Citing the situation as one of the “hard choices you face in government,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki defended the Biden administration’s decision to not allow charter flights with unvetted passengers from Afghanistan to land on American military bases, due to safety concerns.

While admitting, when pressed by the media, that many of the planes may hold American citizens, Psaki said that they may also hold hundreds of other undocumented Afghan citizens who cannot be properly vetted. 

“They may have several hundred individuals where we don’t have manifests for them, we don’t know what the security protocols are for them, we don’t know what their documentation is,” Psaki said.

“Are we going to allow a plane with hundreds of people where we don’t know who they are, we don’t know what security protocols have been put in place, to land on a U.S. military base,” Psaki added.

The exchange between Psaki and the media highlights the fact that thousands of Afghans rushed Kabul’s airport during the hurried U.S. evacuation and little vetting was done. The Afghan evacuees were flown to U.S. military bases and third countries. 

White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki
White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki defended the administration’s blocking of private rescue efforts in Afghanistan. (File photo)

 

Senators Call for the US to Assist the Evacuations

Among the nearly 30,000 refugees from Afghanistan flown to the United States, 10,000 of them require further vetting. Worryingly, 100 evacuees are being flagged for being members of the Taliban or other terrorist organizations, according to a report by NBC News

State Department spokesman Ned Price acknowledged that the State Department has refused to grant official approval for private evacuation flights from Afghanistan to land in third countries.