Afghanistan war veteran and former CIA analyst Matt Zeller spoke on MSNBC about the situation in Afghanistan and voiced his opinion of President Biden’s speech about the U.S. withdrawal.
Shortly before Biden’s appearance Monday, MSNBC hosted a spokesman for the Taliban.
Ayman Mohyeldin asked the spokesperson, “Will you go after and punish those that worked with the Americans while they were there if they don’t leave the country?”
The Taliban member responded, “We want them not to leave the country. To live a normal life. Our country needs them”.
In the interview with Zeller, he explained that the United States has a biometric database with record of everyone who served with them in Afghanistan.
The biometric program works by scanning everyone’s fingerprints and iris. It was introduced to prevent Taliban or their sympathizers from infiltrating the ANDSF and getting close to USG personnel.
Zeller mentioned that the Taliban is using the database as a hit list at checkpoints since they were able to steal the technology needed to access it.
He said the Afghans crowding in the Kabul Airport refuse to leave because a checkpoint is set up outside where the Taliban is identifying everyone. If “you pop up in that database, you’re disappeared. You’re never seen again”.
Zeller goes on to explain how important he thinks it is that the U.S. helps get everyone out of the country, including Afghans trying to escape the Taliban. He says he will never forgive the United States for this “moral injury”.