PrairiePundit

Federalist Wire: ... A recent Justice Department inspector general report has raised fresh concerns about the vetting process during the Biden administration’s 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan, revealing that 55 Afghan evacuees were flagged as potential matches on the terrorist watchlist. The findings, released on Tuesday, have reignited debates over the handling of the chaotic evacuation as the Taliban swept back into power. “I’ve sounded the alarm about the need to thoroughly vet Afghan evacuee applicants since August 2021,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said in a statement, responding to the report. “The Biden-Harris administration, my Democrat colleagues in Congress and many in the media were quick to dismiss glaring red flags that a nonpartisan national security analysis now confirms.” According to the report, the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) identified 55 Afghans who either appeared on the terrorist watchlist before arriving at a U.S. port of entry or were added during t...

  Newsmax: ... More than ever, it's evident that President Trump views the world through the lens of a business deal — how to make the best one possible. In his speech in Riyadh, the president rightly criticized the failures of previous U.S. approaches in the region: "The gleaming marvels of Riyadh and Abu Dhabi were not created by the so-called nation builders, neocons, or liberal nonprofits. ... In the end, the so-called nation builders wrecked far more nations than they built. The interventionists were intervening in complex societies that they did not even understand themselves." President Trump is right. While I supported efforts to eliminate terrorist threats to the United States — and still believe we have a moral and strategic responsibility to protect ourselves and Israel from a nuclear-equipped Iran — I opposed the Bush-era notion of "nation building" from the beginning. The belief that, with enough money, one could till the soil of Islamic authoritari...

 PJ Media: Zachary Young was a security contractor in 2021 when Joe Biden ordered all Americans to leave Afghanistan. He undertook several missions to save two dozen women from falling into the hands of the Taliban after media companies contracted with him to rescue them. There was nothing illegitimate about what Young did. It was not illegal. But several media outlets included his efforts to rescue the women as examples of "smuggling" and "black market profiteering." The reporting by CNN nearly destroyed his life. For that, Young sued the network and won a handsome defamation settlement. But CNN wasn't the only outlet that ran stories naming Young specifically as someone who was profiting from evacuating civilians. Young has since sued the Associated Press, Puck, and now U.S. News and World Report, for framing what he did in rescuing women from Afghanistan as "black market" or illegal. In an op-ed for the Daily Mail published in February, Young expl...

  Red State: It looks like some heads may be rolling, and soon. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, in an interview with Breitbart News, stated that he has already decided on the investigators that will be looking into the disastrous Charlie-Foxtrot that was the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan. Pretty much everything about this operation from start to finish was done wrong, and now, we should finally  learn not only who screwed up but how . “We’ve already identified folks that’ll be in charge of that full investigation inside the Pentagon,” Hegseth said in the interview Thursday. “I don’t have a timeframe on it. Sadly, we’ve already waited two-and-a-half years, three years since what occurred. I don’t want to wait longer, but I always want to get it right,” he said. Getting it right is essential, not only to bring accountability to the people who planned and executed this debacle but to make sure it never happens again. In July 2021, the Biden administration ...

 Trending Politics: President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have announced a sweeping investigation into the Biden administration’s handling of the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. During his first Cabinet meeting since returning to the White House, Trump signaled that military leaders involved in the withdrawal will face consequences, suggesting that mass firings could take place. When asked whether his administration would remove top military officers who oversaw the operation, Trump did not hesitate. “Well, that’s a great idea,” Trump said. “I’m not going to tell this man what to do, but I will say that if I had his place, I’d fire every single one of them.” Hegseth, who was tapped by Trump to lead the Defense Department, confirmed that a full-scale review is already underway. “We’re doing a complete review of every single aspect of what happened with the botched withdrawal of Afghanistan and plan to have full accountability,” Hegseth said. “It...

  American Action News: A former Democrat and military veteran appeared on Fox Business Thursday and said President Joe Biden’s disrespect made her leave the Democratic Party. Biden faced criticisms for his leadership during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. During an appearance on “The Bottom Line,” Jessica Dominguez recalled what she said were Biden’s actions during the return of fallen soldiers. “He was looking at his watch when my brothers and sisters in arms had passed away in Afghanistan during the absolute trashed debacle they had. And I just, I couldn’t stop imagining him doing that,” Dominguez said. Dominguez served in the U.S. military. She said she became disillusioned by the Biden administration and its disrespect and systemic failures. “It’s a disgrace what he’s done to this country. It’s a disgrace what he’s done to our service members, service members like myself, who love this country, who came from another country,” Dominguez said. “I was bo...

 American Action News: Outgoing Biden National Security Advisor Says US Is ‘Better Off,’ Defends Botched Afghanistan Withdrawal The US military is capable of making a retrograde movement of troops in an orderly fashion.  What happened in Afghanistan was Biden gave an order for an immediate retreat that was unnecessary under the circumstances and it had deadly consequences for some of the troops.  The criticism is not over the order to leave as much as the way the Biden team required the military to execute it.

 NY Post: President Biden was so mentally fatigued that he skipped out on a phone call from the chair of the powerful House Armed Services Committee ahead of the US’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to a report. Biden, the oldest president in US history, was incredibly hard to reach — even for lawmakers in his own party — as his aides attempted to keep Biden’s evident mental and physical decline under tight wraps, a bombshell report from the Wall Street Journal revealed . That inaccessibility proved to be immensely consequential for one of the administration’s biggest snafus that would mar the remainder of Biden’s presidency. Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee, had tried to contact the president in 2021 to share his concerns about the planned withdrawal from Afghanistan. Smith said he was worried about the administration’s optimistic comments about pulling out from Afghanistan — which, after working extensively on the issue, t...

 NY Post: Mentally fatigued Biden skipped call from concerned pol before disastrous Afghanistan pullout: report ... Biden, the oldest president in US history, was incredibly hard to reach — even for lawmakers in his own party — as his aides attempted to keep Biden’s evident mental and physical decline under tight wraps, a bombshell report from the Wall Street Journal revealed . That inaccessibility proved to be immensely consequential for one of the administration’s biggest snafus that would mar the remainder of Biden’s presidency. ... The media is just now reporting on what should have been obvious about Biden's dementia. 

 Red State: The team is investigating whether to convene a commission to examine the withdrawal effort, including whether any actions on the part of these officials rose to the level of treason or other criminal charges, NBC News reported. Two sources told the news outlet that the team could potentially recall members of leadership to active duty and possibly charge them with various offenses. “It’s not clear the Trump administration would pursue treason charges, and instead could focus on lesser charges that highlight the officers’ involvement. ‘They want to set an example,’ said the person with knowledge of the plan.” The commission would look into how the United States first invaded Afghanistan and how it eventually withdrew its military forces from the region. The sources told NBC News that Matt Flynn, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for counternarcotics and global threats, would be heading up the investigation, a detail that Flynn denied through his attorney Ma...

 AP: Afghan women are forbidden from praying loudly or reciting the Quran in front of other women, according to a Taliban government minister. It’s the latest restriction on women following morality laws that ban them from raising their voice and baring their faces outside the home. They are already excluded from education after sixth grade, many public spaces and most jobs. ... I get the impression that Taliban morality laws are instituted by very insecure men.  They don't appear to appreciate the women in their community. 

 CLG: Afghan refugee waived into U.S. by Biden charged with plotting Election Day terror attack This is another potential fallout from Biden's bugout from Afghanistan. It was one of the most disastrous retreats in US history.

 NY Post: Afghan refugee charged with plotting US Election Day massacre worked for CIA: report An Afghan national accused of plotting an ISIS-inspired Election Day terror attack in the US worked for the CIA in Afghanistan, according to a new report. Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, who was nabbed in Oklahoma on Monday over the alleged terror plot, was employed as a security guard for the agency but was not a CIA informant, NBC News reported, citing multiple sources. ... The CIA needs to study how they missed the danger posed by one of their operatives.  See also: A Reminder of Biden's Disastrous 'Vetting' of Afghans

 Newsmax: House Republicans on Wednesday voted to condemn President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, capping their work in Washington with legislation that carried no legal weight but drove a political point ahead of the November elections. The resolution passed 219 - 194 with 10 Democrats and all Republicans voting in favor. It condemned Biden, Harris and other officials in the administration for “decision-making and execution failures throughout the withdrawal from Afghanistan” as well as blamed them for the deaths of 13 U.S. service members who were killed by a suicide bomber at Kabul's airport during the final days of the evacuation. On the campaign trail, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, who as president negotiated the withdrawal deal with the Taliban, has repeatedly blamed Harris for the chaotic and deadly evacuation while she was serving as Biden's vice president. Harris, now the Democratic can...

 Daily Caller: President Joe Biden, alongside his wife Jill Biden, entered the hospital room of wounded Marine Sergeant Tyler Vargas-Andrews. They had flowers with them. After shaking hands with Tyler’s mother, Biden began talking about losing his son Beau and his time in the service. The president, Vargas-Andrews said, made no mention of the Afghanistan withdrawal in which he had nearly lost his life. It was unclear if his Commander-in-Chief was directly addressing him at all. “[Then] Joe comes over to me, and he leans over, and he just sticks out his right hand, and my left arm is wrapped up in the cast. My right arm is not there, and I’m just looking at him. And he doesn’t even say anything. I’m just like, ‘I don’t have an arm,'” Vargas-Andrews said. Without saying anything, Biden walked over to a few of Vargas-Andrews’ fingers sticking out from his cast and held onto them. Vargas-Andrews was severely wounded when a suicide bomber detonated himself outside Abbey Gate during the ...

 Washington Post: Taliban begins enforcing new draconian laws, and Afghan women despair Afghan religious police wield new power to enforce a ban on women raising their voices in public and looking at men other than their husbands or relatives. As the Taliban begins enforcing new draconian laws, Afghan women say that whatever hopes they once harbored for an easing of the severe restrictions on them have largely vanished. The new religious code issued late last month bans women from raising their voices, reciting the Quran in public and looking at men other than their husbands or relatives. It requires women to cover the lower half of their faces in addition to donning a head covering they were already expected to wear, among other rules. Women’s lives were heavily regulated by the Taliban-run government before the latest rules were promulgated, and some of the new laws codify restrictions that were already imposed on women in practice. But Afghan women, speaking in phone interviews ...

Fox News:   House GOP releases scathing report on Biden's withdrawal from Afghanistan 350-page report calls out State Dept for failing to have evacuation plan despite clear warning signs ... The Republican-led report opens by harkening back to President Joe Biden’s urgency to withdraw from the Vietnam War as a senator in the 1970s. That, along with the Afghanistan withdrawal, demonstrates a "pattern of callous foreign policy positions and readiness to abandon strategic partners," according to the report. The report also disputed Biden's assertion that his hands were tied to the Doha agreement former President Trump had made with the Taliban establishing a deadline for U.S. withdrawal for the summer of 2021, and it revealed how state officials had no plan for getting Americans and allies out while there were still troops there to protect them. ... The report found that Biden and Vice President Harris were advised by top leaders that the Taliban were already in viola...

 Twitchy: The behavior of the mainstream media in the wake of Donald Trump's visit to Arlington National Cemetery last week on the third anniversary of the attack on Abbey Gate in Afghanistan that left 13 U.S. servicemembers dead has been predictably abysmal. Twitchy has covered much of the reaction for the past several days. As a reminder, the media has ignored the fact that the Gold Star families of the servicemembers killed invited Trump, as well as the fact that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris were also invited but snubbed the ceremony and the families . They have accused Trump of using the occasion as a 'political prop ,' again ignoring that it was the families who asked for pictures and that other politicians (including Biden) have done the same thing in the past. Most disgracefully, they have ignored these families when they should have been inviting them all to speak on the anniversary of the loss of their loved ones. When CNN did have one mother on, they pressured her...

 Washington Examiner: In a tenure filled with blunders, the Biden administration ’s most embarrassing moment has to be the disastrous retreat from Afghanistan in 2021. More than a dozen American servicemembers died during the hasty withdrawal, and tens of thousands of allies were left to fend for themselves against the bloodthirsty Taliban. President Joe Biden’s approval rating began a precipitous downward slide after the catastrophe. Democrats surely hope that replacing Biden at the top of the ticket with Vice President Kamala Harris will mean voters forget about Afghanistan and the many other Biden policy bungles. Harris has been attempting to cultivate an image of competence, expertise, and professionalism in contrast with Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump. But the fact of the matter is that Harris has been in the room for almost every bad decision the Biden administration has made since coming to power in 2021. And nowhere has the Biden-Harris adm...