this is from nbc s richard engel in his report. let s take a listen to this. reporter: we met gina abowi, an afghan american from virginia. she moved back to afghanistan to teach six years ago when it was much safer. it was a dream come true for me. i have house by the mountains. i cannot imagine leaving but unfortunately it is time to go. reporter: you left obviously the house. everything, everything, everything. small little suitcase with my laptop and that s it. reporter: she s bringing 25 members of her extended family. she doesn t want to leave. i m sure it wasn t lost on you her last name is also abawi. we have to say she made it out. i m curious what you are hearing from afghans hoping to evacuate. there are desperate afghans and they are, yes, fleeing the taliban, fleeing violence but poverty. the banks have been frozen. money is not coming in.
produce to the rest of the world in the future. i do fear that that means involvement in the future. look, i don t know, the war was not popular. the war was not a popular war, but it didn t have to be this way. there could have been a better way to leave it. atia abawi, i hope we don t have to play this clip and all you prophesied down the road together. thank you so much, my friend. why new england is bracing for something that hasn t happened in 30 years.
seeing the children and families coming off with huge smiles warms your heart. joining me now a former nbc correspondent that reported from kabul for years. her novel the secret sky is set in affidavit, atia, i m so glad to welcome you back. as we talk about this new isis threat at the airport, what do you make of that, atia? reporter: thank you for having me. it is a frightening situation for everyone there, americans, afghans and the international community. what is happening right now is what i think many people feared would happen. right now we have been seeing for the last several days the taliban presenting an image of inclusivity and forgiveness, but anyone that knows afghanistan knows that the taliban isn t just one group. as the afghans would say they have many hands. we saw the hakani network now pretty much taking over kabul. for people who don t know who the hakani network are, they re pretty much gangsters aligned
airport for whatever reason. what we do know is that 6,000 people are now at the airport. 6,000 people have been able to make it, have made it through the processing and as of a couple of hours ago we received only a small handful of reports otherwise from american citizens. reporter: so just to follow up on that, and you say you are doing everything you can, but also yesterday defense secretary austin . you have been listening to ned price there, the spokesperson for the state department, talk about where we are and the status of all of the people, the tens of thousands of people who are still trying to make it to that airport and get out of afghanistan. let s bring back nick paton walsh and phil mudd. we also want to bring in former cnn and nbc kabul bureau chief atia abawi. great to have you here. phil, i want to start with you because it worries me, but i don t know if it worries you that ned price and no one can really give specific numbers. if they don t know the specific de
to help you build your nation. here we are watching them being handed over to the taliban, and those scenes outside of the airport, they are just as devastating. those are the lucky ones who actually got to make it to the airport, but not able to get in. i tried to help a female commando and we were lucky enough after 17 hours, she was told to rush to the airport, to get her into the base. she got there, and she had to wait outside for 17 hours, and the only reason she got in was because of a connection she had from someone outside of afghanistan. her other female commandos all stuck with their families as the taliban were shooting one of the sisters was shot in the hand. this is absolute chaos. someone needs to take the blame, and we all know where the blame lies, but they re not taking the actual blame for it. as you said, this is the taliban when the western world is watching. what then will happen once those cameras leave? tia abawi, phil mudd and nick