a life threatening heat wave is sweeping across parts of western north america. excessive heat warnings and watches are in place for all of oregon. and washington states. in the us city of port and temperature swords record high of 42 degrees celsius on saturday. us in the state of oregon, which normally experiences mild weather. ah, a quick check of the headlines here on the al jazeera, the us military has conducted as strikes against iranian back militia. 2 locations in syria and one in iraq were targeted both along the border. iraq's popular midland nation force as for their members, were killed in the attacks. one after my pentagon correspondent rosalind jordan laid on sunday. the paragon announced that the orders of jo brightened, the u. s. president. the us military launched defensive precision air strikes against 3 targets. 2 in syria and one in iraq. the targets are,

are ron backed militias, according to the pentagon groups that have been trying to launch drone attacks on us forces and bases inside iraq. the paragon goes on to say that the president used his constitutional authority to order these airstrikes in order to protect us forces, who are in a rock, providing training and support to the rocky military. a devastating 3rd wave of cobra 19 in south africa has prompted new restrictions for 2 weeks. thank lew, the closure of schools and extension of a nighttime curfew and a ban on all gathering the death toll from a collapsible florida apartment tower 3 days ago as was into 952 people are still unaccounted for. there been more protests over the killing of a prominent critic of palestinian president bath in the oxide west bank supporters

of his father party clash with demonstrators in ramallah. the p. a security forces were accused of attacking the media mainstream political parties in france of defeated the far right and regional elections. exit polls indicate the traditional center, right? conservatives have secured 7 regions, while the central left party looks to be on cause to control 5 regions. marina pens, national ronnie has failed to win. its 1st of a region and its strong hold on must say a nice and a curfew has been declared in benny in democratic republic of congo after 3 bomb attacks. over the weekend, 2 people were wounded when an improvised bomb detonated in a church in the eastern city on sunday. as the 1st such attack on a catholic church in the area, it was followed hours later by a suicide bombing outside a bar. well, those are the headlines and it continues here and i'll just era after in fact, story special. thanks a lot bye for now i joined 0 as part of the launch team in 2006 pro just as

a call from 1000000 mom march. in that time i covered wars, revolutions, elections, and military push from the for venice of correct. so the battle fields around most of our job is to get to the truth and empower people through knowledge you. it's true sets and these down is done by the middle of september. but what about the afghan tooth? assisted them during 20 years of war. the thousands of translators and interpreting have a future in america, or continue to live under the threats of the caliber fixes inside the door. ah, hello everyone, i'm come out. santa maria, for nearly 2 decades, thousands of afghans have risked their lives to work with us troops in what became

america's longest war. but that war is coming to an end, at least from a us perspective. and it's leaving those afghans feeling more and more threatened by the prospect of taliban attacks. the u. s. troop withdrawal approaches. now president joe biden says those who have helped us will not be left behind, interpreted drivers, cooks so many others. they have already been offered to apply for a special immigration visa, but approvals have been slow and recent corona virus outright at the u. s embassy and campbell, and they delayed things further. when he's 18000 applicants with at least 50000 family members have been waiting for their documents to be processed. a will be relocated to a 3rd country until their visa applications come through. that announcement was made by the white house on friday. we have identified a group of s i v, applicants, special immigrant visa applicants who have served as interpreters and translators, as well as other at risk category. to have assisted us, they will be relocated to

a location outside of afghanistan. before we complete our military drop down by september in order to complete the be the application process. so they will do it from another location. the additional details of that i'm just not going to be able to speak to from here. but more than 100, former ask and interpretive who worked with us military forces, actually protested outside the american embassy in campbell on friday. as a many has been denied visas and cold on washington to get them out of the country . all different rules can please be withdrawn from jonathan, and after that, if we target by all of them, if we kill it, if we get or get kill it by, it's all about who's, who's responsible for and so that's why we are again, we're asking for jack this again, we are raising our vice. you're asking for our safety and protection. this is our right. that's. we're not government. give us visa to them because

they don't charge off the visa to clear $100.00 person. we are dying enemies right. david. just want to tell us what we want to provide you. we don't want our kids to jump in. all of this is happening after president biden pledge to withdraw the troops from afghanistan by september 11. the 20th anniversary of the attacks on new york and washington d. c, that actually led to the war and kind of some bottom promised continued support for the nation as he met africa. leaders of the white house recently i've got security forces are struggling with increased attacks by the taliban in recent weeks. in fact, it has taken territory in many parts of the country. recently the taliban advance raising doubts about the sold piece talks aimed at ending at kind of sounds almost 20 year war. the seller introduce our guests for today's staffing in carbo with our zoo media,

who used to be an interpreter for the us army in afghanistan. in washington dc as lawrence called former assistant secretary of defense, now a senior fellow at the center for american progress. and also in cobble is victoria fountain, who's a professor of peace studies at the american university of afghanistan. thank you to all of you, lawrence and victoria. i hope you understand that i'll put my 1st few questions to out there because i really want you to understand what the job entails and get a real feel for what she has done over the past. what was it 5 years or tell us about the job? tell us about how you got involved and what it and what it entails. hello sir. at the 1st i would like to thank you for giving it a chance to talk about sie applications. i work for youth government for duty and doing projects are 5 years in afghan and to we are asking cities and who serve

these missions and as galveston. unfortunately, we are now left behind and last sure thing, danger and dire me. i have served the and i have for of the farm sensitive untrusted activities for years gather, i'm going to do my employment and which is still i'm waiting for my id and my 5 years under on been 3 years. okay. we'll talk more about the visa status in a moment. again, i want to get a little more idea about the job. were you out on the front lines with, with, with forces where you just tell us about what you actually were doing. or as much as you can tell us what you were doing with the, with the united states. actually sir. and these projects nor earth wrong duty and us and the devil are money duties which i, which are hot and which i perform during my employment. and the men demand responsibility for me was still dealing with the different ministries and dealing,

dealing with the different provinces and with my supervisor to the front, she had to talk later an interface or beside this i was assigned to perform at finance. the finance work for the company and to during those times i had a really good achievement for the company. and besides this, on year 2017, i was awarded coworker early from the from this project from the united states of america. and it was, it was not easy, it was not easy for them without me to have all the cheese meant and i could do my job any better way. what complex this well done to you. one final question before i go onto our other guests and that's just, you know, you're an interpreter, but there are so many other roles out there on their, their drivers and cooks. and so many people who, you know, can be in an office or they can be on the, on the front lines. even it is

a lot of responsibility in a lot of risk. yeah, for sure. so, as you know, that it's not easy enough can, if not at this situation, that if the people, i mean, if they ask guns to try to work with americans. but we did this in a better way. it is not only for the ends of it or do who, who, who work along side and, and stand with the americans and help them to accomplish their mission and afghan is done. and they put their life actually in dressing and right now, now they're, most of them are not secure here as we see all the news, the dig a 100 murdered by the taliban, and other religious people. and especially the female, as you know that the, against this even the female work with the look of people. but like me, i work for and i can or i may come government there. so it was not easy for us and still be feeling fear from taliban and other religious people. ok are there,

i'll come back to you shortly. i want to bring lawrence called into our conversation now and just listening to receive a lawrence. it just made me think you really can't overstate the importance of the role of the interpreter or any of these a collaborators in the theater of war. and to be fair, even with all the problems that are happening, the u. s. is very much saying we know the importance here and we are acknowledging it. well, there's no doubt about the fact that whatever we've accomplished militarily, we wouldn't have been able to do without these brave men and women the other as we would have had a lot more american casualties. we're not for them. so we, as a country, all of them an awful lot, and we've got to help them deal with what comes after, when the united states leaves that, that involves them wanting to come to the united states. we should make it as expeditious as possible. and it's really frustrating,

we should have been planning for this. once we started the drop down, what have we been waiting for? and the drop down actually started back in 2011 when we began cutting a number of troops that met you, needed less interpreters and less drivers and everything. we should have been trying to help those folks get to the united states if that's what they want to do . absolutely. right. kinda preempted what i was going to ask you, but i will carry on with it because yeah, it's the thing that people could be moved to to guam or to, to other goals countries in august it feels like such a rush and even then, well, who knows how long they would be in these 3rd countries while at that's, that's correct. and you know, we could do, we could tend them, for example, to guam, which is an american territory and go through the whole, you know, processing stage while we're there. but we had all kinds of, you know, inappropriate regulation. you know how to work for 2 years?

no, it should be 2 minutes if you will work in the united states. and then we took us a while to give them special immigrant visas. we put them through the regular process which could take up to 5 year. so again, you know, and i'm old and i was in vietnam and i remember we didn't prepare for that one. so i gone, fell. we had all those people comment out on, on boats and stuff like that. we should have learned from that. let's bring victoria fontenot compensation victoria thing you nodding along there. i'm sure you want to respond to what we've heard. but something i would actually like to ask you as well, almost the opposite of what lauren said lawrence pointed out that these people have been brave and almost heroes really for the united states. the taliban, i guess doesn't just do them as collaborators, probably views them as traitors. absolutely. and does anybody have issued a statement more than a month ago saying that they would not harm specifically the people who work for coordination forces and he repented. and so what does that mean and how is it going

to be carried out? and i think that it's extremely dangerous to issue such a statement. speaker, at the end of the day it indicates and he also indicated to the local between where do you read to me that the section fair again to talk at them and that they have a crime. and so that's the certainly it's concerning a lot of people, not sure to work with the united states, but the entire coordination forces just to build on something we talked about with lawrence as well. just your thoughts on, on, on the, as i said, the rush, which is happening here to get this done. and whilst the united states very much trying to say no, we're not forgetting people, we're going to do this. i'm going to do that. clearly. it's an afterthought. or looks like an afterthought, at least. absolutely. the french have already evacuated more than a 100 of staff members and their families who are friends and you know, to,

to do the see no good. what is going to happen between now and august. they are short, mur, coalition again henceforth was dying. the last one died 6 days ago, so they are being talking and then moving them to guam. why exactly? when they are being and they are going to expensive checks. i have a collaborator who left for the us embassy. you could euro for the security checks for her to be clear to work at the end. so why, why would they be per right as and why? and they have given so much they have been recruited alongside really, so that's why not go directly to united states. exactly, lawrence, just before i go back to ours, or it struck me that there's the 3rd countries involved. now, guam, which is a u. s. territory, but also these gulf states which have been mentioned as well. and then the theories that they would go to the united states, would that even be guaranteed? this was a us led war, wasn't it? it was a nato war. so are other major countries in place?

well, we should guarantee and not just them, but they are families because you can't just take out the 18 to 20000 interpreters because the taliban will go after their families. and i just suggested guam not to leave them. they are permanently so we could get them out and then begin processing their applications and make sure that when they got to the united states, there would be somebody to be able to care for them. so central to everything we've talked about is the f i v. the special immigrate visa, which i think all 3 of you have mentioned are soon tell us about that. you've applied for one, i'm sure what status is that for you now? where are you at with your application? thank you for your question, sir. after i completed the 2 years with the us government and my supervisor noticed that i'm facing the problem here. so lots of choice in my life, my life. so he gave me recommendation as far later,

so i had to talk to the complete package and i send it to far as i v, as well as the year 2017 which i am my father and my recommendation later another decade today. and this i the email which is still my case is under review. they never asked for any documents. the last email i just received from them was just your case. it's under review. you have to wait for it. they can not tell us that the timeframe has always said there is the money off the can and cannot the last the exact time that when i would get to come approval. the main thing that i'm concerned about this, if there's any documentation required, why they're not asking. i asked the money applicants also for years years under review, their cases under review at the end of the did they get denied. been denied from the embassy. why? it's just bothering why bother, so we're going to cancel our kids or deny it, or if they need for any documentation, bishop us before our supervisor,

leave this country or we cannot get contact with them. actually, i do have contact with my supervisor. but most of the up because the have contact with the supervisor and they're not able to get the confirmation email from them, like the confirmation edition has. many of them has all the confirmation, but they still do this under review. let me so i've been sorry, or if you've been waiting, i think you said 2017. you put in your application. so if you've been waiting 3 or 4 years for this, do you have any face but it will be completed in the next 2 month? i cannot, i cannot see that it depends on the use decision, the use governments to pick this. so you said the situation, you know, it's really critical situation right now and no one can go into our lives there. now, if x bater and i did quiz the president by then administration,

that they should take this to us at this patricia and, and this is an emergency of a question to guam or, or to another intermediate country. because for right now, the main thing we are concerned about our security, our families, it's not just only me extract collins of applique. besides this, all of the applicants have chosen. they have families. so who is they? are this is sponsibility. can anyone get into our lives? actually we all know or can she can she does not do that and you have, you are to witness and you guys can kind of go through social media and you can see that like lead to many do any translators and other people are getting killed day by day, by the other religious people and what is the thought on take over the government? i'm sure these religious people would go to thought up on and if did it look nice if someone report against this, so definitely they will kill us. so before we die in this country,

i use government should take this serious lawrence, what do you think hearing, you know, a personal direct story like that from obviously i know i'm not supposed to take sides in any of this, but it just sounds it doesn't sound right at all that this has been going on. well, correct. i mean, just to hear the story should get people to galvanize center. angus can king, who is an independent book caucuses. what the democrats says, my hair is on fire. when hearing these type of thing, i'm a member of the american legion, we been pressing the congress to change the laws so these people can get it. and more quickly, i think the biden administration finally waking up to the, the problem because when they talked about getting out of afghanistan by, you know, the anniversary of 911. that didn't get deal with this right away. they should have been dealing with it when they knew they were leaving victoria your reaction to what you heard from our is the there, there it's it just, i mean, we know there's

a huge problem here for so many people, but it really personalized certainly for me then hearing about what she's going to and the fear that she has as well. absolutely, it does. and i think that, you know, one should always remember that there is no need to be a ration and no teeth and no development operation without the help of the national staff and everything that we have been doing for the past 20 years has been achieved. thanks to the national south and, and for from my perspective i see that every day i hear this every day from many different areas over and done. and i really think that the highlights are the double standards that exist between international and national the south and, and so far, all those double sanders on materializing that particular type of case. and i really hope that legislators and that the white house is going to wake up to these

and, and change that situation because we're talking about the south and people. and every day what i'm doing, i could not work without the national stuff. and they are really, are i really import, not they. victoria, in researching for this discussion today, i looked at other countries which had had similar plans in place for example, the u. k. and this is what they said they would offer priority relocation to people . and this is a court assessed to be under serious threat of life. and i wonder if we could see a problem here with this us plan because if you're assessing the threat to someone's life, that can be interpreted a different ways content and what ours, who feels as a threat to her life. you know, the other people may not the people making the decisions may not absolutely and not just that, but he thinks fine was says and who assess these and how many commissions and, and i think that it's extremely subjective. and it should be any person who decides

to work for the coordination and does for the coordination should be given. that's right. and not go to so much scrutiny because again, it is the burden of the food on the person to actually say my life in danger. and why, and they shouldn't have to go through that. lawrence, can you remind us what the us is saying about any prerequisites? janitta you said there was a 2 year minimum, wasn't there was something like that. well 1st it was a 2 year minimum, then they change it to to one year. and even that just artificial because if you've been working for 6 months or the u. s. the taliban is not going to say, oh, you didn't do it for a year. so we'll leave you alone. no, we should. or, you know, people are worried. well, if you take a man, you might get a few people who don't deserve. yeah, you can make mistakes. what by and large, you're going to do the right thing and that's why, you know, get them out, get them someplace. if you don't like one, then hit out to staten island, for example, or ellis island, and then go over it to make to make sure,

but you've got to get the, i don't, that's the key thing. and it's also been complicated by the fact you've got colbert there, and you know they're worried about that too. but again, what you need is the president to say must, just as i said, we'll get now plenty of time. we're going to let those people in and do it. some of the other countries being mentioned, lawrence cutter, bahrain, for example, here in the gulf. i mean, what would they have to gain? why would they want to get involved in this? well, again, for humanitarian reasons, if they, you know, and if these people feel they would rather stay in the middle east than come to, you know, our country thousands of miles away. i think they should have that option. but the fact of the matter is, their 1st option, the option they can choose should be the united states if they want to do something . now, why? but we gotta let them have the option to come here with something to run down the clock. so we'll go back to our, is there a marion combo?

let's say i do that. this does happen that you get moved, even if it happens to guam or directly to the united states or wherever. what do you expect of your new life in the united states? what would, what do you want to do? thank you, sir. at 1st, i hope and i wish that you said mister sham this, sir. yes. and do this emergency evacuation directly to the big for those who doesn't have any issue with their s ivy's. why? why this at this day for a long time and guam or, and other country. and once i get my ve, i would, i would rather to work there and i would like to have, i would like my children to be able to continue the school. and i would like to continue working and surveying for the government. beside this i can continue my master degree has i was not able due to security problem here in afghan this time

to continue my education. but i hope that one day i would be able to finish this and do you know anyone? my, do you know anyone are through any of your friends or colleagues who have been successful with their immigration and they've managed to get through to the us? yeah, i do. there is like my 2 friends there, living in virginia. one of them used to work for a w b. now she got her. i think, 2 years ago now she's working in, i don't know and where, but she has a good job at the state and my another friend. her, her husband used to work for the use military. and 8 years ago they went to the united states. they're also living in virginia. they are happy and their kids are happy, their families happy. they don't feel fair from anything. so yeah,

they have good life at the air. i will are one i have now they do ours. are we all hope that this really does turn out well for you in the end? i'm sure lawrence and victoria do as well. thank you so much for your time and your florence coleman, victoria fontaine, as well. thank you so much and as ever thank you for watching. there was always more on line either down to the or dot com where all our previous edition live, or you can catch up. and then if you want facebook dot com forward slash j inside story for more discussion there. and on twitter, the show is at a inside story, i'm at come all a j. if you want to drop me a line from the hole inside story team. thanks for joining us. we'll see you again soon. the teach, you know, you can watch out english streaming live and i get 2 channels plus thousands of our

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