Page 141 - Phil Mudd News Today

Try to get down the airport road by the taliban themselves. >> sam, look, we cant overstate how big an airlift this has been. but as you said, the numbers are down, way down, so it appears the door here is closing for folks to get out and there will be many left behind. that is becoming very, very apparent. sam kiley, thank you. all right. joining us now is cnn counterterrorism analyst phil mudd, former senior intelligence adviser and former senior counterterrorism official. phil, the next six...

Slow start meant we could get fewer people out than we would have gotten out if we started fast. john, i can do oversight from memphis and give you that. reprehensible. they ought to go from their committees. >> phil, i do just want to add because we heard about that very question that you raise -- look, i think there are more questions to follow about it, but molten and meyer say they were actually on a plane where there were empty seats and they were in crew seats begging the question of how m...

I think once they have landed, they would have been walking around with busy military folks who were already doing a job. i dont think they would have needed that much security or taken that much time. just like some of the reporters flying in, what weve learned and been able to tell the world, even tell people like the pentagon and the white house, this is what you say is happening, but this is what we see happening. i think they went on an important fact-finding mission but thats just the repo...

About, and we saw this at the beginning of this episode. you have to plan for eventualities and for the unknown. the unknown is how do you get people out if the taliban rejects them at the airport? is there a way to get them out on commercial aircraft? is there a way to accept visa holders in places like india and places like the middle east who miss out on military aircraft, but somehow figure out a way to say, ive got business in india, ive got to leave now. i think the next question will be i...

They should never have gone. >> colonel, were curious about your thoughts on that. how much did they complicate this mission for the military? >> well, as a former congressional liaison, i can tell you that they certainly complicated things. in peacetime situations when a congressman goes to a particular location, its enough of a circus when they come through and thats partly because we want to make sure that they get the right information and in some cases we want to impress them. but on the ot...

Certify? youre not just taking john doe off the street and saying you can get a flight into dulles airport and settle into vienna, virginia. id just say one other thing. i worry about the lack of bipartisanship. president trump told us to get out. president biden got us out. its going to be partisans in congress who say this is how america failed. 80,000 plus people have gone out in an experience of american heroism that should live for decades. the members of congress will screw us by being una...

Is make sure that youre constantly following that intelligence target that is giving you that information. youre also seeking new intelligence sources to try to find out exact ly what theyre saying, how theyre saying it. you hope that the national agencies are providing all of the data that they have that pertain to your particular operation. if youre the intelligence information officer on the ground in kabul, youre getting streams of information not only from your tactical capabilities but als...

From yesterday but not very far off those at all. >> okay. oren liebermann, nick paton walsh, kaitlin collins, thanks for the reporting. now lets get analysis. kimberly dozier is a columnist for "time" magazine. colonel cedric leighton is an air force veteran. and counterterrorism analyst phil mudd is a former cia official. colonel, i want to start with you. as we just heard, the stakes are getting higher. i dont know that we knew there were 4,100 u.s. citizens that still need to get out of afgh...

Taliban. they would be the ones -- they would be the only ones capable of doing that. they would have to be the ones to prevent that flood from occurring. so this is a very dicey operation, especially those last few moments. and what of course the taliban would want to do, we would hope, is to prevent a flood of people onto the airport in those last moments. but that would be their mission. of course that would require coordination with the u.s. commander thats on scene there right now. >> and t...

>> yes, yes. >> who knows what the hell they will be doing next. phil mudd, thank you very much. >> thank you. coming up, how a democratic divide is putting president bidens huge spending plan in jeopardy now. were learning what nancy pelosi just told her caucus. its where safe and daring seamlessly intersect. its understated, yet over-delivers. it is truly the mercedes-benz of sports sedans. visit your local mercedes-benz dealer today for exceptional lease and financing offers. ♪ ♪ (vo) u...