we re working with 27 american citizens right now that i assure you all of them wanted out, and we couldn t get them out. when that failed i was going to say, i do want to talk to you about that. obviously you re aware, you re facing criticism for efforts to get in the country, first i want to ask you about this characterization of what happened by the u.s. state department. you said you didn t necessarily want to be talking about this in the press, but here you are, and you re taking very much issue with how the state department is characterizing this, so i just want to get to the bottom of what you re taking issue with because the state department said the u.s. has facilitated the safe departure by overland route. amba just to be clear, are you saying they did not facilitate the overland departure of these four or embassy staff were not present at the exit? they got present on the second day. we traveled over 300 miles with
ambassador said washington, d.c., representative mullin, i m not to assist you in any way. it was until the second day that we almost had her out that the state department came in, and when they came in, they did come in to help, i ll give you that. for them to take credit and say they negotiated with the taliban, our guys with the sentinel foundation walked across the bridge and was trying to negotiate with the taliban. not the state department, our guys. sentinel foundation, they are nonpolitical, they don t want to be in the picture. they do this all over the country, all over the world, they were taking on the negotiation. when i seen the state department come out and take credit for this, it is absolutely a lie. so it sounds like what you re saying is they didn t it was the group you re involved with that shepherded this woman and her three kids through the overland route, the state department obviously did come in at the end and they helped get this person through this border
glir we have been assured again that all-american citizens and afghan citizens with valid travel documents will be allowed to leave and, again, we intend to hold the taliban to that. they have upheld that commitment in at least one instance in the last 24 hours with a family that was able to leave through an overland route and we are not aware of anyone being held on an aircraft or any hostages-like situation in masri shareef. we are told the border is totally locked now. it was our team who was able to basically trick the taliban commander into letting them through because they thought [inaudible] had a number was to ha and we convinced them that doha where the leadership was had approved this. mike: so there we are. some americans were able to get
happening? reporter: yes, they said they will allow those with valid travel documents to leave the country. on the ground we are seeing a tremendous amount of confusion with these planes not leaving the country. i want you to listen to what the secretary of state said and we will talk about what republican lawmakers have been saying is the problem. the secretary here. we have been assured, again, that all american citizens and afghan citizens with valid travel documents will be allowed to leave. again, we intend to hold the taliban to that. they ve upheld that commitment in at least one instance in the last 24 hours with a family that was able to leave through an overland route and we re not aware of anyone being held on an aircraft or any hostage-like situation in mazar-e sharif. reporter: now, his reference there to a hostage-like situation is because the top republican on the house foreign affairs committee said over the weekend that there was a hostage-like situation with ame
hours with a family that was able to leave in an overland route and we are not aware of anyone being held on an aircraft or hostage-like situation in mazar-i-sharif. reporter: on the question of the four people who have gone out over land, we understand from the state department who are not releasing which route they took, but waiting 1 hours at the border before being allowed to cross and this messaging is being held close in case they have to use it in the future. but once they were able to clear through the taliban lines, they were able to get out safely and were in constant communication with state department officials throughout their journey. that was a woman and three children who were able to get out. so a positive sign that the taliban are perhaps making good on at least on their promise to