i can confirm that we have begun to transfer people from dohar. the first flights have arrived in germany. we expect to have other locations coming online in the coming days, which will allow us to make sure that we can maximize that flow. again, what we want to do in all of this, the metric and the only metric that we care about is how many people we are able to relocate, to bring to safety, whether that is americans that were repatriating to the united states, whether it's third country nationals whose relocation we're facilitating to their home countries or whether it is to at-risk afghans. many cases siv applicants will be brought to the united states. in some cases we have heard these very generous offers of allies that will be willing to post at-risk afghans as they undergo that process. >> can you list the countries that are right now receiving the u.s. evacuation flights? >> we will have a statement from the secretary where he's going to be in a position to offer some additional detail on this. as you know, many of these individuals have b

i remember a year and a half ago i was in dohar and i interviewed the taliban's political director and he was essentially playing lip service. we'll have an all inclusive government there, women's rights will continue to be enhanced. it wasn't going to be like the dark days in the early '90s and none of that was true. we can see that is all going to reverse back to some of the worst periods in history. those days where you would see peopleou executed in soccer stadiums where the taliban would walk around kabul and grabbing people's beards and if it wasn't a full hands length they would beat them senseless. 13-year-old boys wouldn't have facial hair and be beaten by the taliban and ite think that's wh is going to happen there. we have people who have worked for us, afghans making desperate phone calls saying if we could lend them money to get their wife and children out of afghanistan, they'll abandon their homes and anything else they have in their country to get their family over here. ali, a very difficult existence for afghan refugees that come to iran. forced to do menial jobs and

. >> and al-jazeera's based in dohar, and qatar. they've been the host for the negotiations between a.m.m.mbas and afghan government members and the taliban. they were the hosts. they offered to host that core taliban membership who was set free from guantanamo bay, sent to dohar, given home in dohar so ultimately there could be this potential. when we look at the countries that are going to want to recognize the taliban, if we go back to the 1990s, pakistan, the u.a.e. were very quick to recognize them. there were three countries total that would recognize them. slowly that came over the coming years before 9/11. you have countries like qatar that are going to feel they have some kind of influence over the taliban at the moment. they've posted that leadership for them. you could have countries like pakistan that feel they got some kind of influence over the taliban. i think you're going to see those nations feel that they have a stake, some leverage potentially with the pal taliban. the reality is the taliban has shown when they ar

they're sending the same man they've been sending for years to the same place, dohar in the hope thaton ground territory to use a similar argument to hope to slow that progress down. now obviously in the past the u.s. had the leverage of forces on the ground and significant deplorable air power. they're still using air power but the defense suggested there was air strikes around helmand just recently but that is reduced and has a clock ticking on it of about 3 weeks and it will stop when the u.s. has fully withdrawn. it may be that we hear a similar argument in dohar and they some power and some international recognition and then you have to submit to a peace deal with the afghan government but frankly looking at scenes you're seeing and hearing of the seventh capital farrah falling today to the insurgency, it doesn't look like they have a particularly strong case there. the taliban have been very clear they want a cease-fire, in the last 48 hours. so it is entirely possible i think that that meeting will eventually be seen as exposing what many critics say is the sham of this peace p

base in dohar and crowded conditions at the air base in germany. we'll show you pictures.xt flight. these are u.s. air bases. this happens to be in germany. pretty incredible. comes as president biden praises collision efforts because the evacuation was 123,000 civilians that are now scattered at these types of bases that came out of afghanistan. >> we completed one of the biggest airlifts in history with more than 120,000 people evacuated to safety. that number is more than double what most experts felt were possible. no nation, no nation has ever done anything like it in all of history. only the united states had the capacity and the will and ability to do it. >> he's right. it is a record, right? it's an incredible thing. but now the question is what now? all these people on air bases with nowhere to go. "outfront" now will hurd what is an undercover cia agent in afghanistan and pakistan and i appreciate your time. congressman, so just taking the air base and the chairman of the house armed services committee adam smith last night told me specifically about dohar there

who is this in dohar standing next to taliban official mullah badar who is now the de facto leader ofhanistan. oh, wait, that's you, mike. that is, of course, then secretary of state mike pompeo with badar who was released from prison in pakistan in 2018 at the request of the trump administration so he could participate in negotiations. the two of them first met in september of 2020 and again two months later in november, because one meeting with the taliban was not nearly enough for tough guy mike. up until a couple of months ago, trump himself was still touting his great deal and his decision to pull out all u.s. troops. >> i started the process, all the troops are coming back home. they couldn't stop the process. 21 years is enough, don't we think? 21 years. they couldn't stop the process. they wanted to, but it was very tough to stop the process. >> that was at the end of june. he wanted credit for bringing the troops home. he did not want joe biden to get any credit for his deal. now trump says joe biden should resign in disgrace for what he has allowed to happen in afghanistan.

not tie his hands with the ability to stay past the 31st of august and to take them to a place like doharthers are going right now. but i hear you on the legislation, congressman. >> that is correct. that is correct. and that will evolve as we get closer to the end of the month and we'll see what the situation is. >> okay. thank you. i'm sorry we're pressed for time but do come back. >> that's okay. >> thank you. >> thank you. >>> well a different story all week long. new yorkers have been enjoying a celebration of sorts for free hip-hop con certainties and being dubbed home coming week. there is another show in brooklyn, all part of the lead up to we love nyc concert starting at 5:00 p.m. on saturday. the lineup por than a dozen musical acts including wycliff john and ll cool j and barry manilow and jennifer hudson. you have to show proof of one dose of the covid vaccine to get in. at any moment we're expecting an update from the pentagon on the on going evacuations. we'll bring you that live the moment it starts. ♪all by yourself.♪ you look a little lost. i can't find my hotel. oh. oh!

nick, what is the view from dohar right now which is, as we have learned, the main first stop for so many evacuees once they leave kabul? >> i've been speaking to a source familiar with the situation on that airport. it does sound frankly chaotic. that's the word this source used. apparently the main challenge is to get more people off these closing windows off the actual evacuation. as you heard the pentagon, there are thought to be 10,000 currently at the airport, up from the 1,000 this morning. i also understand that the australians, canadians and italians are beginning their process of departure. that is a sign certainly that nato allies, too, as well as -- you heard the pentagon explain the departure of hundreds of troops in the past 24 hours was part of a general flow but not triggering the beginning of the end of this presence. nato allies appear to be taking this opportunity to leave as well. the question we keep asking is can these siv applicants get onto the base. i understand it's very difficult for those on the base trying to pull siv applicants aside, to identify them, g

capital city really is critical in brokering a power sharing agreement, because right now the talks in doharalt because the taliban of making military advances and one of the maxims of negotiating an end to a military conflict is each side wants the facts on the ground to be as advantageous as possible to the negotiating table. every day there's delay, the taliban's facts on the ground look better and better, so the ability to hold the line in kabul finally gives the central government some more negotiating leverage in doha, and that's why it's a question. >> congressman, thank you for being on and talking with us about the developments overseas. we appreciate that. >>> come up on the show, "nbc nightly news" lester holt talks about the latest installment in the "justice for all" series we've been doing. an exclusive interview with the man on track to take over the next manhattan district attorney and you know what investigation that office is heading, that's right, the one involving donald trump. gold. your strategic advantage. if you're 55 and up, t-mobile has plans built just for you. swi

senior taliban officials in dohar, qatar, are said to have been involved in the discussions as well a. defactor u.s./taliban alliance was outlined to me more than two years ago by general austin scott miller, the last u.s. commander in afghanistan. miller and his colleagues described operations where u.s. counterterrorism forces had killed top islamic state leaders and taliban forces had then consolidated control on the ground. ignatius goes on to caution working with the taliban won't be easy. is there a possibility? what is the relationship, the working relationship, with the taliban going to look like as they take on this potential threat from isis? >> i think it's an eventuality that if we want to make sure this is not a safe haven over the horizon, then we will have to work with the taliban to ensure that. there's some conflation on times when we think back to 9/11. yes, the taliban gave al qaeda safe haven. yes, they stayed loyal to al qaeda. but they weren't exactly in on the 9/11 attack. they weren't totally familiar with it. i believe the u.s. and the west by and large will a

everybody's professions of disbelief and surprise, most analysts who understood what was not happening in dohar, peace talks that were meant to engineer some kind of proper transition from one u.s.-led force to the afghans didn't pay off. the afghan taliban continued to fight on the ground while they continued to make empty promises to the united states in do har qatar. the afghan taliban are doing today what they're doing is very similar to what they did back in 1996 and the 90s. when they also stormed in and by and large took most of the cities, including kabul, without a fight. that is the way it has happened in afghanistan. first, under the taliban for the last 20 plus years. i think you'll probably see history describe this as a day that will live in infamy. you have fast approaching the anniversary of 9/11, the reason for the united states to enter afghanistan and to correctly pub back al qaeda and the taliban which attacked the homeland has now been completely and utterly handed back to the taliban. they have been handed back by the united states rapid withdrawal. the land of afghanistan

the flight was actually coming in from dohar. the middle of the flight, the mother went into labor. there were complications. according to air mobility command, the airplane commander took a decision to actually decrease altitude to try and increase the air pressure in the cabin and that, according to air mobility command, may have saved her life. then when they landed at the air base here, the medical group rushed in to the plane to help deliver the baby safely. they didn't have time to move her, so the mother delivered the baby in the cargo bay of the plane. it was pretty incredible. so that's good news for at least one family. they are now safe and healthy. mother and baby at a local hospital here. but the flights are continuing to arrive to the air base. there are now more than 6,000 evacuees stationed here. >> just wonderful, that story. thank you so much for that. we appreciate that update. >>> for more information on how you can help those affected by the crisis in afghanistan, log onto cnn.com/impact. we'll be right back.

what i would tell you is coming out of general mckenzie's discussions with senior taliban leaders in dohar, our commanders at the airport are in communication with taliban commanders on the ground outside of the airport. there have been discussions, there is communication between them and us. and i would just let the results speak for themselves. i'm not going to get into the details of how those discussions are progressing because there are interactions multiple times a day and as the general said, i think very well, there has been no hostile interactions from the taliban to our operations at the airport. >> so the point of that would be to allow -- that the taliban is willing to allow it to proceed and they're cooperating in that regard? >> i would just let the results speak for themselves so far. and we're not taking anything for granted. >> and prior to august 31st? >> i'm sorry, yeah. right now at the general made clear, the mission runs through august 31st. the commander -in-chief made it clear we're to complete this drawdown by august 31st and which includes the american -- the pull

and this is the negotiations with the taliban, political commission in dohar.s always a pipedream, judy. and it was a key element of our self-dilusion. and then what we did was we delivered really tremendous psychological blows to the afghan people, afghan leaders and afghan security forces on our way out. you know, judy, if we were going to leave afghnistan, why didn't we just leave. why did we make concession after concession on our way out that forced the afghan government to release 5,000 of some of the most heinous people on earth who wept right back to terrorism. and then of course right back to the battlefield as we know, right. and-- . >> woodruff: and some of those. >> >> woodruff: again, my apology for interrupting but some of those concessions, of course, came during former president trump's administration when you were there as national security advisor. i do want to ask you, general mcmaster. >> no, judy, have i to correct you on that. that was not when i was there as national security advisor. when i was there, i think, the president put into-- pl

the city of dohar, we're told twelve and a half months and then we're told a retreat, then they tookeople, the armored cars with themselves and left no ammunition to taliban. so i think there are brave stories and bravery stories of afghan security forces, but nothing is helping. and since even yesterday's announcement by the state department, if you look at the single ticket in afghan commercial airline tickets, there is no ticket left. everybody is trying to leave because they assume it's a window of 48 hours or a few days that they have to secure themselves and, at the same time, it was just not two days ago that "wasngton posted" something that the city will collapse in 30 days. so what it all brings to, it's strongly impacting the morale. and, also, it is a war that is a battlefield in the front line that we are militarily fighting this war, and there is one psychological war. and i think i always say the psychological part we have lost long again, and i think that's with our allies and friends as well. i think our allies here in the u.s. have also lost the psychological war, de

>> well, it's american responsibility because we maintain the air bridge, we maintain the links to doharombat controllers. that's the air force teams that actually run the airport properly. so we have more lift capacity than just about everyone. when we brought that air bridge to descend down into the karzai airport, it became our responsibility. and it's better that it's under our control because our nato allies know how to integrate with us, chartered jets can fly in there. we have aircraft from everywhere in the world flying in there, particularly, you know, from the united arab emirates, turkey, saudi arabia. it's not just u.s. forces and nato forces are evacuating their own citizens, but we maintain the perimeter and we run this entire effort. let me say one other thing here, joy. this is going to be, if it stays on track and isis khorasan could screw this up at any minute, the second largest non-combatant evacuation in american history. this is not dunkirk. this is a semipermissive noncombatant operation. we are taking out just about anybody who is there who can prove they are u.s.

was in kabul, now in dohar, qatar. richard, who is making it out? >> reporter: nobody really knows.ple who could get onto the base could convince the marines that they had a sympathetic case. some have paperwork. some do not. some are unaccompanied minors. it's really a mixed bag. that's part of the problem here, that this was initially supposed to be evacuation for very limited people, american citizens, foreign contractors, foreign nationals an those who worked with american troops and were at risk. but now there is total panic in kabul. people are rushing to that base, so it is very, very difficult, because you have really half a base that is trying to do this evacuation plan, this extraction plan to try to pull out the people that the united states wants to pull out, but also so many others are flooding in at the same time. >> richard, do we have any idea how many more people who are -- who should be getting out, american citizens and our allies, are left to be gotten out, do we have a good idea of what number that is? >> reporter: not really. thousands certainly. the state depa

richard engel in dohar, qatar, glad you got out. >>> look.iticians in four parties have their fingers on afghanistan's 20-year policy. it's now president biden who has become the face of this disastrous withdrawal. we have a new nbc news poll taken as americans were witnessing this chaos in kabul. mr. biden's approval rating stands at a fairly mediocre 49%, 48% disapproving in our polarized politics. that isn't the end of the world. if you compare it to last april when the numbers were 53% approved, 39% disapproved, you start to see erosion. not surprisingly, approval of mr. biden's handling of the situation in afghanistan is extremely low, just 25%. but the president's overall slippage is less about afghanistan than about two other issues. approval of his handling of the coronavirus is down a whopping 16 points, just 53% approve now, 69% in april. approval of his handling of the economy is standing at 49%. that's upside down now. it was 52%. mr. biden has three weeks to set things right in afghanistan. let's be honest, with headlines like th

let's go to ralph sanchez joining us from dohar, qatar. we got some alerts here at msnbc news last night about imminent threats in the next 24, 36 hours telling americans leave that airport. of course, the irony is, they need to get to the airport to get out of afghanistan and avoid any of these threats in the first place. talk about what we know about these threats and how likely something could happen. >> yeah, alex, the white house very concerned about a repeat of thursday's attack. the president saying last night it was highly likely there was another attack in the next 24, 36 hours. if you do the gram math on that we are expecting the afghan affiliate of the islamic state to attack some time today at kabul airport. we don't have details on what exactly the white house is expecting. would it be another repeat of the suicide bombing we saw on thursday? could it be a truck bomb aimed at the gates of the airport? possibly rocket fire targeting those remaining aircrafts that are still making their way out. the evacuation is continuing unde

i travelled to dohar to meet with this member of the taliban peace negotiation team.happy to have a joint government under the umbrella of islamic sharia. a sharia—based system in afghanistan by like the taliban used to have. if we talk about law and order and justice, if someone were to steal or commit adultery what should happen to them? all this is clearly stated in the quran, if someone steals, there is a punishment. for example, for some thefts the punishment is cutting off the hand and foot. if someone commits adultery, then they should be stoned. and if there is not a political resolution to this conflict are you prepared to take kabul by force? i'm trying to defeat the government and they are trying to make me disappear. in the end we will be compelled to kill one another. increasingly it appears there is a disconnect between what is being said back in the political office in delhi and what the taliban commanders and foot soldiers are doing on the ground in afghanistan. but the vice president of afghanistan remains defiant. this group in dohar, they are a dece

he joins us from dohar, qatar. richard, you were at that very gate.enixs that led to the moment yesterday? >> i didn't sense the tensions that led up to the attack, itself. there was an alitter, there was a potential for some sort of isis attack on the airport. it have been very tense for a long time. the reason the talibanaggressivs just described, pushing people back. firing in the air was because they were is large. think of it as a military base, not just an airport. there are three key gates, afghans have been screaming, pushing to that gate. some with paperwork, who see the planes coming if, taking off. it's like a magnet, a lure. they've go to them to think they request get out of the country. among these crowds of people who have paperwork around others don't came this suicide bomber as he was getting a pat-down detonated his device and killed those marines and so many afghans around him. it seems this was a dual attack. near gate, there is another building, we talk about it. it's a hotel, not exactly a home. more of almost a little military c

on august the 15th in a meeting with taliban senior leadership in dohar, i delivered a message on behalf of the president that our mission in kabul was now the evacuation of americans and our partners, that we would not tolerate interference, and that we would forcefully defend our forces and the evacuees if necessary. the taliban's response in that meeting was in line with what they've said publicly. while they stated their intent to enter and occupy kabul, they also offered to work with us on a deconfliction mission while our forces operated in close quarters. finally, they promised not to interfere with our withdrawal. it's important to understand that within 48 hours of the execution order, the facts on the ground had changed significantly. we had gone from cooperating our security with a longtime partner and ally to initiating a pragmatic relationship of necessity with a long time enemy. and to that environment, the army's 82nd air force division deployed and employed their forces and did extraordinary work with the leading elements of our reinforcement package to safely close the e