Page 993 - Capability News Today

There several times -- is most notable because its remote, mountainous and ungoverned space. you could probably hide an entire large american city in the mountains of afghanistan undetected. it is the very type of place that terrorist groups seek to establish as a headquarters, as a base for training and gathering, whether its afghanistan, the horn of africa, yemen, syria, parts of iraq. so there is that real risk, particularly now that the taliban has taken over again in the government there. o...

>> the ability to continue through-put is very important. so as we look at airfield operations and the ability to get aircraft landed safely, immediately in and loaded and that drives a lot of what we would call time on ground to maximize the amount of evacuees we can get out. as you saw in the last day the numbers, that required as you just said aircraft on average to be ground less than an hour, which is very quick. i do know that trans com and commanders on the ground who are facilitating tha...

Past few days raising red flags for lawmakers. white house correspondent peter doocy has that part of the story tonight. >> the story keeps changing. >> are there al-qaeda members and remnants in afghanistan? yes. >> but two days earlier the president said the opposite. >> look, lets put this thing in perspective here. what interest do we have in afghanistan at this point with al-qaeda gone? >> the confusion is concerning for critics. >> im absolutely concerned about it. clearly he is either sen...

Kabul airport after calling the threat real, acute and pers persistent. >> our commanders on the ground have taken every step they can to prepare for such an attack. our president has authorized every capability that those commanders have asked for to protect the air field against such an attack. >> also tonight, intelligence officials tell cnn that the u.s. is now scrambling to fill the intelligence vacuum that exists following the talibans rapid takeover of the country and officials also sayin...

At risk afghans are absolutely being considered for entry. >> two questions, first of all how many people have been killed at the airport. we have heard seven, nine, a nato official told abc there was 20 killed. >> are you talking about afghans at the gates? >> the total number of people killed on monday when the c-17 took off, two killed in skirmishes in the airport, whats the total number of the people who have died. >> i dont have exact numbers of that, so i cant answer the exact number right...

Operational, logistical, human, and its produced searing images of pain and desperation, but no operation like this, no evacuation from a capital that has fallen in a civil war, could unfold without those images. the question is, are we on track to fulfill our objectives of this operation? to bring out our people, so many of those afghans who helped us, and so many of those afghans at risk. and we believe we are. as we conduct these operations, we are sustaining the highest level of vigilance fo...

Tonight cnn is learning that the u.s. is scrambling to fill a sudden intelligence vacuum in the wake of afghanistans fall to the taliban. brian todd has details about how the u.s. is trying to make up for the sudden loss of vital intelligence. brian, this is a significant new development. very worrisome. >> thats right. you have the convergence of two developments on that front. the u.s. lost a lot of intelligence capability in afghanistan with this withdrawal at the same time that al-qaeda and ...

Are helping u.s. citizens get to the airport so theres a whole complicated system here. and then, of course, to get isis in line. the taliban and isis are not friends. they were actually enemies. isis is essentially motivated to make the taliban look like its not in control of afghanistan. we want out before that period happens. we dont want to be in the middle of that fight. and, yes, this is i think worth pushing the white house on. what will be our counterterrorism capabilities in the future?...

Appropriate as we get closer to the end of the mission. and as you well know we very methodically and deliberately plan in the movement out of assets and equipment and resources so that we can preserve the capability we need for as long as we need it. i will leave it at that. >> it took several days to flow the 5800 in. there were hurdles to get them in. it could take a day or two to get everyone, the military back out. that may bump the timeline back from august 31 to the 29th? >> im still spea...

>> are the forces remaining now in kabul focusing on that evacuation, that mission, the u.s. forces, of course, are they maintaining that capability to maybe deal with a threat from taliban beyond the august 31st deadline or maybe attacks? >> again, i appreciate the question in terms of hypothesizing past the 31st, we just arent there yet. our troops are focused on the mission, the three missions i just articulated. including being able to defend the airport, which means being able to defend the...