to be the first people, because we do it for you, the ACLJ members and supporters and listeners of this show, go to ACLJ.org slash Taliban. That's ACLJ.org slash Taliban.

Fill out the very simple form. And while you're there, make a donation to the work of the ACLJ, because we couldn't do it without you. Appreciate you taking this hour with us. We'll be back tomorrow with more on Secular. Where you can learn more about our life-changing work. Become a member today. ACLJ.org