State Department continues to obstruct relief
'Nothing I can do about it' is our hapless Secretary of State's excuse
It has been 10 days since the Taliban prevented six chartered jetliners from leaving the Mazar-i-Sharif airport with more than 1,000 passengers trying to flee Afghanistan, including a reported 123 Americans. Not surprising is state-friendly media's playing down – even ignoring – the story. What is surprising is the lack of uncontrolled outrage by the American people, the kind of outrage that can lead to outright rebellion.
The worst part of this story is that the Taliban was only the first to prevent the flights. They are now being blocked by our own State Department, which co-operated with the Taliban by giving them the names of the hostage passengers, who may now be in grave danger.
As of late afternoon Wednesday Eastern Time, the Americans remained behind enemy lines, our inept Secretary of State trying to duck responsibility by saying there is nothing he can do about it.
Quoted by Fox News, a State Department flack tried to mealy-mouth the problem away: “If these charters are seeking to go to a U.S. Military installation, for example, we have to weigh not only the threat to those who may be on board, – especially if they're American citizens, LPRs, other Afghans to whom we have a special commitment – but also to the safety and security of State Department personnel, U.S. military personnel, Department of Homeland Security personnel, other U.S. personnel, on U.S. military installations.”
Actually, Secretary of State Antony Blinken could have done plenty but chose to appease the Taliban. On Aug. 31, the Nazarene Fund had four airplanes loaded with passengers and ready to go. The State Department refused to give clearance – required for the planes to land in friendly territory. It told the passengers to seek safety someplace, then handed over the passenger manifests to the Taliban.
“This was like the State Department sending up flares, saying to the Taliban, 'Hey, look over here,'” said Glenn Beck, whose charities provided the planes, on his radio program Tuesday.
This is how appeasers try to win favor with bullies. Be nice and maybe they will like us. Sort of how Senate Republicans vote in Washington. It never works. From where we sit, it was an act of betrayal that must never be forgiven.
On his radio program Wednesday, Beck said some of the passengers may be in safe houses, but trying to make contact with them is difficult. Because Russia and China are helping the Taliban track people, according to Beck, the hostages may not have their phones on.
The debate we could be having now is why the Biden government has so thoroughly botched this entire affair. Is it mere incompetence, the kind expected of a regime whose operatives have no experience in running large organizations, who are drawn to government because that's all they know, the entirety of their knowledge basis? Or is it deep hatred of the United States and our republican form of government, their hatred of our military power, their hatred of the freedoms we enjoy, their hatred of free markets, their way of bringing down the country a notch or two, as Obama advocated?
Maybe it's a combination of the two.
If the goal is to weaken U.S. power, it's working. Around the world, we're being laughed at, our military leadership quite appropriately the butt of jokes. Our allies who were blindsided by Biden's abandonment are disgusted. And throughout this shameful ordeal, not a single Pentagon leader has resigned in protest. Not a single cabinet officer has been fired – not one.
On Tuesday Beck, who traveled to the region at his own expense to aid in co-ordinating the operation, said the charities, which he does not control, had to ability to fly out another eight to 10 planes, had the State Department co-operated.
In the media, leftists mocked Beck's efforts, wondering how six-passenger planes could evacuate 5,100 people. They had relied on Snopes, a leftist propaganda site that promotes itself as a fact-checker, for the phony information. Aerial photos of the grounded planes show that four were Boeing 737s or Airbus 340 aircraft, which Beck confirmed. Two others appear to be commuter-sized airliners. The Nazarene Fund certainly has the resources: In about a week listeners to Beck's radio program contributed $35 million.
Beck explains his thinking. “My first pitch was to save the Christians because I assumed the U.S. government would be taking care of everyone else,” he said Tuesday. He was right, as the overwhelming number of people evacuated so far are non-Americans.
As a prominent conservative, Beck is ridiculed in the press as a self-serving publicity-seeker, and a stupid one at that. He is quick to put his role in its proper context.
“Others are doing astounding things as well. Now there's a lot of organizations. I want to make sure that every one gets (its) credit. We're getting too much credit,” he said, though none of it comes from legacy, state-friendly press.
The Nazarene Fund
Glenn Beck founded the not-for-profit Nazarene Fund about five years ago to rescue Christians, Americans, and others of religious faith who are held hostage or persecuted, from anywhere in the world. Beck reported last week that the organization, working with another Beck charity, Mercury One, had rescued 5,100 Americans and Afghans from behind enemy lines.
State-friendly television reported the incident, but neither they nor Fox News identified Glenn Beck, Mercury One, or the Nazarene Fund as providers of the rescue planes. Only Newsweek and Beck's Blaze TV identified the charities. Among the most obvious voices of silence was Fox News, which appears to harbor little good will towards its long-departed celebrity commentator.
Short takes on the news
Content platforms like Substack and Patreon could be bracing for the next attack on their independence, by Amazon Web Services, Joe Pullman reports at The Federalist. Amazon controls 40% of web hosting in the world. Quoting two anonymous sources, Reuters said Amazon “plans to take a more proactive approach to determine what types of content violate its cloud service policies.” Reuters said Amazon will hire a new team to monitor “future threats,” taken here to mean published material that does not agree with Amazon and its government partners. . . .
A Minneapolis man, Jaleel Stallings, is acquitted of attempted murder for firing several rounds at an unmarked police van while protesting the death of George Floyd in May 2020. Meanwhile, several unarmed protestors at the Capitol last January remain in solitary confinement, held without trial in a D.C. jail.
How they voted
Texas SB 6. Gov. Abbott will sign a bail reform bill aimed at stopping judges from releasing repeat offenders who then commit more crimes. “It is absolutely appalling to see the release of habitual and violent offenders on small, and sometimes multiple bonds,” GOP Sen. Joan Huffman said earlier this year when she filed the bill, noting that homicides have increased by 91 percent since 2019 in Houston, her home town.
Just the News reported that a few days before the bill passed two men free on felony bonds were charged with assassinating New Orleans Police detective Everett Briscoe, who was eating outside in a downtown Houston restaurant.
Today's quotes
“President Trump says fraud is rampant, which isn't true, but some Republicans believe him.” – from a Wall Street Journal editorial of Sept. 2
“Trump's baseless claims of election fraud” – from multiple news stories at the New York Post
“You have a postman who is a rabid anti-Trump guy and he’s working in Bedminster or some Republican stronghold … He can take those [filled-out] ballots, and knowing 95% are going to a Republican, he can just throw those in the garbage.”
– An anonymous “fixer” for New Jersey Democrats who told the New York Post he has been committing mail-in voter fraud for decades
“The ban will be in effect until the state of Texas withdraws its unconstitutional ban on abortion or until it is overturned in court.”
– Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, who stood by helplessly in 2020 while BLM and Antifa anarchists burned the city, on supporting a City Council ordinance that will ban Portland from conducting business in Texas because of the state's new law prohibiting abortions after six weeks.
“Portland is a dumpster fire. Texas is thriving.” – Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, in response
“Democrats got big business to be their lapdogs, not just because big business leaders are catechized in the leftist religion in college, but also because big business isn’t afraid of Republicans but they are of Democrats.” – Joy Pullman, writing at The Federalist
And finally, the elusive Jake Phake, our correspondent who writes the “Phake News” column when he feels like it, which isn't often, claims he overhead this remark: “Oh yes, I love Joe Biden, so much that I voted for him seven times!” We can't confirm.
To our readers: Our launch of the First Tuesday column this week ran into some headwinds, so we will delay that until next month.