Democrat Senator Blasts Biden Administration for Delaying Evacuation of Unknown Afghans

President Joe Biden’s deputies are delaying the privately organized flight of some Americans and additional Afghans into the U.S.-run air base in Qatar, says Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), who insists he is “furious.”

But many countries are refusing to accept unidentified Afghan refugees, including next-door Pakistan. U.S. State Department officials say they do not know who is in the aircraft.

“Without personnel on the ground, we can’t verify the accuracy of manifests, the identities of passengers, flight plans, or aviation security protocols, so this is a challenge, but one we are determined to work through,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged in Qatar Tuesday.

Americans involved in private evacuation efforts are lobbying senators from both parties, including Blumenthal and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), Fox News reported Monday, citing rescue organizers and Senate staffers.

That day, Blumenthal took to Twitter to express his frustration over the Biden administration’s delaying of Americans and Afghans trying to flee Afghanistan on chartered flights, particularly those stuck in the international airport in the northern Afghan city Mazar-e-Sharif.

The prominent Democrat senator wrote:

I have been deeply frustrated, even furious, at our government’s delay & inaction. There will be plenty of time to seek accountability for the inexcusable bureaucratic red tape that stranded so many of our Afghan allies.

For now, my singular focus remains getting these planes in the air & safely to our airbase in [the Qatari capital of Doha], where they have already been cleared to land.

I expect the White House & State Department to do everything in their power—absolutely everything—to make this happen. These are [American] citizens & Afghans who risked everything for our country. We cannot leave them behind.

Sen. Johnson also blasted the Biden administration for blocking Americans and Afghan allies from leaving Afghanistan.

It is “hard to believe that the U.S. government would deny American citizens and Afghan allies who helped save American lives the ability to evacuate Afghanistan,” he told Fox News in a statement, adding:

However, what we’ve been hearing from people actually involved in evacuation is completely different from the administration’s rosy spin. When I hear President Biden declare this debacle an “extraordinary success,” it not only shows he’s detached from reality, it also calls into question everything this administration is telling the American people.

Citing sources who helped organize the private evacuations, ABC News indicated Wednesday that most people trying to escape through Mazar-e-Sharif are not Americans.

ABC revealed:

The chartered flights for approximately 600 people have been held at Mazar-e-Sharif’s airport for over a week now, according to sources who helped organize them, with at least 19 U.S. citizens waiting in the city to board and flee Afghanistan.

On Wednesday, a day after denying that the Taliban was blocking Americans from leaving Afghanistan, Blinken called on the narco-jihadis to allow charter aircraft carrying U.S. citizens to fly out of Afghanistan.

He made those comments after the State Department came under fire from both parties for not doing more to pressure the Taliban to allow planes to leave Afghanistan.

While briefing reporters Wednesday at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany, Blinken said the Biden administration has “made clear” to the Taliban that “these charters need to be able to depart.”

A leaked email obtained by Fox News confirmed that the State Department did refuse to grant official approval for some chartered flights to leave Afghanistan, contradicting assertions by Biden officials that the administration did not block private flights carrying Americans from departing.

However, Fox News conceded, “U.S. officials have pointed to possible security threats from landing charter planes at military bases, saying that they lack the resources on the ground to fully verify flight manifests.”

On Tuesday, Blinken said the number of Americans in Mazar-e-Sharif is “small.”

“It’s my understanding that the Taliban has not denied exit to anyone holding a valid document, but they have said that those without valid documents at this point can’t leave – but because all of these people are grouped together, that’s meant that flights have not been allowed to go,” he declared.