ACLJ Files FOIA To Find Out Why President Biden Has Abandoned Christians and U.S. Citizens in Afghanistan To Die at the Hands of the Taliban

In the wake of President Biden’s hasty withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, allowing the Taliban to seize total control, no one is in greater danger than Afghan Christians and young women.

We are taking key action as part of a multipronged strategy to bring pressure both in the U.S. and internationally to help the abandoned Christians, U.S. citizens, and those who have helped the U.S. in Afghanistan.

With U.S. forces now gone from the region, there is no one left to protect them. The Taliban is bent on enforcing its own twisted, brutal interpretation of Sharia law. Innocent Christians as well as Americans, will be targeted. They will be abused. And many will die horrific deaths simply because of their faith.

Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is now ACLJ Senior Counsel for Global Affairs, has starkly noted that this “humanitarian nightmare” has “opened the door for the beginnings of a genocide against Christians.”

Now that Biden has officially pulled our troops out of Afghanistan, despite his empty promises to leave no Americans behind – it’s not only Christians in danger, but hundreds of American citizens who are now stranded in a hostile land.

The President of the United States has allowed a dangerous regime to take over Afghanistan, left billions in weapons and equipment in their possession, allowed ISIS to rise again, costing the lives of 13 U.S. military service men and women, and now he’s abandoned his own people and put countless lives in grave danger, in the interest of caving to the demands of the Taliban. The same Taliban that protected Osama bin Laden – the architect of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

And now Biden’s Press Secretary for the Pentagon John Kirby has just shrugged off the fact that Americans have been abandoned, callously stating, “We have Americans that get stranded in countries all the time.”

There are no adequate words for this level of disgrace.

The American people – here at home and those who have now been abandoned – have a right to know why President Biden insisted on removing our forces so hastily, causing so much chaos and devastation, disregarding warnings from diplomats on the ground and his own Intelligence Community.

That is why the ACLJ has just filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Biden State Department, Department of National Intelligence, Department of Defense, and U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) to get answers to those questions and many more.

As stated in our FOIA:

To summarize, this Request seeks records pertaining to communications, knowledge and efforts surrounding the failure unfolding in Afghanistan and the communications had between agencies in the months leading up to the national security and humanitarian catastrophe. Specific examples of records sought include those surrounding the breaking story that the State Department canceled, evidenced by a memo “marked sensitive but unclassified and was signed by Deputy Secretary Brian McKeon, approved the ‘discontinuation of the establishment, and termination of, the Contingency and Crisis Response Bureau (CCR).’” Another example is this: “About two dozen diplomats working at the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan warned Secretary of State Antony Blinken in July that Kabul risked falling to the Taliban shortly after the military’s withdrawal, according to a report from The Wall Street Journal.” The ACLJ also seeks records surrounding the issue of withdrawal of American troops before all Americans, allies, and Afghans supporting America’s mission, were evacuated; abandoning U.S. bases and military equipment, and the Biden White House’s and Pentagon’s blaming of U.S. Intelligence Community for the shocking failures the world is witnessing.

Our FOIA also specifically addressed the dangers to Christians and women in Afghanistan now that the Taliban is in control of the region:

The Taliban has a hit list of known Christians they are targeting to pursue and kill. The US Embassy is defunct and there is no longer a safe place for believers to take refuge. All borders to neighboring countries are closed and all flights to and from have been halted, with the exception of private planes. People are fleeing into the mountains looking for asylum. They are fully reliant on God, who is the only One who can and will protect them.

The Taliban are going door-to-door taking women and children. The people must mark their house with an “X” if they have a girl over 12 years old, so that the Taliban can take them. If they find a young girl and the house was not marked they will execute the entire family. If a married woman 25 years or older has been found, the Taliban promptly kill her husband, do whatever they want to her, and then sell her as a sex slave.

How the Biden Administration could allow such a barbaric regime to return to power so swiftly is beyond understanding. It seems clear President Biden did not have a comprehensive plan that took the events that have unfolded into consideration. As we point out in our FOIA, Biden previously said the Taliban was unlikely to take over again. Then a matter of days after the Taliban did in fact seize control, the President told ABC News there was “no way to get out without chaos ensuing.”

That’s not what has been reported, Mr. President. It seems there were plenty of ways you could have known, or at least had a hunch, and you chose to ignore them, bowing to the Taliban instead and costing U.S. soldiers and innocent Afghan civilians their lives. And you’ve put countless Christians in the Taliban’s crosshairs. We’re going to find out why.

President Biden has utterly failed – abandoning Afghan Christians, helpless women and children, and even U.S. citizens. This will be his legacy.

We will continue to fight to save them, and we will find out why they were stranded to be targeted and killed by the Taliban.

I am also personally preparing to deliver an oral intervention at the U.N. Human Rights Council in the coming days on the emergency situation in Afghanistan. I will be urging international action to protect Afghan Christians from persecution and death.