CNN’s Sciutto: It’ll Take Four Years to Evacuate Afghan Allies at Current Rate, We’ve ‘Broken’ Promise to Get Allies out

On Tuesday’s broadcast of CNN’s “The Lead,” CNN Chief National Security Correspondent Jim Sciutto discussed his reporting on the slow pace of evacuating Afghan allies from the country and noted that, at the rate the State Department is going, it will take four years to get everyone out, and remarked, “you talk about broken promises, the U.S. made a commitment to these people to get them out of the country…they’re not because the hurdles are just too great to get them out.”

Sciutto stated, “At this very moment, there are 15,000 principal applicants, these are the people who worked for the U.S. military, who are ready to fly, as the State Department says. There’s about — as well as about 30,000 immediate family members. That’s 50,000 people. The State Department, when it’s running flights, is getting about 250 out per week. At that rate, that takes four years. They stopped those flights for the World Cup, by the way, because those flights are going to Qatar. Behind them, another 100,000 [who might be eligible but haven’t been approved]. So, you look at that math there and it shows you that that promise, you talk about broken promises, the U.S. made a commitment to these people to get them out of the country. They may say that they’re fulfilling that commitment, but actions show they’re not because the hurdles are just too great to get them out.”

Sciutto also commented on the SIV program’s extension being removed from the National Defense Authorization Act by stating, “There’s open opposition to it from some Republicans, and there’s not — it’s not like you hear Democrats talking about this every day, either, except, with the exception of a few.”

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