'We have control of the airport now'
| 'We have control of the airport now'  It's one of the oldest tricks in the Washington book.
Whenever a big foreign-policy venture goes bad, sooner or later political leaders and other national security agencies declare an intelligence failure. In the case of the debacle in Kabul, US spy agencies are being accused of failing to predict the collapse of the Afghan government and army and the speed of the Taliban victory. Blaming the covert community is a favorite tactic since by definition it can't talk back; there are no daily briefings at the CIA HQ over in Virginia.
On the face of it, the current crisis could join the list of cataclysmic global events that US spies missed — like the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fact that Saddam Hussein definitely didn't have WMDs before the Iraq War. But it's far from clear that the botched US evacuation from Afghanistan can be laid solely at the feet of US intelligence agencies.
We don't yet know exactly what US intelligence agencies told President Joe Biden, but it is obvious the US never had sufficient troops in the country to perform the orderly exit of US diplomats, citizens and Afghan interpreters in the event Kabul fell. That is a policy decision. Even if the US misjudged the speed at which the Afghan state imploded, you don't have to be a master spy to twig what might happen when the US began to leave after 20 years of propping the government up.
Another reason why politicians get away with blaming spies in these situations is public confusion on what intelligence actually is. Intelligence analysts operating on input from agents in the field, communications intercepts and other material try to create the best possible picture of trends and circumstances that are not openly available. It's not an exact science. There is a reason why intelligence reports sent to the President are called estimates. Some come with assessments by various spy agencies that rate the community's confidence in their conclusions.
It's the job of political leaders to evaluate intelligence, to test it against their own analyses, conversations, views and experience — and to consider different scenarios that might unfold if the spies have got it wrong. All too often, as with Iraq, the White House cherry-picks information that supports its own predetermined political goals, like in the Simon & Garfunkel song when "a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." The world and America Rain – instead of snow – fell on Greenland's summit for the first time.
Meanwhile in America, three US senators tested positive for Covid-19.
 'We have control of the airport now'  "We have the airport now," US President Joe Biden said in an ABC interview yesterday, arguing that some order was being established amid his country's otherwise chaotic last days of withdrawal from Afghanistan. But while Afghans desperate to leave the country may no longer be clinging to airplanes on the runway, chaos reigns just outside Kabul's international airport: Taliban checkpoints are preventing some Afghans from even reaching the facility, and several people told CNN they were ultimately turned away despite having the correct paperwork.
Below, footage captured by the peace-promoting organization Rise to Peace shows US soldiers shouting at Afghan citizens gathered outside. Witnesses say US forces have fired tear gas to deter crowds, and images of mothers handing their babies to British soldiers over barbed wire outside the airport have emerged on social media. (UK Defense Minister Ben Wallace said Thursday that they cannot take unaccompanied minors, and that those parents would have had to force their way through the crowds to be reunited with their children.)  The view from Kunduz In most provinces far from Kabul, life is already hard. Women are often neglected due to a lack of opportunities and resources, and the pressure of the incoming Taliban regime only adds to their challenges, writes CNN's Nilly Kohzad, who spoke with a local journalist in the northern city of Kunduz. CNN is not using her name, for her own security.
The city of 350,000 is quiet, but tense. "It's calm right now but people are worried," she said. "The people here have lost their peace of mind; they are stressed. The Taliban are saying girls can go back to school but once they do go, the [Taliban] complain that they must be escorted with a male relative. Girls cannot just go out by themselves anymore; they need a male chaperone."
For her, one incident encapsulates the seismic change in Afghanistan. "The other day one of our female teachers went back to school and hopped on a rickshaw to get there. In Kunduz, it's very common to travel via rickshaw. However, the Taliban stopped them and beat up the driver for transporting her without a male chaperone. This is what we are currently dealing with," she said.
She is trying to find a way to flee the country, but with little luck so far. "I want to leave Kunduz and leave the country to be safe. I am a local journalist here and my only hope is organizations that are willing to help journalists flee. I've emailed everyone but received nothing in return." Thanks for sticking with us through the week.
On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin meets German Chancellor Angela Merkel for talks in Moscow. An extraordinary virtual meeting of the North Atlantic Council will be held to discuss Afghanistan. Abu Dhabi will allow vaccinated people into some public spaces. On Saturday, metro Manila reimposes strict stay-at-home measures under modified enhanced community quarantine. Former US President Donald Trump speaks to supporters in Alabama. View in browser | All CNN Newsletters
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