Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said Sunday executions of Afghans who were U.S. partners are now taking place in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the executions show “this is the same old Taliban.”
“Executions are taking place, we are getting videos coming in, stories and interpreters as being blocked by the Taliban,” he said.
“The retaliation has been severe,” he said. “Stories of interpreters being taken out to their families and watching their wives and families being beheaded, executed before they execute the interpreter. This is not a new and improved Taliban, this is the same old Taliban… reverting back to with the same brutal practices.”
According to McCaul, what’s needed is the ability to “see the threat so that we can respond” and “eliminate it.”
“We don't have that capability anymore and we're going back to pre-9/11 right now but it's worse,” he said. “It's worse because now they are fully armed with our weapons, our helicopters and pallets of our cash.”
McCaul also lamented that no Americans have been allowed to fly out of Afghanistan since U.S. troops left, saying there were six planes waiting and wouldn’t be cleared, and “the Taliban is holding them hostage for demands right now.”
“My concern is they are going to demand more and more, whether it be cash or legitimacy as the government of Afghanistan,” he added.
“This is really turning into a hostage situation where they are not going to allow American citizens to leave until they get full recognition from the United States of America,” he said.
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Fran Beyer ✉
Fran Beyer is a writer with Newsmax and covers national politics.
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