Men attempt to enter Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan August 16, 2021.
Stringer|Reuters
The publishers of 3 significant U.S. papers asked President Joe Biden on Monday to assist Afghan associates of their reporters leave Afghanistan.
The demands from The New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal followed they pleaded with the White House to transfer to safety more than 200 reporters and associated individuals associated with the documents who are “in danger” at the Kabul airport.
Post Publisher Fred Ryan asked nationwide security consultant Jake Sullivan in an “urgent request” e-mail to have them moved from the civilian side of Hamid Karzai International Airport “to the military side where they can be safe as they await evacuation flights.”
“They are currently in danger and need the US government to get them to safety,” Ryan composed in the e-mail, which he stated he was composing on behalf of the 3 papers.
Afghan individuals sit as they wait to leave the Kabul airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021, after an amazingly quick end to Afghanistan’s 20- year war, as countless individuals mobbed the city’s airport attempting to leave the group’s feared hardline brand name of Islamist guideline.
Wakil Kohsar|AFP|Getty Images
Ryan composed that there are 204 reporters, support personnel and member of the family from the 3 papers who are stuck on the civilian side of the airport.
Later Monday, Ryan, Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger and Journal Publisher Almar Latour sent out Biden a joint letter advising him to assist get Afghan associates related to the documents out of the nation.
“For the past twenty years, brave Afghan colleagues have worked tirelessly to help The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal share news and information from the region with the global public,” the letter stated.
“Now, those colleagues and their families are trapped in Kabul, their lives in peril.”
“As employers, we are looking for support for our colleagues and as journalists we’re looking for an unequivocal signal that the government will stand behind the free press,” the publishers composed. “In that light, we ask the American government to move urgently and take three concrete steps necessary to protect their safety.”
The letter particularly asked Biden to provide the Afghan associates “facilitated and protected access to the US-controlled airport;” “safe passage through a protected access gate to the airport;” and “facilitated air movement out of the country.”
Thousands of Afghans swarmed the tarmac of the airport Monday after the Taliban caught the capital, Kabul.
Kamal Alam, a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and senior advisor to the Massoud Foundation, informed CNBC, “No one can really leave.”
“If you don’t have a visa or passport, you’re not going,” stated Alam, who is stuck in Afghanistan.
