as the president s meeting begins here in washington, the clock is sticking in kabul, and the president is sticking with the time for the forces to leave the country in six days from now, but with the contingency plans in place should they be needed. the pentagon says some 86,000 people have been evacuated, including 19,000 in the last 24 hours, and 10,000 more remaining at the airport waiting and hoping that the next flight out is going to be theirs. outside of the airport perimeter, military officials have acknowledged that u.s. forces have made a limited number of missions to pick up americans and allies who can t get to the airport themselves. there are also private flights out being organized by veterans, military contractors and aide workers and former spies. some of the contractors are charging the passengers thousands of dollars, but even as the herculean effort is
are trying to help fill the gap. people crowd around as the team drops off a few hundred sandwiches now they know where to go aide workers say thousands more meals will likely follow soon. it s a great thing they were able to identify that town in need but actually getting the resources, the substantive resources needed into that area, that s another challenge entirety. i spoke to the u.n. development manager here he said aid will increase in the next few days, something that s needed across the region. thank you for showing us the struggle and symptom answers that are and help that are coming their way. still to come, imminent approval? a source telling cnn that full approval of the pfizer vaccine could come soon.
harris: the new york post broke it and the pentagon is dealing now reporting one of the taliban masterminds behind the group s swift takeover of afghanistan, the whole country in 10 days is one of the gitmo five. the former guantanamo bay prisoners swapped for the army deserter bowe bergdahl in 2014. that was president obama s disaster. national security correspondent jennifer griffin live at the pentagon. nouf what do we know about these five? pentagon officials told us they are in talks with the taliban to allow certain categories of individuals, diplomats, journalists and western aide workers through the cordon set up by the taliban in cab all. one of the state department s point of contacts was with
individuals diplomats, journalists and western aide workers. their point of contact is taliban leaders in qatar, one of the very top taliban leaders, five in total released from guantanamo bay in 2014 as part of the sergeant bowe bergdahl prisoner swap carried out under president obama. known as the taliban five they quickly set up an embassy in qatar and were among the leaders the trump administration began exit talks with and now under president biden who was in the white house at the time of the bergdahl deal orchestrated the overthrow. afghan government and humiliating scenes at the kabul aircraft. the former taliban interior minister held at gitmo sat across from u.s. envoys in moscow recently to discuss the final terms. of the u.s. withdrawal. among those who took the afghan presidential palace this
i ll stay focused on the task at hand, getting as many people out as rapidly as possible and take that day by day. you can t commit to bringing back every american? there is a large number of christian missionaries and aide workers typically vulnerable because they are christians. is there a plan to get them to the airport and get them out? we are working with a variety of different types of groups, journalists, aid we workers ando forth to help facilitate their departure from the country, yes. talk about the contingency plan. the president of the united states left the white house on friday. when did your administration know another 6,000 troops would be needed for this withdrawal? so on wednesday evening, the president convened the principals to discuss the deteriorating situation on the ground in afghanistan. he posed the question as to whether we had to flow more forces in from the point of view of a contingency to draw down the embassy and secure evacuation. thursday mor