It looks like you're using an Ad Blocker.
Please white-list or disable AboveTopSecret.com in your ad-blocking tool.
Thank you.
Some features of ATS will be disabled while you continue to use an ad-blocker.
“The withdrawal was a catastrophe in my opinion. And there was an inexcusable lack of accountability,” said Vargas-Andrews, who wore a prosthetic arm and scars of his own grave wounds from the bombing...
originally posted by: JinMI
a reply to: Peeple
There were half a dozen or so vets going over there to retrieve folks who got left behind.
No help and infact obstruction from our state dept.
A travesty that did not have to happen.
originally posted by: Irishhaf
a reply to: Peeple
Read today a marine sniper was on the tower near the gate that was hit, he had the first suicide bomber in his cross hairs and they could not get the order to engage.
They had intel it was coming, they ID'd the attacker and still werent allowed to engage, that leadership that refused to give the order should lose their career over that.
Moments before the blast, he and his fellow Marines were providing security from a tower near the gate where the blast occurred. Armed with intelligence about a potential suicide bomber, Vargas-Andrews and those with him spotted an individual matching the suicide bomber's description. The Marines observed as the man engaged in suspicious behavior and sent urgent warnings to leaders asking for permission to engage the suspected bomber.
"Over the communication network we passed that there was a potential threat and that there an IED attack imminent, this was as serious as it could get. I request engagement authority while my team leader was ready on the M110 semi-automatic sniper system. The response, leadership did not have engagement authority for us, do not engage," Vargas-Andrews recounted.
"Nobody wanted my report post-blast. Even NCIS and the FBI failed to interview me."
The troops on the ground had to tirelessly work to control the crowds, day and night. The Department of State staff at HKIA (Hamid Karzai International Airport) would completely shut down processing Afghans every evening and into the morning, leaving ground forces with a nightmare," he said. "State was not prepared to be in HKIA."