BREAKING: U.S. Casualties Confirmed in Kabul Suicide Attacks

Breaking news today on Sekulow. US casualties are confirmed in the Kabul suicide attacks. Keeping you informed and engaged.

Now more than ever, this is Sekulow. At least three American troops were injured in this suicide bombing attack. We want to hear from you. Share and post your comments.

Or call 1-800-684-3110. A firefight also broke out. This was a complex attack, I'm told, from senior US officials. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.

Welcome to Sekulow. Listen, we've got breaking news, of course. As you knew last night, you may have seen a breaking news alert if you sign up for those on your phone. That the US State Department put out the warning for Americans to leave any of the gates at the airport in Kabul. That there was an active terror threat.

And that you likely woke up to the news that you heard about. There have been two explosions, two bomb attacks. It looks like at least one was a suicide attack at a nearby hotel used by Westerners who were on the ground.

And then, of course, one at the Abbey Gate. They said that was at least planted in a car. Whether or not it was a suicide attack, still that information is still being developed. But what we do know is that at least 13 people have been killed and 3 Americans are among casualties.

So we haven't been clear yet whether they have just, it appears that they have just been injured. Whether there's been American loss of life. Those are US personnel. There could be other Americans included in that 13 number. And, of course, we're just getting a warning now on the ground that ISIS has got hundreds of fighters in the area and to expect similar attacks.

There's also, the reports are that American civilians have also been wounded in addition to these Marines. Let's go to Rick Grenell, who's our Senior Advisor on Global Affairs, International Affairs, of course, former Director of National Intelligence and Ambassador to Germany. Rick, obviously a sobering evening and morning as we watched this unfold last night. What's your sense right now? Obviously, this is, things on the ground are changing and it's not looking very good.

Yeah, look, this is devastation. And we knew that it would come to this. I think that we have to be very clear that this was not an intelligence failure.

Again, we reiterate that people listening should be very proud of their US government. We've been warning since May or June of intelligence officials, the Pentagon officials, State Department officials have been warning for a long time. This was a political failure, Jay.

This is, the politicians were not able to hear what the warnings were and didn't react in time. And so that's a real problem. And Wes, I was going to ask you this, and we're going to obviously get into this in the next segment, but there's also militarily, I mean, there's some choices that the President, we'll get into the details of that next segment, but the President's going to have to make some decisions like now.

Yeah, absolutely. And this administration and President Biden tend to be very risk averse, but with the stranded Americans now told you can't even come near the airport, it seems that the August 31st date to withdraw is absolutely obsolete and unrealistic. Basically, the bottom line is for now, this war is not over yet. And hopefully the administration will accept that and adjust the mission accordingly. You know, I think what it's got to be clear here too, so just to reiterate for everybody, we have not heard yet that this is going to necessarily change the August 31st deadline. And we did hear from John Kirby that this has delayed the evacuation, including the military pack up. So whether or not that was kind of an indication that it could go past the 31st, that is something we're still following directly as well. Just with this last minute too, we're going to stay live during the break for everybody watching. Yeah, for all of our social media platforms, we're going to stay live during the break. So we encourage you to share this with your friends. Obviously, this is breaking news and we've got Rick here, so we want to take advantage of that. And Wes too, of course, on the military side, we'll talk to Than in Washington.

So do stay with us on this. Look, we were working last night, Jordan, you want to talk about that just briefly? Yeah, just briefly, you know, we got contacted because there were a couple of children, Afghan children, who had been approved to come to the United States but couldn't get through. They were at the gate that they had to leave, that had the terror attack.

They left before the attack. You're texting Congress. Yeah, we have used our contacts and we've gone to top ranking members of Congress with this information. So just so you know, behind the scenes, ACLJ and our attorneys are trying to do what we can for these civilians on the ground.

Afghanistan have been given that permit, that green light to leave, but they've got to figure out how to navigate this very dangerous situation at the airport. We'll be right back on Secular. Remember, if you're watching the broadcast, we're going to stay with you. For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at 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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Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Welcome back to Sekulow. I encourage you, if you are watching the broadcast, we're going to stay live as we just did during the break so you can continue to share this with your friends and family on social media because we're not taking breaks. Rick joining us for the first half hour of the broadcast.

Let me just set the stage, though, if you're just joining us. So as we talked about, we've been talking about all week, the idea that this could break down, that you would have breakdowns, attacks, gunfights, potential terror attacks, the bombings. That has now occurred, unfortunately, in Kabul right at the airport outside of one of the gates called Abbey Gate where there has been at least 13 people killed. We know that there's Americans mixed in these numbers. We know that there's three U.S. military personnel that are considered casualties.

That doesn't mean that they could just be injuries. It should be serious injuries, but we have not gotten clarification on loss of life of a specific number of Americans and whether or not they were civilian, whether or not they were military. Of course, now the question has been horrible reports about a Fox News reporter holding a five-year-old boy as the young boy died from this attack. This is very typical ISIS here. This is not a Taliban move, I don't think, at this point. The Taliban has said they denounced these moves. This was also as much an attack on the U.S., it was also an attack on the Taliban's legitimacy, which they're putting it to question C. They looked all tough with these airport barriers, but they weren't able to protect it. Yeah, Rick, I was going to go to you on this because one of the things that's interesting here, this horrible sequence of events that started last night when the United States had a warning of yesterday, even we can play that fight from the Secretary of State in a moment, but the fact is this is not going to the Taliban script either, I don't think. Now, maybe there may be more to it than that, but you're the former Director of National Intelligence.

I trust your judgment on this. What do you think? Well, look, there's a couple of things that we do know. The Taliban has an agreement with al-Qaeda and with ISIS to allow them safe haven in Afghanistan as long as they didn't try to interfere with what was happening in Afghanistan. When it came to outside of Afghanistan, the agreement was that al-Qaeda and ISIS get to do what they want and the Taliban would not dictate what they do outside of Afghanistan. Again, the Taliban wanted to control Afghanistan, al-Qaeda and ISIS got safe haven, but they couldn't get involved in what was going on. So one of two things has happened. Either that agreement is broken down with this attack or the Taliban signed off on an attack and either way, I think this spells a disaster for the country. It's going to spiral out of control.

We will wait to see if this means more terrorist on terrorist and Pashtun on Pashtun violence within Afghanistan spiraling into a civil war again. I was going to ask Wes, Jordan, about the military aspect because Rick is right. I mean, the goal is still to get, obviously, is to get every American out of there and then to get your allies out of there, too. I mean, that would be the ideal situation.

But you've been in these situations. You've got a crisis now that's not folding out as scripted. Now, they were talking about they were developing contingency plans in the last couple of days.

What does this do to that? I think our people need to understand what kind of the thought process is here. Yeah, and when I said a little bit ago the war is not over yet, I don't mean the larger Afghan war. I think the decision is wise to stop this 20-year war and to bring our troops home. But at this point, the hostilities are not over until we get our people out. And there have been a lot of mistakes made leading up to this, and we've talked about that on the radio, closing Bagram, not getting civilians out first, not either bringing the military equipment back or destroying it, a lot of mistakes. But at this point, the military is trained that when the situation changes on the ground, you adjust.

You adjust the orders, the operations in order to respond to changing events on the ground. That's what should be happening now, because what we're going to have to do is we can't allow the Taliban to hold us to the August 31st date if our mission of getting out of Afghanistan is not complete. They cannot call the shots on that, so we have to finish the mission, which probably is going to mean expanding the perimeter in order to protect U.S. citizens and to finish the mission of withdrawing in an orderly way.

Okay, so my concern with all of this is that if it's not done by August 31st and the President elects to still get people out if they can, that could stop too. Who knows what's going to happen in the next 24, 48 hours. We could really be on the verge of a hostage crisis. Last time, a lot of the listeners to the broadcast probably don't even barely remember the Iranian hostage crisis, but it galvanated the media.

It was horrible for America and our standing in the world, and that's what I'm afraid we could be on the threshold of right now. Because it feels like we're on the threshold of either a new conflict or an extended conflict, and I think it's more likely still at this point, I would be proven wrong happily by this, but that the Biden team is going to come out today, still kind of stick with their similar messaging of, this is kind of what we expected. We warned you about this. We told you this was going to happen. So this was not a surprise to us.

It was unfortunate. That's why we're moving out August 31st. That's why I feel like they're still going to stick to as long as they can instead of increasing troops, which, by the way, we have over 5,000 troops there right at that airport. So, Rick, when you get actionable intelligence, and you, of course, did that as director of national intelligence, I mean, in a situation like this, what's the process like? I mean, obviously, don't disclose anything you can't, but what goes on inside your department?

What goes inside the White House? I mean, I know it from my side as the lawyer reviewing when the President needed counsel, but, and I've been in that situation where I've seen it, been there. The truth of the matter is that you've got actionable intelligence, but it's changing, and it's hard to verify it with, I mean, I know there's a lot of sources.

What happens here? Well, look, let's boil this down. Actionable intelligence means new information, and it means you must adjust. I mean, this is information, you know, not unlike what our listeners get. When something new comes into the situation, you take that information and you adjust. Let's remember that Donald Trump wanted to bring our troops home from Afghanistan a long time ago, when he first came into office, but it didn't happen because he kept having to adjust because of the information coming in, because of real-time information, information on the ground.

That's where I'm concerned now with this new information coming in. The Biden team is not adjusting. They need to be able to take the reality of the situation, not the white paper that Jake Sullivan has written, and stick to the script.

He's very academic. He's one-dimensional. He's not understanding that there are a whole bunch of other dimensions that fly in the face of what he planned on his white paper. Yeah, and you've got to be thinking nine-dimensionally here.

I mean, it's like nine-dimensional chess in this situation. But let's – this is what the secretary of state said yesterday, which means the actionable – well, the intelligence that this was a problem came in yesterday. We saw it unfolding last night. As I said, we've been working on a humanitarian side of this for trying to get some children out.

That's what the ACLJ has been doing. But let's go ahead and play this sound from Secretary Blinken. We're operating in a hostile environment in a city and country now controlled by the Taliban with the very real possibility of an ISIS-K attack. We're taking every precaution, but this is very high risk.

Obviously, they knew it was coming. Yeah, let's go to Thad Bennett, Washington, D.C., because, Thad, one thing we know is that Washington, these members of Congress – I'm not going to tell names of people, but they've been great, I mean, immediately responsive to us when we have sent information over. They're doing what they can, but they've been overwhelmed.

They are overwhelmed with information on individuals who have already been approved so they have the right approvals if they're Afghans or if they're Americans. And what I'm hearing on Capitol Hill – and I want to hear what you're hearing – is just the logjam there. And I will say that they are not – they don't feel like they are getting a lot of coordination from the White House and the State Department.

Jordan, they're completely overwhelmed. I'm hearing the exact same thing. We know one of these situations is one we're directly involved in.

Your dad mentioned that a minute ago. But I will just tell you in conversation after conversation with Capitol Hill this morning about that situation, I'm hearing them say the same thing. We've got a long list of people that we are aware of that are on approved a list to get out, but they can't get inside that airport.

Jordan, some of them were at the gate shortly before or even during when this attack happened. And so look, this is just one of the realities that happens in a situation like this. When you do have to adjust to a situation like Wes and Rick were talking about and those gates have to seal up, Jordan, it creates a line of demarcation. There are people on the inside who hopefully we will be able to get out and get to safety.

But look, whether it's today or August 31st or somewhere beyond, when the United States is gone, Jordan, the people who are on the other side of that line, they're left to the mercy of the Taliban. And these offices on Capitol Hill, I'm telling you, they're dealing with that line of demarcation literally as we speak. Yeah, we just got a breaking development there specifically is that the State Department, the reporting is the State Department is now urgently telling congressional staff to stop directing people to the airport. We can confirm just with our situation we're dealing with that that is the case, that people are now kind of thinking for a phase two of how if you weren't already through those certain barriers that they're not trying to get to those lines anymore. They're looking at the next options for this. So we can confirm that that's the case.

That's the reality. We're going to stay live during the breaks here. For those that are watching our social media applications, if you're listening on radio, of course, you'll have a brief commercial math break coming up here. But if you're with us on social media, let me encourage you to stay with us.

I also encourage you to share this feed with your friends. We've got a lot of people watching right now and listening, of course, millions listening around the country. But look, let's pray for the people of Afghanistan. Let's pray for our troops. I believe in the power of prayer. I know most of you who listen to this broadcast do and pray for this. I mean, we've got some young kids we're trying to help.

I mean, the uncle wants help. We're trying everything we can do. And it's tragic. It is.

We'll be right back on Sakhil. We'll stay live with you online. I want to 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. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith. I'm covering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress. The ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our Matching Challenge today. Make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family.

Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Sekulow. The latest report is you've got hundreds of ISIS-K, so ISIS fighters, in the vicinity of the airport. They believe that attacks are likely to continue. As we're broadcasting right now, there have been two attacks.

They were back-to-back, very similar times. Very close to the airport and then at the airport gate. So we haven't seen additional attacks yet, but that is the reporting has been that they are there. The Taliban has said that too, and they don't feel like they can prevent the attacks. 5,200 U.S. troops are still on the ground around the airport, probably inside the perimeter of the airport.

Wes, what does that look like? What can they actually do? Well, they are there to provide some security within the airport itself and to help coordinate the evacuation of civilians.

If we were to try and expand the perimeter just to finish this mission, I don't know that we could do it with 5,200 troops, depending on what kind of troops are there. I know we have submarines doing security work and what have you. I don't know. This is a situation, though. It's the chaos and the consequences of a poorly planned withdrawal. And it's now at a critical point, and I think Rick is right. He alluded to the fact that business as usual at the Pentagon and the State Department is over. It is not business as usual anymore. We've got to adjust. So, Rick, you were saying during the break that the State Department allowing Bagram to be closed while we still had embassy personnel there, why they were not taken out through Bagram, through our normal channels, is mind-blowing.

Just mind-blowing. Let's remember that when Donald Trump handed over the White House to Joe Biden on January 20th, Afghanistan was stable and we had a functioning U.S. embassy in Kabul. We had 2,500 American troops and 5,000 NATO troops. Today we have 5,200 American troops. Why did we have to bring so many troops back in after we closed Bagram on July 1st? Because we didn't get the embassy staff out and other Americans. We took out the military before we were able to evacuate Americans.

Why are we there today? Why are U.S. Marines patrolling at the airport today? Because we still have Americans there. We made just a tragic mistake we kept to this July 1st Bagram shutdown before we got all of the Americans out. We should have adjusted that.

And this is the point. Why did the Secretary of State sit in Cabinet meetings and allow Bagram to be shut down and U.S. troops to be removed when we still had a functioning embassy, local staff, American foreign service officers still there? It's outrageous. We'll take a phone call. Rose from Virginia on Line 2.

If you want to talk to us today, 1-800-684-3110. Hi Rose. Hi Jordan. Hi Jay. Hi team.

Thank you guys for all that you do. I have a question because logically none of this makes any sense to me and I have nowhere near the wealth of knowledge militarily, strategically, that West or even my husband who was a former Marine who served in Iraq. But why is this administration negotiating with terrorists? This just, I don't understand it.

I can't wrap my mind around it. It just seems very la-di-da, que sera sera type of attitude. Well, I don't think it's not que sera sera.

It's not la-di-da. It's, look, Afghanistan has been called the graveyard of kingdoms for a reason. And that is it's been a troubled zone for thousands of years and the Russians learned that and the United States has learned that. And the Chinese are now trying to make hay of it by getting involved there. But it's not really a question of negotiating with terrorists in one sense, in the typical sense. Where you're going to see negotiations, unfortunately, I pray this does not happen Rick, is if we leave Americans behind.

If Joe Biden says August 31st is it and we can't get them out and that's it, you would think that the negotiations going on right now would be you, the Taliban, have got to give us safe passage access to get these Americans and these people that work with Americans out of there. That's what you would think would be happening. I hope that's the case. Well, we hope that's the case. Let me answer the caller's question very bluntly.

I try to be very transparent. The Trump administration also spoke to the Taliban. The problem is not speaking to the Taliban.

The problem is what does the Taliban hear and how do they adjust at that point? Let's remember that engagement with our enemies is a good thing if you have a strong negotiator. When Donald Trump negotiated with the North Korean dictator, he did so when everybody said don't talk to him, freeze him out. I think we can try freezing out. We can try sanctions.

But when that doesn't work, we have to engage. And they need to hear a very tough message, a credible threat of military action, not just a threat of military action. What the Taliban heard from Trump was a very credible threat that they would be bombed if they made a move. What the Taliban heard from Joe Biden was something very different because they marched through. They took over city by city. They took over the whole country and they didn't face consequences. That's that's the fundamental difference. That is so true, Rick, because, you know, President Trump's plan was condition based.

This whole withdrawal was. And there were certain expectations of the Taliban. And if they cross that line, they had to pay consequences. And even now, in the last few months, as the Taliban swept through the country and they're going to overthrow the government and Kabul. And yet that was one of the conditions that President Trump had.

You cannot do that. And yet we let them do that with impunity. We did not, to my knowledge, have one airstrike against the Taliban forces as they swept through the country, not one. Yeah, I mean, this is this is the reality of what we're dealing with. We're paying the consequences, Jordan. So, Rick, with the last couple of minutes in our first half hour, just do you think the decision point for the Biden administration is kind of how we're trying to play this out for our listeners and our viewers? Is either stick with August 31st, ignore this and kind of move along or or then send in more troops and potentially continue this conflict? I mean, is that the two options available? Well, first of all, let's be really blunt that we have really bad options. Two, three, four choices that are terrible because of what they have done.

So whatever answer is going to be a really bad answer compared to what we could have had before. I think that the goal right now, the focus needs to be bringing Americans home. Do whatever you have to do to get the Americans home. If I were the President of the United States, if I were advising the President of the United States, I would say to the secretary of defense, go get the Americans, do whatever you have to do.

I don't care what you have to do. Right. You have to bring them home. And so don't be tied down to, you know, not utilizing enough or too much or some sort of, you know, rules within Afghanistan placed upon you by the Taliban or the government of Afghanistan. Get our people home and then let's get out. But we got to get our people home and we cannot leave an American behind. We cannot leave Americans behind. I don't like leaving these Afghan translators that worked with us behind either. I think we're setting them up for a fiasco. And Rick, we're dealing, and we only got a minute here, we're dealing with ISIS and we know, we have seen it with our own eyes, how brutal ISIS can be on Americans. I'm talking about horrible things like beheading folks. I'm not saying that for, but this is what they do. And that's what I'm concerned about here. We've got to figure this out. Yeah, I just want to add one thing.

It's not a popular opinion, but it's really important. The State Department has very good rules about if you worked with us, if you were a translator, if you worked with the Americans, you have to meet the rules. I want to stick to the rules. And one of the rules is you've got to work with us for a year.

You have to demonstrate just because you worked with us in Afghanistan does not mean that you are going to work really well with us in America. I want rules to be followed and we have to be very strict. Our heartstrings will be pulled, but the rules need to be followed.

Well, now there's a reason for the rules. Protect our homeland. Second half hour coming up, take your phone calls, your comments, 1-800-684-3110.

That's 1-800-684-3110. And as always, to bring you this great analysis, first full half hour with Rick Grenell. It's because of your support for the ACLJ. We have our matching challenge through this month. Support us at ACLJ.org.

At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's matching challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20. A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Jordan Sekulow.

Alright folks, so let me just reset the stage. We know three U.S. Marines were wounded, at least three is how it's being reported, in the Kabul, one of the Kabul explosions. Likely that would have been the one by the gate, one of the gates to the airport, the Abbey Gate, as that one's called. There was a second explosion at a hotel frequented by Westerners, reporters, U.S. and our allies in the military. So two attacks, it appeared that at least one was definitely a suicide bombing attack, so they were driving it with a bomb.

The other may have been a car bomb without someone in it, they don't know. This is not, I think to be clear, this is not the Taliban. This is ISIS-K, so the ISIS group that's in Afghanistan.

They've only been operating there for about six years. They are trying to seize on this, of course, chaos at now one location because we don't have multiple locations. We have one location where U.S. troops are, and U.S. allies are, and Afghan people are, and American citizens are, and the reports are to expect this type of attack to continue in Kabul. I mean, that is the headline right now. We haven't seen anything else yet.

There's been those two attacks. At least 13 people have been killed. That includes children.

It could include Americans. We're still trying to get the information on that. We know Americans have been wounded. We know the three Marines have been wounded. We don't, there are reports all over the place on this.

The Taliban have said there are 13, at least 13 people have died in this explosion. We had that horrible story about the Fox News reporter who was holding a five-year-old boy who literally died in his arm. I'll tell you this, and I want to go to Pam Bennett on this first, and that is I know that we've got a lot of allies in Congress that we've been working with over the last, especially the last 48 hours.

Until late last night, folks, we were texting back and forth and communicating. Jordan was communicating with members of Congress, as was Thanh, because we're trying to help some families, kids get out of Afghanistan than have sponsors. But Congress has also been told to not encourage people to go to the airport right now, which means loss of control of the area right outside it. Yeah, I mean, that area is the most dangerous area right now. So we're in a situation where even those who are trying to help can't be sent to the gates for evacuation.

Right now, they're on the outside waiting for another opportunity. And Jay, you talked earlier in the broadcast about how it's probably going to move to unconventional evacuations. Jim Banks, Congressman Jim Banks, talked about that earlier today. He talked about how there might eventually be a need to take another airport, whether it's Bagram or somewhere else, to further U.S. evacuations.

All those are hypotheticals. But, Jay, just to harken back to the conversation that you and Jordan had at the end of the last segment, what I have heard the most this morning from Capitol Hill, Republicans and Democrats alike, is a plea to President Joe Biden to say, look, maybe the Taliban's in control of Afghanistan, but you must send a message to the Taliban that we are coming for the Americans. Come hell or high water, we're coming for the Americans and you have two choices. You can cooperate with us or we will come for the Americans over your objections.

Those are the two options. Of course, the problem with those, I don't disagree with Ann at all, but the problem, Wes, really quickly here is we only have 5,200 troops there. So even expanding the perimeter around the airport is a real challenge.

It is. And I don't know that we can do it with the troops we have there, which means we probably need to send in more troops to enlarge the perimeter. Which President Jordan's not going to do.

It seems very unlikely that he would do that. So that would be the kind of surprise for everyone and a welcome surprise maybe at this point to fight back, to show that we are still the United States and we're not going to let ISIS fighters be the ones who prevent these people from being able to leave the airport. And of course, this increases the risk to U.S. troops, but the State Department's new message is don't direct people to the airport anymore.

So this is the question for the Biden team. This would give them the amount of time, if the civilian evacuation stopped, this gives them the days to pack up and go. Yeah, I know that. I mean, I'm looking at it, I'm saying this is exactly the amount of days they said they needed. Yeah, I know, but what you just said, we're going to talk about during the break because that's going to be very tempting for them.

Because if people don't come to the airport anymore, so they only process the remaining people that were already through these checkpoints, and then they've got three, four days to do this. No doubt that that, I'm sure that is being discussed. I can't imagine it's not. We're going to stay live during our breaks for our social media viewers. Radio obviously will be taking a quick commercial break, but we'll be back in just a moment. More from your ACLJ team in just literally a moment.

If you're on social media, share it with your friends right now. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedom.

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Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Welcome back to Sekulow. Folks, we're breaking this all down for you. We're talking about what would happen next. The Pentagon is saying, by the way, they don't know how many casualties. Yes, unknown numbers is what they're saying right now. 13 is what was reported by the Taliban. Three U.S. personnel.

As we're alive, it's unknown. There was obviously a lot of people been injured. There were two separate attacks on the Taliban. Three U.S. personnel. Three U.S. personnel.

There was obviously a lot of people been injured. And there were two separate attacks, so two different places and locations. And one was close enough to where U.S. troops, that was outside the airport gate.

The second would have been at this hotel. But again, it looks like then if you put all this together, the attacks and then the State Department follow-up statement, which I mean it makes sense to some extent, but looking at this timeline, because we're all looking at it through this August 31st prism. Today's the 26th. So if you have that deadline and you're now telling people, the State Department is telling people, especially those congressional offices, that we talked about working with, assisting people that are trying to get to this airport, who've got all the right paperwork and wanting to get on these planes, the State Department is now saying, do not direct people to the airport. Not don't direct people to that gate that had the attack, but do not direct people to the airport.

What does that then do? If it takes three to four days to basically pack up our current U.S. troops on the ground and you're no longer doing evacuations pretty soon because no one's going to be at the airport, then you're on the August 31st track still. So I think that's something where we have to keep in mind because you see these events and you think, okay, this has got to throw off everything.

Not necessarily. So I was going to go to Harry Hutchinson, our director of policy, because the policy of the Biden administration was obviously August 31st we're out. They haven't modified that yet. Obviously circumstances have changed drastically in the last 12 hours. But when you've got a policy that says do this but it's not feasible, normally you would say they'd be adjusting the policy. What do you think is happening here? I think a number of things are happening, and I would just echo Wesley's comments. First, we need the will to evacuate Americans. Number two, we need to be willing to take risks. But all of this requires something that is sadly missing within the Biden administration.

It's called spying. And so I think unless the Biden administration recovers its spy, then a large number... What does that mean? Well, that means that they are prepared to do whatever it takes to rescue Americans. They are willing to take on the Taliban. They are willing to take on al Qaeda.

They are willing to take on any opposition anywhere it can be found, but that requires guts. And I think that is what is missing with respect to the Biden administration. Keep in mind that the Biden administration miscalculated massively.

Unbelievably. And yet what's going on internally within the Biden administration, they are essentially celebrating. Jake Sullivan has suggested that this evacuation is a massive success.

Well, if it's a success, I hope I never see failure. Yeah, to be fair, he said that before these tragedies today. Absolutely. But those tragedies were indeed foreseeable. Totally.

Harry's 100% right. Forseeable, predictable. The White House knew it when they said it yesterday, and then unfortunately it happens. But we know when you're dealing with ISIS what that can look like. But, Wes, you said there's... And this is important, folks, to understand.

You're not going to get this kind of analysis elsewhere, where you've got military experts, policy experts, lawyers, government affairs people, former directors of national intelligence, members of Presidential cabinets. So we're trying to give you what practically could be happening here. You said there's a couple of things militarily that with the size of the troops we have, are you talking about with the 5200?

I think we could do it. We might have to supplement some. But, for example, this morning... Where would they fly into, though, Wes? Well, we have assets like the 160th Aviation Battalion, which is a special ops helicopter unit in the Kabul airport. Just this morning they took one of their Chinooks, they flew 200 yards out of the airport, picked up Americans and flew back to the airport. We have assets to go and get Americans where they are. So what we need to do is make sure we have enough troops at the airport to expand the perimeter and secure the airport.

How far do you have to expand the perimeter? I mean, you don't know that airport, but... I don't know the airport, but at least so that you don't have Taliban guarding your gates, and that's where we are now. So we need to push them back. We need to tell the Taliban, as I said earlier, you take care of ISIS and your internal security. We will secure this airport. And meanwhile, we are going to get Americans out. You can work with us, or you can work against us. That is our mission. We'll do it. And then we also need to make sure that we actually have air assets so that... You can't let terror attacks go unchallenged.

You can't not respond to them. So ISIS needs to pay a price. We need to use our military air power to go to Khorasan Province, where ISIS is headquartered, and attack them there to send them a message while we're sending a message to the Taliban that we are getting our people out.

Secure the airport, use our aviation assets, get the Americans in and out. We can do this, and we probably have enough troops there to do it. It probably would not take more than another 1,500, 2,000 of battalions' worth to do it if we needed more. But this mission can be accomplished, but it takes, as Harry said, some spine to go in and say, this is our mission. We will not fail. We do not leave Americans behind.

And this is a doable mission if we're willing to do it. Let me go to the phones. Let's go to Virginia in Idaho on Line 1. Hi, Virginia.

Welcome to Sekulow. You're on the air. Hi, and God bless you for all that you do. I support you in prayer and financially when I can. Great. Thank you. My question is, with this incredibly stupid debacle from the White House, are we ever going to recover our allies?

How can I say this? Will they still be our allies? We betrayed them. Well, I think listen to this Fox News report about, Virginia, exactly what you're talking about, with our allies. Not just our Afghan allies, but our allies in NATO.

Take a listen to Byte 50. This is really a worst-case scenario for U.S. allies around the world. We saw over the past week places like Great Britain, France, Germany basically begging the United States to extend that August 31 withdraw deadline. And the situation now is really dire. You have still foreign troops on the ground trying to evacuate their personnel and those who are left at the airfield. But you've also got a situation where there are foreign countries who say they have citizens not only trapped in Kabul, but across this entirety of Afghanistan.

So there you go. I think, Virginia, right there, it has definitely caused our allies to rethink U.S. promises. Some of this is our political system. We change administrations right in the middle of plans like this. This plan was put in place by the Trump administration initially, though it is, as Rick talked about, severely deviated from what they were going to do. Well, there were conditions on release and we're not doing that here.

I can't imagine Donald Trump leaving under these circumstances like this anyways. No, I don't think it would have been at this point. I think it would have been explained. There was no explanation to the American people.

It wasn't made clear. And so this idea, too, that we first told people to rush to an airport and I guess then found out the intel that those people would all be sitting duck targets from not the Taliban, but from this ISIS-K group. So the Islamic State group and ISIS group that works within the Afghan region for about six years or so, they've been on the scene carrying out some attacks. Remember, those initial attacks, though, were primarily on either Afghan forces or Taliban forces.

They were not on U.S. forces regularly because we were taking kind of a backseat advisory role more recently in Afghanistan. So I think, listen, what we know is that this is a very serious situation. We've got another segment coming up to get into more details.

We'll continue to take your phone calls at 1-800-684-3110. We keep being told that while we're just told now that American casualties are likely to rise. Which means they were able to get to an area where there were Americans. Yeah, so wherever this car got, it was either near the gate close enough to where there were the U.S. soldiers or there were Americans hanging out at that hotel nearby.

So we don't know yet the information. This is still from attacks that happened hours ago, many hours ago now, and we're in evening now in Afghanistan. So they're also saying, in the same reports, this is from the Pentagon, from the U.S. government, don't go there, don't send anybody else to the airport, and they expect more attacks. So that's where we are right now in Kabul, and I think it's a very dangerous situation.

Remember, our troops, too, they're in an extremely chaotic situation, having to, one, put some trust in the Taliban. Jennifer Griffin talked about this. Take a listen. Bite 46.

Bite 46. The Taliban, from what I've been hearing, ironically, from Pentagon officials who have been fighting them, trying to kill them for the last 20 years, they have had to negotiate with them. It's been a very fraught situation. You had the CIA director have to fly out and meet with Mullah Baradar in Kabul on Monday. This is a very surreal situation for any military service member who served in Afghanistan. It was surreal for anyone who served. Very real, though, for those who are on the ground right now. And, Jordan, very unnecessary.

A series of really stupid mistakes led to this predicament. We come back. We'll continue to take more of your comments.

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Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. So I think this is an important point. Whereas your reaction might be, initially, when you see this kind of information, and we've talked about it as a potential, and it still is, that these kind of attacks, if we see a wave of these tonight, you know, where there's more U.S. troops. In fact, the way the Taliban condemned the blast, they said it was, quote, in an area where U.S. forces are responsible. So it was U.S. troops who were directly, obviously, targeted by this attack. They felt like they were not in control of that area of the Taliban.

But everybody was in agreement, both the Taliban and the United States, that there was this real threat from ISIS to carry out these kind of attacks, which are the suicide attacks, the car bombing attacks. Initial reaction probably for most people is we shoot back, we launch airstrikes. One, it's a tight quarter, so you're not – airstrikes aren't happening. But second, you do think, okay, are you going to – the U.S. would respond. But that is not what the general thinking right now is this is going to be just another impetus to get out on August 31st.

So that's why I was going to ask Harry, because, Jordan, what you said earlier, I think, is really something we have to think about, and that is does the Biden administration use this as a statement to say we've got the American troops are at the airport, from our understanding. Thus, we can evacuate the troops. We're going to leave civilians behind. We're going to leave other people that work with us behind, possibly. But do we just stick to the plan? So they had a policy, and the policy was to get out on August 31st. Like I said, you'd hope that they would be evaluating that plan and maybe looking at it differently. But what's your sense of knowing what they want to do and what the reality, what we're hearing on the ground is, how would you do this? I mean, there has to be flexibility in policy.

It's not stagnant. Well, I think you are absolutely right, Jay. But I also think before you formulate a policy, you also have to have some principles. And so one of the great things about the prior administration was that they would put America and Americans first. The Biden administration has essentially decided to cave on the world stage. They have not been sufficiently flexible in executing their plan. Their plan was insufficiently nimble, and they did not have contingency plans in place before they started executing the plan. So the Biden administration has decided to do several things and to do them in the wrong order, starting with evacuating, if you will, the Bagram airport. And then they decided, oh, wow, we have American citizens at risk. Let's now trust and depend on the Taliban.

And we all know that the Taliban, which has engaged in terror in the past, is an unreliable partner. And so I think what we need now is for President Biden to fire the Joint Chiefs of Staff, to fire the defense secretary, and to insert someone like Wesley Smith as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, someone with guts, someone with foresight, and someone with the willingness to use American force when and if needed. There is a political issue. There's military issues. And I'm looking at the political issues, and I'm trying to figure out, and, Fan, you're up there, Republicans and Democrats, what's the consensus this afternoon as we're live? You're watching, listening to us in the evening. Obviously, things may have changed in the next hour.

Who knows? It's an evolving situation. But, Fan, as it is right now, what do you think? I think it's distilled down to really two main items. We've touched on them both. I think there's a desperation here that the administration secured that airport because, Jay, I mean, you know, you can't overstate how high value a target that is right now.

And then secondly, this goes back to what Jordan was talking about. I think the consensus here, Jay, is that the administration is leaving. They're going to leave. And regardless of who gets out, they're going to leave by August 31st. And, Jay, I'm not trying to play a semantics game. I'm not trying to play a gotcha, but we just have to be real about this. That will leave a situation where Americans are stranded. It's not a game.

It's not making fun of Jen Psaki. We are going to have Americans stranded if they do that. And so then, then the question becomes the one that Jim Banks posed. What kind of unconventional evacuations are you going to move? Jay, you have to conduct them.

You can't just leave them. I know. We're now here at two reports. There's a potential third attack.

Northgate, so a different gate of the airport. The journalists are reporting that who are on the ground right now. So we have a confirmation from that.

We had the two that have been confirmed. But they said more are coming. It looks like that wave is beginning as it's nightfall in Afghanistan. Yeah, ISIS does nights attack. I mean, this is following.

I hate to say this. Following the ISIS playbook. Yeah, there's a lot of people gathered together.

A chaotic situation. Makes it easy. They kill themselves for this.

Two different sides who don't like each other. Right. This is where they utilize. They did this in Syria, too. Remember, there was multiple ways. There were people fighting ISIS from Hezbollah and Iran. And then we were there, too, fighting ISIS on the ground. But also fighting the Assad regime sometimes. So they utilize those situations.

They understand how to think in a three-dimensional way that we were talking about and not just an academic way of putting things forward. Let's go to Diane in California on Line 2. Hey, Diane. Hi.

Hi, Jordan. Can we send troops from our base in Germany to retake Bagram Air Base or help secure around the airport we're using for the airlift? Well, I think one is we could do those things, Wes. I mean, right?

I don't know if it'd be from Germany specifically. Right. Right.

But that would be a bit forward. The Bagram would be a pretty massive engagement because we totally let that be overrun. Yes, exactly. And then the second, if they needed more people at the airport, I'm sure they did do that the earliest week, the week they increased the numbers. So I guess they could.

I don't know if it'd be out of Germany. But the bigger question is, could you get more troops there to secure this? It would be very costly to try to retake Bagram now. Taliban has taken over the airport and they have our weapons and our vehicles and our aircraft even at that air base. So that would be very costly. I think a more practical solution would be to have enough troops, even if we send in some more, may not have to, to actually have a huge perimeter around Kabul's airport, secure the airport, finish the mission and go home.

What's the risk, Harry, from a, I was thinking about this for a moment. We've talked about this, from our allies, their view of this, because we've put, I mean, Holland has stopped and Belgium stopped any kind of evacuation efforts right now totally because they have people over there. Canada has people over there, Germany, France. I think long term, they will be less willing to trust America. They will be less willing to follow American leadership. And if I were advising those countries, I would echo those sentiments because so long as the Biden administration is in charge, we basically have a spineless administration, which subjects our foreign allies to attack. And this of course, Jordan was the administration that said they're bringing America back to the national, the international stage.

Right. The international stage, they're laughing, the whole world is not just laughing. They're crying along with us too, because our allies there have seen the US once again, you know, it's similar to the Obama years, draw red lines and then the red lines pass and our allies, they can't rely. Now, under Trump, they complained all the time. They complained about his personality, but they didn't complain about whether or not we would stick it out on the foreign policy stage.

That was the difference is we might have been feared even by our allies, but we weren't disliked in that sense of that we can't trust you anymore. I think that there will be a ton of hesitance from NATO or anymore to just jump into any kind of US conflict because of the way this is being handled. We're going to continue to monitor this, of course, on the broadcast tomorrow. There is that report that there are there's an additional attack and that the State Department is saying, do not come to the airport, do not stay in line at the airport, which could signal a wrap up of the evacuations and then a move into putting the military on the planes and leaving.

I mean, that is the that is what it appears to be. We'll update you again, of course, tomorrow on the broadcast. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20. A $50 gift becomes $100. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.