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Pleaded on the phone. i told them, look. this family is a special case. when he said everybody is especially said, you have to hear me. you have to know who i am. and where i come from. reporter: he managed to convince the official. his family was through, escorted to a waiting c-17. his sister s worried face turned to joy. they were on their way to the united states. i broke down and i said, i just can t believe that so many people came together for so many hours for essentially so many days to make this happen. lieutenant masoud told us he will never be the same again after this ordeal trying to get his family out of afghanistan. the point he was making here really was the official channels were not working. they were in his words overwhelmed. he had to do this himself with his own connections the same way so many have had to rely on these private operations to get themselves and loved ones out of afghanistan. and there are at least three dozen or so people like ....
His family headed to the kabul airport like thousands of others just as an isis suicide bomber attacked killing almost 200 people including u.s. troops. i saw they had definitely been killed, immediately i went into a panic and started calling my sisters. reporter: they were okay. inner by on a bus sent by the cia. they waited at a gas station as masoud helped by a cia contact inside tried to find another way for them into the airport. a lot of my family members have worked for the u.s. government in the last 20 years in afghanistan. i thought the process would be a lot easier than it was. reporter: masoud was desperate, cold calling everyone he could think of i reached out to very, very senior government officials, senators, congressmen men and women. a number of u.s. military generals including general milley, including general who you did not know. ....
who i did not know. here is the most junior officer in the united states army reaching out to these senior, senior government officials. reporter: his efforts underscoring the chaos and now the widespread criticism that the biden administration has not done enough to evacuate the families of afghan american troops. if you look at prioritizing of course any american citizen but certainly family members of the united states military should be at the highest priority. reporter: congressman michael mccall believes there are around 100 family members of afghan american troops like maso ucht d still in afghanistan. our embassy is not there anymore. we have no military on the ground. and if we have to rely on the taliban to get them out that is not a good assurance. reporter: masoud s calls worked. his family was directed to a secret cia controlled gate at the airport. but a state department official refused to let them pass. masoud, a former cia official, and national guard colon ....
Lieutenant masoud. thank you so much for that important story. we are just a few hours away from a special cnn town hall with president biden. chances of getting a deal on his economic plan may have just plummeted for the short term. stay with us. supplement insurance plan from unitedhealthcare. medicare supplement plans help by paying some of what medicare doesn t. and let you see any doctor. any specialist. anywhere in the u.s. who accepts medicare patients. so if you have this. consider adding this. call unitedhealthcare today for your free decision guide. you know, you hear a lot about celiac, but i never thought my dna would tell me i had a higher risk for it. i mean, i m a food critic. ....