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Ourselves. we're there to defend ourselves while we process american citizens first but also the other categories of people that i mentioned, get them to a place where we can fly them out to a safer, better future. >> just to be clear, this suicide bomber was going through the gate, being searched, checked by u.s. service members when he detonated his vest? >> that would be my working assumption. he did not get onto the installation. it was at the interface point where this attack occurred. we're gathering information. we're investigating that. but right now our focus really, we have other act...

Left to the august 31st deadline and fine it goes beyond that and as general mckenzie said he has the forces he need. he'll readjust based on the number and he'll do different things but what i would point out is general mckenzie also talked about the threats in the remaining days. he looks to continue with the kneel operation and also look to get final aircraft out of there. you know, the big bullets, the man pad, the shoulder-fired anti-air weapons, those are relatively easy things to take care of. always at the forefront of my mind in the dangers as we transition to this was the suicide bom...

>> so long since anyone has lost their life in afghanistan, but even deeper than that for the u.s. military, it has now been several years sense they had what they call a mass casualty incident like this where so many service members have died at once. we have seen it in helicopter accidents, shootdowns, fire fights, but nothing like this in recent years. general mckenzie took a fair amount of time trying to lay the picture out for everyone of what transpired at the airport. so let's just review a couple of things that he said. a suicide bomber probably wearing a vest, they believe, approached...

We believe some attacks have been thwarted by them. we've been doing this since the 14th. this is an attack that's been carried out. we believe it's possible others have been thwarted. we cut down the information we give the taliban. they don't get the full range of information we have, but we give them enough to try to prevent these attacks. we try to push out the boundary even further so we don't get large crowds massing at the gate. clearly at abbey gate we had a larger crowd than we would like. it shows the system is not perfect. standoff for attacks like this is always the best defense. u...

General mckenzie offered some new detail. he said they've been having the taliban try and screen people. it's not a perfect process. some of the taliban are very thorough, some are not. nobody believes the taliban let the suicide bomber through on purpose. they don't obviously know for sure, but there's no reason to think it. somehow the suicide bomber passes through the initial taliban checkpoint. they are screened. he also noted that the u.s. has been offering the taliban some limited intelligence about this kind of thing. they pass through, they approach the marines at the gate. this is the...