Omnishambles in Kabul

With US forces leaving Afghanistan, we are seeing the devastating consequences of a counterintelligence program coming undone in Kabul and other cities

After the Afghan National Defence & Security Forces (ANDSF) suffered a series of stunning collapses and defections, the Taliban are back in control of Afghanistan.

Taliban fighters take control of the Afghan presidential palace in Kabul after president Ashraf Ghani fled the country. (AP Photo)

As they gained control of province after province this past month, disturbing reports began trickling in from those provinces. Soldiers of ANDSF are being tracked and executed by the Taliban in places like Kandahar.

James Glancy @jaglancy

The Afghans we were with in February, were all executed outside their homes in Kandahar on Thursday.

Members of the Special Operations Forces (SOFs) and Pilots of the ANDSF appear to be high priority targets for the Taliban.

Bill Kristol @BillKristol

2. He's now forwarded me a text message from an Afghan friend. He asked that I tweet it. "Terrorists are going door to door and killing pilots and SOFs, raping their families, and taking their houses. Two of my friends were shot dead. In Kabul." END

Kate Hoit @KateHoit

Here’s an example of the messages that have been flooding my husband’s inbox (and many other vets). I’m truly speechless…

Senior commanders of the ANDSF are also being targeted.

Dr Mike Martin ⛵️ @ThreshedThought

Senior Afghan army commanders have gone to ground in Kabul as the Taliban are hunting for them.

The Taliban are going door to door.

Matt Zeller @mattczeller

The Taliban are going door to door looking for our wartime allies. If we do not take them now, they’re going to kill them. #OurFriendsAreDying #SaveOurAllies #KeepOurPromise #TakeThemAll #EvacuateNow

The systematic manner in which they’re going about doing this suggests they have taken control of personnel records of the previous government, a distinct possibility since the speed with which it collapsed would have prevented an orderly disposal of such documents.

In addition to soldiers and Afghans who served the previous government, the Taliban are also tracking down Afghans who worked with the United States Government (USG) in roles such as interpreters.

Joe Lonsdale @JTLonsdale

“An Afghani interpreter I have come to know well over the years was hung in the streets last night. They melted his DoD ID into his chest. Cut off his arms. And killed his family. His 10 year old daughter was spared and handed off to leadership.” (From a note to my friend)

Speed

But there’s another aspect beyond government documents that has a bearing on the speed with which the Taliban are identifying and executing people who worked with USG.

The Afghan biometrics program was established in 2009.

It’s objective was:

to collect the fingerprints, iris scans, and facial images of Afghan national security forces.

By 2011, 300,000 Afghans had been enrolled into the program. This included soldiers, policemen, and interpreters. Anyone who ever worked with USG had their fingerprints and iris scans in this system. Even prisoners. Latent fingerprints were also lifted from battlefields and fed into the database.

The idea was to prevent Taliban or their sympathisers from infiltrating the ANDSF and getting close to USG personnel.

The system allows the Afghans to thoroughly screen applicants and recruits for any potential negative past history or criminal linkages, while at the same time it provides an additional measure of security at checkpoints and major facilities to prevent possible entrance and access by malign actors in Afghanistan

—NATO Training Mission-Afghanistan commander Lt. Gen. William Caldwell

This system was used by USG in Iraq before being deployed in Afghanistan, and it seems at least a few within the US Army were prescient about the biometrics system becoming a hitlist in the wrong hands.

"This database," Lt. Col. John Velliquette, an Army biometrics manager in Iraq, tells Danger Room, "becomes is a hit list if it gets in the wrong hands." A parallel case could be made for Afghanistan.

Kunduz kidnappings

And those fears turned out to be true. The Taliban appear to have gained access to the biometrics system as far back as 2016. In May-June of that year, the Taliban ambushed multiple buses travelling on the Kunduz-Baghlan highway.

The buses were ordered to pull over, and everyone inside was made to disembark. They initially took 200 hostages, and 10 people were executed on the spot. Two more were killed later.

The Taliban identified ANDSF personnel travelling home on leave through their fingerprints.

The passengers said Taliban had a machine which checked their fingerprints. Most of the passengers were not familiar with the machine but we knew it was a biometric device that could identify security force members from amongst civilians

—Sher Aziz Kamawal, commander of 808 Spinzar Zone

Kabul today

The contractor responsible for maintaining the system seems to have fled without destroying the database. The system is now being used by the Taliban today to hunt down anyone who collaborated with the erstwhile Afghan government and USG. It is being used at checkpoints established throughout Kabul to scan and identify collaborators.

Amanda Milius @AmandaMilius

Guest on msnbc just said the taliban have “our biometric database” of everyone who worked for US and are using it at checkpoints. When / how did that happen? Was that a massive story at the time or wtf? They used AF as a testing ground for biometrics and this is how it ends up?

And while executions haven’t begun at a large scale in Kabul, the Taliban are visiting houses and marking them with the promise that they’ll return later to deal with them.

YeahOkBro @YeahOkBruhh

@AmandaMilius Yep, they are going to people's homes, taking their information, telling them they "will be back to deal with them" There is a list of people that the taliban are after, and there are people on that list who are American supports and contractors. Their lives are in great danger.

The withdrawal has been a real omnishambles. And it will get a lot bloodier for Afghans very soon.

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