Welcome to Episode 27 of The Afghanistan Project Podcast, where hosts Mikael Cook and Beth Bailey highlight the struggles of Afghans living under Taliban rule, and the efforts of individuals from a variety of backgrounds and political affiliations who have stepped up to provide support to the people of Afghanistan in the chaos that followed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

For this installment of our series exploring the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, we chatted with volunteers Anna Segur and Val Simich about their work supporting our allies who were attempting to escape Afghanistan in the months leading up to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. We also spoke with Afzil and Sayed, two former interpreters who were able to escape during the evacuation thanks to the support of Anna and Val. Their stories truly highlight the incredible strain our withdrawal created for Afghans seeking to escape the country after the Taliban’s takeover.

About the hosts:

Mikael Cook was an Army non-commissioned officer and veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He was an active member of the #DigitalDunkirk movement to evacuate our Afghan allies in August of 2021. You can follow his Instagram @Mikaelcook89.

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 her on Instagram @BWBailey85 or Twitter @BWBailey85.

For listeners in Afghanistan:

If you would like to have your story considered for a future episode, please send us a letter about your experiences to our show e-mail address, [email protected]. Please include as much detail as possible, and let us know if you would like us to give you a pseudonym to protect your identity.

Welcome to Episode 26 of The Afghanistan Project Podcast, where hosts Mikael Cook and Beth Bailey highlight the struggles of Afghans living under Taliban rule, and the efforts of individuals from a variety of backgrounds and political affiliations who have stepped up to provide support to the people of Afghanistan in the chaos that followed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

For the latest installment of our withdrawal series, we talked with Joe Laude, who was a Marine Corps Sgt. in the 2nd Battalion 1st Marine Regiment during the evacuation from Hamid Karzai International Airport. Joe talked with us about his own recollections from the evacuation, as well as those of many of the other veterans of HKIA whom he has been able to speak with about their own efforts because of his work to stand up Operation Allies Refuge Foundation. OAR Foundation seeks to spread the truth about the events at HKIA as those on the ground experienced them, and to combat the moral injury that affects veterans who were present during the withdrawal.

More about Operation Allies Refuge Foundation:

Follow OAR on Instagram @OARFoundation or on their website, here.

About the hosts:

Mikael Cook was an Army non-commissioned officer and veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He was an active member of the #DigitalDunkirk movement to evacuate our Afghan allies in August of 2021. You can follow his Instagram @Mikaelcook89.

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 her on Instagram @BWBailey85 or Twitter @BWBailey85.

For listeners in Afghanistan:

If you would like to have your story considered for a future episode, please send us a letter about your experiences to our show e-mail address, [email protected]. Please include as much detail as possible, and let us know if you would like us to give you a pseudonym to protect your identity.

Welcome to Episode 25 of The Afghanistan Project Podcast, where hosts Mikael Cook and Beth Bailey highlight the struggles of Afghans living under Taliban rule, and the efforts of individuals from a variety of backgrounds and political affiliations who have stepped up to provide support to the people of Afghanistan in the chaos that followed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In continuing our series exploring the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, we brought on Jill Marie Bussey, the Director for Public Policy at Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. Jill Marie told us about her work to spin up evacuation resources for Afghans who needed to leave the country as the U.S. prepared for its Afghanistan withdrawal. She discussed visiting the first wave of special immigrant visa applicants who arrived at Ft. Lee in early August 2021, and the combined joy of meeting our allies and the difficulty of letting them know that they would have to enter the country on parole, and would be hard-pressed to reunite with their families in the years to come. Jill Marie also spoke about her efforts during the withdrawal to aid Afghans through the informal networks that were created to help Afghans reach Hamid Karzai International Airport and find their way on the evacuation flights helping Afghans and other vulnerable groups reach safety after the Taliban took hold of the country.

Our conversation also dealt with the intricacies of the parole designations that have been granted to our Afghan allies, the immigration backlogs they face, and the difficulties they have navigating our asylum system without legal assistance. Jill Marie talked about the latest re-parole guidelines for those whose two years of parole are quickly coming to an end, and mentioned the difference between the asylum that Afghans who arrived during Operation Allies Welcome received, and the asylum being granted to Afghans who came to the U.S. through the southern border as an effort to find safety more quickly than they were likely to achieve it through the SIV program, humanitarian parole, or the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program.

More about Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service, and the re-parole process:

LIRS’s website can be found here

Information on:

Re-Parole Process for Certain Afghans

Afghan Re-Parole FAQs

Form I-797C, Notice of Action

Employment Authorization Guide

About the hosts:

Mikael Cook was an Army non-commissioned officer and veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He was an active member of the #DigitalDunkirk movement to evacuate our Afghan allies in August of 2021. You can follow his Instagram @Mikaelcook89.

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 her on Instagram @BWBailey85 or Twitter @BWBailey85.

For listeners in Afghanistan:

If you would like to have your story considered for a future episode, please send us a letter about your experiences to our show e-mail address, [email protected]. Please include as much detail as possible, and let us know if you would like us to give you a pseudonym to protect your identity.

Welcome to Episode 24 of The Afghanistan Project Podcast, where hosts Mikael Cook and Beth Bailey highlight the struggles of Afghans living under Taliban rule, and the efforts of individuals from a variety of backgrounds and political affiliations who have stepped up to provide support to the people of Afghanistan in the chaos that followed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

For this installment of our series exploring the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, we talked with Joe Laude and Aidan Gunderson about their experiences at Hamid Karzai International Airport during the horrifying suicide attack at Abbey Gate on Aug. 26, 2021. Joe Laude was a Marine Corps Sgt. in the 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment at the time of the evacuation. Aidan Gunderson was a combat medic with the 82nd Airborne Division. Both described their personal views of the explosion at Abbey Gate, and their aftermath.

Around 170 Afghans perished at Abbey Gate while trying to escape their transforming homeland. 13 U.S. service members made their final sacrifices at Abbey Gate while trying to help our allies find safety.

About Operation Allies Refuge Foundation:

Find OAR Foundation’s website here.

About the hosts:

Mikael Cook was an Army non-commissioned officer and veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He was an active member of the #DigitalDunkirk movement to evacuate our Afghan allies in August of 2021. You can follow his Instagram @Mikaelcook89.

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 her on Instagram @BWBailey85 or Twitter @BWBailey85.

For listeners in Afghanistan:

If you would like to have your story considered for a future episode, please send us a letter about your experiences to our show e-mail address, [email protected]. Please include as much detail as possible, and let us know if you would like us to give you a pseudonym to protect your identity.

Welcome to Episode 23 of The Afghanistan Project Podcast, where hosts Mikael Cook and Beth Bailey highlight the struggles of Afghans living under Taliban rule, and the efforts of individuals from a variety of backgrounds and political affiliations who have stepped up to provide support to the people of Afghanistan in the chaos that followed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

This week continues our series returning to the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan as we pass the two-year-mark of our departure. Hannah Williams and Braden Wayment joined us to talk about the mental impact that our withdrawal, and our almost 20-year presence in Afghanistan, have had on them and many other veterans over the past two years.

Listeners, please be advised that this episode includes stories of suicide and mental trauma. If you need help finding resources for managing these kinds of feelings, please reach out Fight the War Within Foundation, or call the national suicide and crisis hotline at 988. Patrol Base Abbate and Operation Allies Refuge Foundation are great organization that help forge community that strengthens veterans’ bonds and promote resiliency.

Both Hannah and Braden work to help our Afghan allies make their way out of Afghanistan. Their time is volunteered, but the pace and demands of their efforts are grueling. Both Hannah and Braden gave an unvarnished explanation of why – and for whom – they continue their work, and of the meaning Afghanistan continues to have for veterans like Braden who fought there, and for veterans like Hannah, who were close to individuals who spent time there, and care deeply about fulfilling America’s promises.

More about the evacuation groups Hannah and Braden support:

Hannah donates her time to Operation Sacred Promise. You can find their website here. Braden donates his time to Task Force Argo, which can be found online here.

About the hosts:

Mikael Cook was an Army non-commissioned officer and veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He was an active member of the #DigitalDunkirk movement to evacuate our Afghan allies in August of 2021. You can follow his Instagram @Mikaelcook89.

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 her on Instagram @BWBailey85 or Twitter @BWBailey85.

For listeners in Afghanistan:

If you would like to have your story considered for a future episode, please send us a letter about your experiences to our show e-mail address, [email protected]. Please include as much detail as possible, and let us know if you would like us to give you a pseudonym to protect your identity.

Welcome to Episode 22 of The Afghanistan Project Podcast, where hosts Mikael Cook and Beth Bailey highlight the struggles of Afghans living under Taliban rule, and the efforts of individuals from a variety of backgrounds and political affiliations who have stepped up to provide support to the people of Afghanistan in the chaos that followed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

For installment two on our series exploring the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, we chatted with U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Will Selber about his view of Afghanistan’s slow descent into chaos in the leadup to the withdrawal, while working in the country between June 2020 and 2021. He shares his deep understanding of the difficulties faced by the Afghan military and his knowledge of the actors involved lends an air of humanity to the discussion that many in the media failed to address in their dissection of the leadup to the Taliban takeover.

Will then talks about his multi-week effort, staged at a hotel room in D.C., to help Afghans escape the country. Following his initial dogged work to preserve lives, he talks about his incredibly intense year volunteering his time to save allies who were left behind through Operation Sacred Promise, while he was also juggling military command. For listeners who are familiar with the battle of juggling devotion to the Afghan cause and the need to be present within their own lives, Will’s talk about his decision to back away from volunteer work will be especially poignant.

More about Will Selber and Operation Sacred Promise:

Follow Will on Twitter @AggieWill00. Operation Sacred Promise’s website can be found here.

About the hosts:

Mikael Cook was an Army non-commissioned officer and veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He was an active member of the #DigitalDunkirk movement to evacuate our Afghan allies in August of 2021. You can follow his Instagram @Mikaelcook89.

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 her on Instagram @BWBailey85 or Twitter @BWBailey85.

For listeners in Afghanistan:

If you would like to have your story considered for a future episode, please send us a letter about your experiences to our show e-mail address, [email protected]. Please include as much detail as possible, and let us know if you would like us to give you a pseudonym to protect your identity.

Welcome to Episode 21 of The Afghanistan Project Podcast, where hosts Mikael Cook and Beth Bailey highlight the struggles of Afghans living under Taliban rule, and the efforts of individuals from a variety of backgrounds and political affiliations who have stepped up to provide support to the people of Afghanistan in the chaos that followed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

This week kicks off the sub-series of the podcast where we’ll be dialing in on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan for the two-year anniversary of our departure. To kick off our sub-series, we’re glad to have an incredible return guest - Bill Roggio is a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the managing editor of its preeminent publication on the Global War on Terror, the Long War Journal.

Bill told us how and when he created a map that would help him track which Afghan districts were controlled by Taliban forces, and which were under Afghan government control. With a great deal of open-source information, and a lot of time, Bill updated the graphic monthly, but more often when the U.S. began preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan in spring 2021. In the lead-up to the withdrawal from Afghanistan, Bill presented a far less sunny overview of Taliban strength than nearly any of the analysts examining the Taliban’s capabilities. As our date of departure neared, Bill’s map appeared in media outlets around the world, as did his condemnations of U.S. intelligence that the country would fall to the Taliban

At the same time, Bill was drawn into the withdrawal in a more intimate way, which we discussed as another element of the departure from Afghanistan that brought difficulties to volunteers who gave up their normal lives in an attempt to save the lives of Afghan allies.

Concluding our episode, we shared a story from “Nimatullah,” who qualifies for the special immigrant visa program because of his work as a security guard. Nimatullah waits anxiously for his SIV to be processed and for his family to be evacuated, especially because his son Asadullah suffers from hemophilia.

More about Bill Roggio and Long War Journal:

Find Bill on Twitter @billroggio, and find the Long War Journal here. To see the maps referenced in the podcast, go to Long War Journal.

About the hosts:

Mikael Cook was an Army non-commissioned officer and veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He was an active member of the #DigitalDunkirk movement to evacuate our Afghan allies in August of 2021. You can follow his Instagram @Mikaelcook89.

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 her on Instagram @BWBailey85 or Twitter @BWBailey85.

For listeners in Afghanistan:

If you would like to have your story considered for a future episode, please send us a letter about your experiences to our show e-mail address, [email protected]. Please include as much detail as possible, and let us know if you would like us to give you a pseudonym to protect your identity.

Welcome to Episode 20 of The Afghanistan Project Podcast, where hosts Mikael Cook and Beth Bailey highlight the struggles of Afghans living under Taliban rule, and the efforts of individuals from a variety of backgrounds and political affiliations who have stepped up to provide support to the people of Afghanistan in the chaos that followed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

This week’s guest is Air Force Lt. Col. Will Selber, who volunteers with evacuation non-governmental organization Operation Sacred Promise. Will joined us to talk about moral injury, a phenomenon which was first studied in the aftermath of the Vietnam War when veterans of the conflict noted “distress as a result of violating their core beliefs during combat,” as Selber and his mother, a professor of social work with more than a decade of work assisting veterans, wrote in their recent piece on moral injury in War on the Rocks.

Will talked about the reasons that moral injury has been discussed in recent years as a concern for veterans of our conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, and told us about his own experience with moral injury and his scholarship on the topic. (This episode is heavy at times - we urge listeners who find it difficult to reach out for support to groups like Patrol Base Abbate, Fight the War Within Foundation, or Operation Allies Refuge Foundation. If you’re in urgent need of assistance, please call the military suicide hotline at 988.

Concluding our episode, we shared a story from “Asadullah,” a young man who suffers from hemophilia. His father Nimatullah has applied for a special immigrant visa, and Asadullah hopes that the SIV will be grated to give the family safety in the U.S., and Asadullah ready access to the medication he needs to survive.

More about Will Selber and Operation Sacred Promise:

Follow Will on Twitter @AggieWill00. Operation Sacred Promise’s website can be found here.

About the hosts:

Mikael Cook was an Army non-commissioned officer and veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He was an active member of the #DigitalDunkirk movement to evacuate our Afghan allies in August of 2021. You can follow his Instagram @Mikaelcook89.

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 her on Instagram @BWBailey85 or Twitter @BWBailey85.

For listeners in Afghanistan:

If you would like to have your story considered for a future episode, please send us a letter about your experiences to our show e-mail address, [email protected]. Please include as much detail as possible, and let us know if you would like us to give you a pseudonym to protect your identity.

Welcome to Episode 19 of The Afghanistan Project Podcast, where hosts Mikael Cook and Beth Bailey highlight the struggles of Afghans living under Taliban rule, and the efforts of individuals from a variety of backgrounds and political affiliations who have stepped up to provide support to the people of Afghanistan in the chaos that followed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

This week’s guest is Yousuf Sediq, a former special operations squadron commander in Task Force 241, an elite counterterrorism force within the Afghan Special Forces. Yousuf is the author of 5,000 Days of War: The Firsthand Account of an Afghan Special Forces Operator.

Yousuf discusses his decision to begin working with the Canadian Special Forces as an interpreter in 2007, and the dissatisfaction he felt with the treatment of interpreters at Canadian bases. Yousuf then began working with the U.S. Special Forces as an interpreter, working alongside the U.S. Army Special Forces and the U.S. Navy Seals before joining the Afghan Special Forces in 2013. Yousuf briefly discusses rising through the ranks and ultimately joining Task Force 241 before talking about his work supporting the U.S. withdrawal from Hamid Karzai International Airport in August 2021. Ultimately Yousuf and his colleagues were among the last Afghans to leave HKIA during the withdrawal.

Yousuf expresses pride at having secured special immigrant visa packages for his fellow Task Force 241 members, and briefly talked about his plans for the future in the U.S.

More about Yousuf:

Find 5,000 Days of War: The Firsthand Account of an Afghan Special Forces Operator here.

About the hosts:

Mikael Cook was an Army non-commissioned officer and veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He was an active member of the #DigitalDunkirk movement to evacuate our Afghan allies in August of 2021. You can follow his Instagram @Mikaelcook89.

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 writer who has covered post-withdrawal Afghanistan extensively, primarily in the Washington Examiner. Follow her on Instagram @BWBailey85 or Twitter @BWBailey85.

For listeners in Afghanistan:

If you would like to have your story considered for a future episode, please send us a letter about your experiences to our show e-mail address, [email protected]. Please include as much detail as possible, and let us know if you would like us to give you a pseudonym to protect your identity.

Welcome to Episode 18 of The Afghanistan Project Podcast, where hosts Mikael Cook and Beth Bailey highlight the struggles of Afghans living under Taliban rule, and the efforts of individuals from a variety of backgrounds and political affiliations who have stepped up to provide support to the people of Afghanistan in the chaos that followed the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

This week’s guest is Brian Castner, a weapons investigator at Amnesty International who was part of the research team behind a June 2023 report that uncovered evidence of Taliban war crimes and collective punishment in northern Afghanistan’s Panjshir province.

Brian told us about his work documenting the crimes that took place prior to and during the fall of Afghanistan, which led him to be in Kabul at the time of the Taliban takeover in August 2021. We discussed the variety of crimes that were taking place at the time of the fall, and the impossibility of documenting every incident – particularly of the reprisal killings that were taking place around the country when the Taliban began to target their former enemies for death.

Brian gave us insights into how Amnesty International gathers evidence of the crimes it is able to investigate and prove, and we discussed some of the findings in the war crimes report in Panjshir, as well as the steps the international community can take to ensure accountability in the future. While many of Amnesty International’s recommendations in the report are for the Taliban, we also discussed the likelihood of the Taliban changing their behavior.

More about Brian Castner and Amnesty International:

Find Brian on Twitter @Brian_Castner.

Amnesty International’s most recent report on collective punishment in Panjshir can be found here. Amnesty International’s additional reporting mentioned in the episode includes a report on crimes documented during the fall of Afghanistan, a May 2023 report on Taliban gender persecution, and one of several articles on targeting of Hazara members of the former Afghan government. Follow Amnesty International’s work on Twitter @amnesty.

About the hosts:

Mikael Cook was an Army non-commissioned officer and veteran of the war in Afghanistan. He was an active member of the #DigitalDunkirk movement to evacuate our Afghan allies in August of 2021. You can follow his Instagram @Mikaelcook89.

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 writer who has covered post-withdrawal Afghanistan extensively, primarily in the Washington Examiner. Follow her on Instagram @BWBailey85 or Twitter @BWBailey85.

For listeners in Afghanistan:

If you would like to have your story considered for a future episode, please send us a letter about your experiences to our show e-mail address, [email protected]. Please include as much detail as possible, and let us know if you would like us to give you a pseudonym to protect your identity.