UK's Afghan allies ‘left at the mercy of Taliban’

[Eldorado]

The Civil Service’s work-from-home policy left Afghan refugees at the mercy of the Taliban, a Foreign Office whistleblower has told MPs.

Raphael Marshall, a 25-year-old desk officer with no prior knowledge or experience of Afghanistan, was one of the civil servants chosen to monitor an email inbox of applications for emergency evacuation from Kabul airport.

He has submitted to the House of Commons’ Foreign Affairs Committee a dossier of evidence detailing the dysfunctional and bureaucratic process used to choose which civilians to save. 

MSN

[itsnotoutthere]

Love to see the official figures on how many Afghans rescued (or not) claimed asylum in the UK yet somehow happily ended up back in Kabul.

[itsnotoutthere]

Yes, saw this on the BBC news this morning......any mention of Joe Biden is missing from the long report about the chaos of the withdrawal from Afghanistan, despite him being ultimately responsible for it. Odd that.

Also the 'whistleblower' apparently was the only guy working in the office......where were all the other civil servants?  "working from home" perhaps?

Edited December 7, 2021 by itsnotoutthere

[Silver]

Will this be end for Johnson as PM? Was he right to prioritise dogs in the scamble to leave Afghanistan, or should we have put the interpreters and allies first:

Until this morning, Boris Johnson faced the slim, but nevertheless real, possibility that he might become the first British prime minister to be brought down by a game of Secret Santa. So he will, in some small regard, have been grateful for the arrival of new allegations against him, namely that he personally intervened to have some dogs pushed to the front of the Afghanistan evacuation queue, ahead of actual human soldiers who had fought alongside British forces, and who have now been left to die. There’s more shame in those allegations, naturally, but there’s more dignity too.

It’s raining cats and dogs – and Boris Johnson is getting soaked | The Independent

Edited December 7, 2021 by The Silver Shroud

[Silver]

This government regularly gets compared to outrageous, corrupt, extreme regimes from around the world and around history. Such comparisons are usually far-fetched. But one wonders if they are any more. I cannot readily think of many a historical comparison: of a government maintaining a lie, in the face of certain evidence, on a subject so emotive. Especially when there is scarcely anyone in the country who doesn’t know someone who has died a lonely death, unable to be comforted by friends and family, while all their government can do is lie and laugh about it.

And this leaves precious little time for the other outrage, the Harrison letter. This letter was read out to head civil servant Dr Philip Barton at the Foreign Office, the person nominally in charge, alongside Dominic Raab, of the Kabul evacuation, by the MP Chris Bryant. He nodded, stared at the floor several times over, and said, “I didn’t know about the letter.” It hardly bears repeating that this letter concerns the evacuation of dogs ahead of people who risked their lives for a country that wasn’t even their own. It’s so contemptible it’s almost surreal.

It is often said that governments have the stench of death about them when their time is up. This one has stunk the place out from day one. It’s an active health hazard now, quite literally. There is no precedent for how things are meant to carry on like this.

Voices: Boris Johnson’s two most shameful lies just blew up in the most spectacular way (msn.com)

Edited December 7, 2021 by The Silver Shroud