“Save me and my family”: an Afghan who rescued Joe Biden in 2008 calls for help

It is a cry for help that is like a last hope. In the Wall Street Journal, a former Afghan interpreter for the US military, stranded in Kabul after the US withdrawal, asks Joe Biden, whom he rescued during a snowstorm in Afghanistan in 2008, for help.

“Hello Mr. President: save me and my family. Don’t forget me here”, pleads Mohammed, who does not give his last name, because he fears for his life since the return to power of the Taliban. The man has since been living in hiding with his family. “I can’t go out, I’m very scared”, he confides.

The ex-interpreter, stationed at Bagram air base, was part of a unit that came to rescue three senators, including Joe Biden, visiting Afghanistan in February 2008. Caught in a snowstorm, their helicopter had to land emergency in a valley about thirty kilometers from the base, according to a former soldier interviewed by the daily.

Once the three elected officials were safe, Mohammed had been on guard for thirty hours around the aircraft while waiting for a favorable weather window to take off again.

Since the final withdrawal of the Americans on August 30, testimonies have multiplied in the American press of Afghan civilians who worked for the American forces who could not be evacuated in time and by plane. On Monday, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said 250 American nationals were still on American soil and that the authorities would do everything to get them out of there.

Mohammed applied for a special immigration visa, issued to those who worked with the US military. But the company that employed him lost the necessary documents, according to Brian Genthe, an Arizona National Guard sergeant who was part of the rescue mission.

After the Taliban victory, Mohammed tried his luck at Kabul airport, where a massive evacuation operation was underway. But American soldiers refused to let his family come in with him.

“Our message (to Mohammed) is: thank you for fighting with us for the past 20 years “, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said. “We will send you away”, she promised.

the Washington post also reports on the situation of Mike, another former Afghan interpreter with a green card who now lives in the United States. Returning to Afghanistan to try to evacuate his family, he hides around Kabul with his wife, three children, his parents, two brothers and a sister.

He waited for 36 hours in front of the gates of the airport, but could not pass the gates, according to Zach Disbrow, his former commander in 2012 who had however found him places in a military plane.