and they have a history of fighting one another. but every day, we have troops on the ground. these troops and innocent civilians at the airport face the risk of attack from isis-k from a distance even though we re moving back the perimeter significantly. we are sustaining the highest level of vigilance for an attack against the airport by isis-k or another terrorist group. they re real and significant challenges that we also have to take into consideration. the longer we stay, starting with the acute and growing risk of an attack by a terrorist group known as isis-k, an isis affiliate in afghanistan, which is a sworn enemy of the taliban, as well. every day we re on the ground is another day we know that isis-k is seeking to target the airport and attack both u.s. and allied forces and innocent civilians. it s hard to overstate the complexity and the danger of this effort. we re operating in a hostile environment in a city and
photojournalist working for the los angeles times. he is joining us live now from kabul. mr. yam plans to remain there. he was at the site of the bombing outside the gates of the kabul airport. thanks for taking such pains to be with us tonight. i know this is not an easy time difference or, indeed, an easy time. thank you for having me on the show. so, u.s. officials up to and including president biden had repeatedly warned that crowds at the airport might be targeted by an isis terrorist attack. when you ve been there in recent days. when you have been among the crowds at the airport, what what was it like? did it seem like it was a soft target for a potential attack? did it seem like those those sort of warnings were were warranted on the ground? um i mean, first of all, i mean generally i stay away from crowds.
community has been receiving a steady stream of intelligence about potential terrorist attacks by isis-k over the last week. but that intelligence was not enough, unfortunately, to thwart this attack at the airport. the airport right now according to officials that we have been speaking to it s just completely indefensible. and that is why president biden has made it such a top priority to get troops out um by tuesday. because he says that the threat that they are, you know, dealing with here is going to be persistent and it s going to get worse. um, officials were telling us today that really by the hour, the isis threat is worsening. they don t expect it to let up. and this is part of the reason, again, why they are relying so much on the taliban here to do security not only around the airport. but of course, also around kabul. that really didn t work today. obviously, we saw things slip through the cracks. these suicide bombers were able to get through this taliban checkpoint cl
overall they are caught on video committing violence against law enforcement and believe in these delusional conspiracy theories about a stolen election, and in many cases have expressed their desire to continue fighting this battle. so for someone from so close in trump s orbit who literally pushed around a golden idol of trump at cpac saying we want to get these cops who are in jail is such a mind-blowing scenario when you look back at what the trump campaign was all about, which was the idea of law and order. the fact they re caught on video attacking police officers is really just astonishing. that was a major attack during the campaign, was that, say, the now vice president was supporting bail funds for people who are charged with more minor crimes during some of the unrest last summer. and now we ve had a total flip on that. we re just completely everything is sort of thrown off and it s amazing how quickly the
the u.s. military. spelling you know, i thought the very same thing. when you hear some of the general and the secretary saying we need to figure out exactly who this is. we need some time to be able to go after this. like a detective, right, time to put this together. it means delay, delaying the game. my question to you is how long can you delayed this before having political ramifications to say, and nobody s done anything about the isis k attack on u.s. service members back in late august? exactly everyone in america and around the world is watching to see what biden will do but political is the word. the military always has plans ready and they have the targeted analysis, that calvary analysis ready. it is the political decision that is always the whole depth. we have seen fresh mistakes every day from this white house.