Welcome to "The case that broke my heart," a special series within The Afghanistan Project Podcast where volunteers, advocates, and veterans speak out about the case or cases that had the greatest impact on them over the course of four years (sometimes more, rarely less) of supporting Afghan allies.Today's episode features Leslie Merriman, founder of Our Culture is Giving. Find Our Culture is Giving here:https://ourcultureisgiving.org/

Welcome to Episode 104 of The Afghanistan Project, where we cover all topics related to two decades of war in Afghanistan, and the fallout of our Afghanistan withdrawal.

Today, my guest Andy Sullivan, the Executive Director for nonprofit organization No One Left Behind.

Today, we discuss No One Left Behind’s incredible pivot to help more than 2,000 Special Immigrant Visa applicants who were in need of a path to the U.S. after a series of executive orders and stop work orders halted the prior methods of evacuating processed allies with SIVs to our country. Andy talks about what No One Left Behind accomplished in Albania and Qatar and continues to do today for ourallies in need of assistance.

Andy also gives an incredibly helpful update on SIV numbers and statistics, and talks about the biggest need No One Left Behind has as it takes on new work and fulfills our promises to our wartime allies.

About Andy Sullivan:

Andy is an Erie, PA native and a graduate of the Virginia Military Institute. For over nine years, Andy served as an infantry officer in the U.S. Army, and was deployed to Iraq, Eastern Europe, and Zabul, Afghanistan. Andy has his Mastersin Public Policy from Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.   

Find No One Left Behind via:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/n1leftbehind

Website: http://nooneleft.org/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/no-one-left-behind/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nooneleftbehindus/

About the host:

Beth Bailey worked in support of Afghanistan operations as acivilian intelligence analyst for the Department of the Army between 2010 and 2013. She is a freelance contributor to Fox News Digital and the Washington Examiner.

Follow Beth:

on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bwbailey85/

on Twitter: https://x.com/BWBailey85

on Substack: https://substack.com/@bwbailey85

on the web: https://bethwbailey.com/

Welcome to a special extra episode of the Afghanistan Project Podcast featuring guestElizabeth Lynn, the director of nonprofit Operation Recovery.

We discuss my latest piece in the Washington Examiner, about the deportation of 19-year-old single, unaccompanied Afghan female Khultum from Pakistan, where her mother is suffering from extreme burns she received in an electrical accident in December, and her USRAP-applicant father is tooendangered to face a return to the Taliban’s Afghanistan.

Find the article here: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/restoring-america/courage-strength-optimism/3474703/afghan-refugees-face-imminent-danger-in-talibans-domain/

Five other U.S. allies were deported alongside Khultum, including 4 USRAP applicants in the care of Paws Unite Pups, and one SIV applicant being assisted by No One Left Behind, whose executive director Andy Sullivan will be Monday’s guest.

We also discuss the lack of information for nonprofitsassisting Afghans, and the need to stand by our Afghan allies.

About Elizabeth Lynn:

Elizabeth served in the U.S. Air Force and the Navy Reserves, and has received multiple commendations for her service. After holding a variety of positions with the U.S. Postal Service, USCIS, IRS and other U.S. government institutions, Elizabeth retired in 2020. She came out of retirement shortly thereafter to help Afghans left behind in their homeland.

Find Operation Recovery here: https://operationrecovery.org/

Find Paws Unite People here:https://www.pawsunitepeople.com/

Find No One Left Behind here: https://www.nooneleft.org/

About the host:

Beth Bailey worked in support of Afghanistan operations as acivilian intelligence analyst for the Department of the Army between 2010 and 2013. She is a freelance contributor to Fox News Digital and the Washington Examiner.

Follow Beth:

on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bwbailey85/

on Twitter: https://x.com/BWBailey85

on Substack: https://substack.com/@bwbailey85

on the web: https://bethwbailey.com/

https://buymeacoffee.com/bwbailey85

Welcome to Episode 103 of The Afghanistan Project, where we cover all topics related to two decades of war in Afghanistan, and the fallout of our Afghanistan withdrawal.

Today, my guest is Tahmina Nasser, who arrived in the U.S. during Operation Allies Refuge after working with Americans for over a decade.

Tahmina discusses qualifying to work with the U.S. in Afghanistan, and many of the jobs she held in her homeland with various American entities over 14 years. She also talks about the dangers that those jobs brought to her.

Tahmina tells the story of her evacuation from Afghanistan, and her arrival and adjustment inside the U.S. Unlike many of the refugees who have come on the podcast, Tahmina says she could not find the assistance she desperately needed in the U.S., and was forced to provide for her family largely on her own.

Tahmina also tells the heartbreaking firsthand account of the abuse she experienced at the hands of her husband in Afghanistan, and the lack of agency she experienced years later on arrival in the U.S. She also laments the circumstances that Afghan women have been forced into now that the Taliban have control of the country.

About the host:

Beth Bailey worked in support of Afghanistan operations as a civilian intelligence analyst for the Department of the Army between 2010 and 2013. She is a freelance contributor to Fox News Digital and the Washington Examiner.

Follow Beth:

on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bwbailey85/

on Twitter: https://x.com/BWBailey85on Substack: https://substack.com/@bwbailey85on the web: https://bethwbailey.com/

 https://buymeacoffee.com/bwbailey85

Welcome to Episode 102 of The Afghanistan Project, where we cover all topics related to two decades of war in Afghanistan, and the fallout of our Afghanistan withdrawal.

Today, my guest is David Collier, who recently returned froma three-week trip to Afghanistan.

We talk about David’s travel preparations and whether thegroups he looked to for support made note of Western tourists who had been kidnapped and held prisoner by the Taliban, or of the Afghan women subjected to torture, imprisonment, and rape at the hands of the Taliban.

We discuss how David entered the country, the mistreatmentof Afghan refugees he witnessed at the hands of Pakistani authorities, and some of the few incidents he was able to witness of Afghan women’s treatment inside their homeland.

David also talks about the poverty and beauty he witnessedinside Afghanistan, and his efforts to help some of the people he met on his travels.

About David Collier:

David works in the agricultural manufacturing industry and lives in Shepparton, Victoria—about two hours north of Melbourne. He is currently the Operations & Sales Manager at Feedtech Feeding Systems, which builds livestock feeding equipment in Australia.

Find more about David’s travels on the Digging DeeperPodcast: https://shows.acast.com/a-reflection-on-anzac-day-across-two-generations/episodes/digging-deeper-sheppartons-david-collier-explores-afghanista

Or on his Facebook travel journal: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61576947977026

About the host:

Beth Bailey worked in support of Afghanistan operations as acivilian intelligence analyst for the Department of the Army between 2010 and 2013. She is a freelance contributor to Fox News Digital and the Washington Examiner.

Follow Beth:

on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bwbailey85/

on Twitter: https://x.com/BWBailey85

on Substack: https://substack.com/@bwbailey85

on the web: https://bethwbailey.com/

Welcome to Episode 101 of The Afghanistan Project, where we cover all topics related to two decades of war in Afghanistan, and the fallout of our Afghanistan withdrawal.

Today, my guest is Dr. Nooralhaq Nasimi, founder anddirector of the Afghanistan and Central Asian Association (ACAA).

Dr. Nasimi talks about his childhood in Afghanistan, hisescape to the UK, and how he has supported refugees like himself through the ACAA.

We also discuss the history of ethnic conflict among Afghans.

About Dr. Nasimi:

Dr. Nasimi has a law degree from Southbank University, a PhDin Political Science, and an honorary doctorate in law and social sciences from Royal Holloway University.

Dr. Nasimi has also received a plethora of awards for hiswork, including the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2018, the British Citizen Award in 2020, and was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire by King Charles III at Windsor Castle in December 2023.

About the host:

Beth Bailey worked in support of Afghanistan operations as acivilian intelligence analyst for the Department of the Army between 2010 and 2013. She is a freelance contributor to Fox News Digital and the Washington Examiner.

Follow Beth:

on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bwbailey85/

on X: https://x.com/BWBailey85

on Substack: https://substack.com/@bwbailey85on the web: https://bethwbailey.com/

Welcome to Episode 100 of The Afghanistan Project Podcast, where we cover all topics related to two decades of war in Afghanistan, and the fallout of our Afghanistan withdrawal.Our guest this week is Army veteran John Moses, a veteran fellow at the Hoover Institution and co-founder of the Massachusetts Afghan Alliance, an organization supporting Afghans building new lives in Massachusetts.This week, John talks about updates for Afghans whose cases he has been working on through Mass Afghan, issues still to be resolved, and what he wishes for under the Trump administration.

About John Moses and Massachusetts Afghan AllianceFind Massachusetts Afghan Alliance through their website: https://massafghanalliance.org/Follow them on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/massafghanalliance/ Or on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/massafghanalliance/About the host:Beth Bailey worked in support of Afghanistan operations as a civilian intelligence analyst for the Department of the Army between 2010 and 2013. She is a freelance contributor to Fox News Digital and the Washington Examiner.

Follow Beth:

on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bwbailey85/

on X: https://x.com/BWBailey85

on Substack: https://substack.com/@bwbailey85

on the web: https://bethwbailey.com

Welcome to Episode 99 of The Afghanistan Project, where we cover all topics related to two decades of war in Afghanistan, and the fallout of our Afghanistan withdrawal.

Today, my guest is James Seddon, who has joined me to talk about the latest article from Center for Immigration Studies' Phillip Linderman in the New York Post that further attacks our Afghan allies’ deservingness for the programs they qualify for, and egregiously attacks the Coordinator for Afghanistan Relocation Efforts (CARE) program with obtuse and demonstrably false accusations.

James Seddon is a father, husband, writer, retired Navy veteran, Afghanistan veteran, speaker, activist for veterans and Afghan allies, recovering IT manager, and regularly unsuccessful fisherman living in Southern California.

About the host: Beth Bailey worked in support of Afghanistan operations as a civilian intelligence analyst for the Department of the Army between 2010 and 2013. She is a freelance contributor to Fox News Digital and the Washington Examiner.

Follow Beth:

on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bwbailey85/

on Twitter: https://x.com/BWBailey85

on Substack: https://substack.com/@bwbailey85

on the web: https://bethwbailey.com/

Welcome to Ep. 98 of The Afghanistan Project, where we cover all topics related to two decades of war in Afghanistan, and the fallout of our Afghanistan withdrawal. Today, my guest is Matt Zeller, who discusses the betrayal of our allies and his own interpreter’s experience on arrival in the U.S., which spurred the creation of nonprofit No One Left Behind.We also talk about Matt’s time in Afghanistan, and his memoir, Watches Without Time, published by Just World Books in 2012, which details his experiences as an embedded combat adviser with Afghan security forces in Ghazni, Afghanistan.About the guests:Matt is an Afghan war veteran, the co-founder of No One Left Behind, and an adjunct fellow at the American Security Project. He is also a producer of Champions of the Golden Valley, an award-winning documentary that captures the emergence of a homegrown ski culture in the snow-capped mountains of Afghanistan. The film reveals a breathtaking and seldom-seen side of the country — a remote region where joy, resilience, and community are forged on the slopes.About the host: Beth Bailey worked in support of Afghanistan operations as a civilian intelligence analyst for the Department of the Army between 2010 and 2013. She is a freelance contributor to Fox News Digital and the Washington Examiner. Follow Beth: on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bwbailey85/ on X: https://x.com/BWBailey85 on Substack: https://substack.com/@bwbailey85 on the web: https://bethwbailey.com/

Welcome to Ep. 97 of The Afghanistan Project, where we cover all topics related to two decades of war in Afghanistan, and the fallout of our Afghanistan withdrawal.

Today, my guest is Jason Howk, a US Army veteran whose service spanned major developments of our Afghan adventure, from supporting the early development of the Afghan National Army in 2002, to overseeing interagency teams of civilians working to establish enduring security in the region in 2013. Jason is now the president of the board of Global Friends of Afghanistan, a diverse organization of Afghan and international leaders searching for paths to a democratic and peaceful future for Afghanistan in the aftermath of the Taliban’s rule. Jason is also a writer, musical collaborator, and adjunct professor of Islamic Studies at the US Air Force Special Operations School.

We discuss the devastation that the U.S. military andveteran communities will face if the U.S. fails to protect its allies from deportation to a country where they are under direct threat of reprisal. We also talk about the failure of the current administration’s intelligence organizations to recognize the truth about the growth of terrorism inside Afghanistan, the difficulties Afghans face inside their homeland, and the rationale given for Temporary Protected Status ending.

Follow Global Friends of Afghanistan and Jason Howk:

Online: https://www.globalfriendsofafghanistan.org/

On X: https://x.com/jason_c_howkAND https://x.com/GFAfghanistan

On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/global-friends-of-afghanistan-gfa

About the host:

Beth Bailey worked in support of Afghanistan operations as acivilian intelligence analyst for the Department of the Army between 2010 and 2013. She is a freelance contributor to Fox News Digital and the Washington Examiner.

Follow Beth:

on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bwbailey85/

on X: https://x.com/BWBailey85

on Substack: https://substack.com/@bwbailey85

on the web: https://bethwbailey.com/