watch online at c pan. org or listen on the c-span radio app. >> c-span is your unfiltered view of government and funded by these television companies and more, including media com. >> the world changed in an instant but mediacom was ready and we never slowed down. schools and businesses went virtual and we powered a new reality. because at media com we're built to keep you ahead. >> media com supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers giving you a front row seat to democracy. host: we're joined next by lara seligmann, a defense reporter for politico as we look at this final day of u.s. efforts in afghanistan. lara seligmann, good morning.

lara guest: thank you for having me. host: we see chris donahue exiting the c-130, not the final departure ceremony when the u.s. wraps up in places, was there any sort of ceremony to mark that? #. guest: not really. general donahue and the admiral pete baisley were the last two americans on the ground in afghanistan in kabul yesterday and were two of the last flights out of the country yesterday. it's really a historic day and we can't forget the 2400 american lives that we lost in afghanistan over the last 20 years as well as $83 billion spent on the country. it's really a huge effort and to see it go out like this was certainly not the way the biden administration wanted to end this war. the one celebration that did happen on the ground last night was from the taliban.

they were shooting guns in the air and celebrating into the streets the end of what they called the american occupation of afghanistan and i think that really speaks volumes about how far this has fallen from the scenes the administration really wanted going into this withdrawal and now you've seen over the past couple weeks the taliban walked into kabul, the afghan army collapsed, the afghan government collapsed and scenes of chaos around the airport were all over the news, and this massive, massive evacuation effort finally wrapped up yesterday after evacuating tens of thousands, i believe it was 120,000 -- 120,000 over that amount which is the largest u.s. military airlift in u.s. history. and i think that while that massive airlift was a success as general mackensie said, there was just no way to get everybody out. there were still several hundred americans on the ground that want to get out.

there are still tens of thousands of at-risk afghans and refugees and interpreters that worked with the u.s. and their allies. it's really a big question right now what's going to happen to them next. host: let's talk about the defense, the so-called over the horizon look at afghanistan to keep an eye on potential terrorist threats from afghanistan and that region, what does it look like for the u.s. military? guest: over the horizon is a target word getting fed all over the news and really what it means is coming from outside of afghanistan. so, for example, the drone strike the other day that took out two isis targets in the vehicle in kabul was a drone that came from over the horizon in the middle east, like lot the gulf, likely qatar and one of those countries. the problem here is that it's a very long flight. by manned aircraft, it is nine hours from the gulf to

afghanistan. and by drone, that is also a long flight as well and the difficulty is the drones can't stay on station very long when they have little fuel left. we have a limited capability though it's a limited capability with no troops on the ground, it's very difficult to get to afghanistan from the middle east. and it's going to really limit our ability to strike terrorists in afghanistan and then of course with zero troops on the ground, you have to assume there are at least some level of c.i.a. operatives but with very few people on the ground it will be difficult to find the intelligence we need about where these terrorists are at and what the taliban is doing to actually go after them and strike them. so while we do have some counterterrorism capability, it certainly is diminished. host: the last 13 deaths in afghanistan were those killed in the attack in kabul last week and you wrote about that in the

planning for the anticipation of a strike like that at the pentagon. what did you learn and how did the pentagon prepare? were they surprised by the quickness of that attack? #. guest: they actually were not surprised by the attack. they knew about the attack up to a 24-48 window and down to the specific location that it happened at. and what i reported on was detailed notes from three separate classified phone calls at the very highest levels of the pentagon the day before the attack august 25 showing the pentagon knew exactly where and when this attack would occur and now they did take many measures to try to prevent this attack, to close the gate and thin out the crowd so they could spot any kind of threat but how it ended up happening was that abby gate was not closed on time as it was planned thursday afternoon before the attack happened.

the americans decided to open the gates for a little bit longer to let the british continue evacuating their personnel. they of course had accelerated their withdrawal and they still had people on base at the nearby baron hotel which is just a few feet from abby gates and why unfortunately american service members were still at abby gate processing entrants at kabul at 6:00 p.m. on thursday when a suicide bomber walked up and detonated his vest. host: how was your report received by the pentagon? guest: the pentagon was not happy there was classified information that was leaked to me. so yesterday the pentagon spokesperson, john kirby condemned what he called unlawful leak of classified information particularly at such a sensitive time when these operations are still wrapping up, but of course politico is aware of the sensitivity of this information and there was certainly information we

withheld knowing we did not want to put american troops or any troops in harm's way and we did not want to jeopardize the operation either. so i think while the pentagon was not happy, i think politico and myself, we handled it as responsible journalists should. host: lara seligmann covers the pentagon and defense issues and read more at politico.com. thanks for being with us this morning. guest: thank you so much. ♪# >> this year marks the 20th anniversary of the september 11 attacks,. jay: us for live coverage from new york, the pentagon, and shanksville, pennsylvania starting at 7:00 a.m. eastern saturday, september 11, on c-span. watch online at c-span. org or listen on the