What about this hostage situation

[doc03]

GOP Rep McCaul is claiming on Fox? I see no threads on it.

[Ocelot II]

1. He claims the Taliban are holding Americans hostage.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/gop-rep-mike-mccaul-claims-taliban-currently-holding-americans-hostage-for-demands

[Treefrog]

2. I don't watch Fox. Ever.

So, no idea.

[VarryOn]

3. I've been looking for other sources...

And haven't found any. So, not sure what to believe.

[Treefrog]

4. Btw, he is not a senator.

Fox is not a good news source.

[doc03]

5. It just came up as news on my phone

from Buisiness Insider.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

6. GOP Rep. McCaul says 6 planes with Americans onboard are stuck at Afghanistan airport in ...

GOP Rep. McCaul says 6 planes with Americans onboard are stuck at Afghanistan airport in 'hostage situation' with Taliban

Connor Perrett 9 hours ago

Six airplanes are stuck at the Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport in northern Afghanistan with Americans on board, unable to take off because they had not received clearance from the Taliban, Rep. Michael McCaul said on Sunday.

McCaul, a Republican from Texas, made the comments during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday" and said Afghan interpreters were also on the planes.

"In fact we have six airplanes at Mazar-i-Sharif airport, six airplanes, with American citizens on them as I speak, also with these interpreters, and the Taliban is holding them hostage for demands right now," McCaul, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Fox News' Chris Wallace.

"State has cleared these flights and the Taliban will not let them leave the airport," he added.

{snip}

[CurtEastPoint]

12. "What will it take to do business today and drive it home?"

Or: "We are so sorry for your loss. Let's go look at caskets, shall we?"

[WarGamer]

7. I wouldn't use the word "hostage"

Apparently the Taliban isn't allowing 6 planes of evacuees, including Americans to leave Kabul Airport without some American compensation.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/09/05/top-house-republican-says-taliban-holding-6-planes-with-americans-afghans-hostage/?sh=2b9b64732de9

[doc03]

8. I was afraid something like this would happen. Hope

it's just b.s.. Hostage is what he claims.

[WarGamer]

9. This was predictable and probably not politically damaging.

But if AQ or IS-K gets their hands on Americans and hurts them... it'll be bad.

The current situation can be resolved by Biden threatening the Afghan/Taliban Gov't finances...

[Treefrog]

10. Maybe you should give him a call?

[WarGamer]

11. I have confidence that the President and his team are already on it.

[OAITW r.2.0]

13. Republicans love ME American hostages....

that's a big reason why Reagan got elected. Well that and asking the Iranian Revolutionary Guard to hold them until after the election in 1980.

[BumRushDaShow]

15. But then Poppy's grandiose "Operation Desert Shield/Storm"

with 500,000 troops doing a "turkey shoot" wasn't enough to get him re-elected.

[OAITW r.2.0]

16. But it was a 12 year run.....

Forget Reagan, Bush was driving US foreign policy, with a particular emphasis on ME oil. I sure would be interested in the Bush Family net-worth. - from 1963 to 2004.....Dick Cheney as well.

[BumRushDaShow]

17. You could go back before 1963

with this guy - https://www.theguardian.com/world/2004/sep/25/usa.secondworldwar

And gotta watch out for this one waiting in the wings - https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/27/politics/george-p-bush-donald-trump-ken-paxton/index.html

[OAITW r.2.0]

19. I wonder why they never turned George Bush into a WWII hero, like they did with JFK?

Not really, I don't wonder.

[BumRushDaShow]

20. ...

[OAITW r.2.0]

23. Exactly.

And, unlike Bush, JFK's crew gave him credit for their survival. Unfortunately. Bush's crewmates never had a chance. For them to survive, he'd have had to keep the plane flying so they could bail...but that might have meant he would have been killed. Profile in Courage? Maybe not. He was no George McGovern, IMHO.

[OAITW r.2.0]

25. Name me one American Republican war hero in the past 70 years.

If John McCain is the name, remember 2 things.

(1) He was never Republican enough.

(2) Other than destroying 4 planes and getting captured, I don't think he accomplished much in the hero department. Sucks, though, that Trump agrees with me.

Bob Dole may be the last Republican that sacrificed for this country, IMHO.

[hardluck]

30. There's no disagreement

Read the report. Hell, you can watch the video. Why this stupid shit gets repeated here….

[doc03]

32. John McCain could have been released instead he

spent years in captivity and torture. He was a hero, even if you disagreed politically.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

14. This article says four planes

Taliban stop planes of evacuees from leaving but unclear why

KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — At least four planes chartered to evacuate several hundred people seeking to escape the Taliban's takeover of Afghanistan have been unable to leave the country for days, officials said Sunday, with conflicting accounts emerging about why the flights weren't able to take off as pressure ramps up on the United States to help those left behind to flee.

An Afghan official at the airport in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif said that the would-be passengers were Afghans, many of whom did not have passports or visas, and thus were unable to leave the country. He said they had left the airport while the situation was sorted out.

The top Republican on the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Committee, however, said that the group included Americans and they were sitting on the planes, but the Taliban were not letting them take off, effectively “holding them hostage." He did not say where that information came from. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the accounts.

The final days of America's 20-year war in Afghanistan were marked by a harrowing airlift at Kabul's airport to evacuate tens of thousands of people — Americans and their allies — who feared what the future would hold, given the Taliban’s history of repression, particularly of women. When the last troops pulled out on Aug. 30, though, many were left behind.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/taliban-resume-flights-press-assault-142849525.html

Thank you for your concern McCall but could you please stand down and let the adults handle this?

[Raine]

18. I saw an article from the AP saying 4 planes. nt

[revmclaren]

22. I am not seeing anything about US hostages

On any non-right wing media.

Please dont spread right wing propaganda!

[kentuck]

27. Yesterday was the first day a plane was able to take off from the airport...

I heard it reported somewhere.

It was to another city in Afghanistan. They had to repair the runway, they said. They are hoping to get the airport up and running soon.

(I will try to find the link)

I had heard nothing about holding Americans "hostage" or even that Americans were on planes ready to fly out?

[dalton99a]

28. Republicans Demand Evacuation of Undocumented Aliens from Afghanistan

[dflprincess]

29. I found this from Reuters

https://www.reuters.com/article/idUSL1N2Q70IW

Nearly every sentence or two is a paragragh so what I can post is limited.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - About 1,000 people, including dozens of Americans and Afghans holding visas for the United States or other countries, remained stuck in Afghanistan for a fifth day on Sunday while awaiting Taliban clearance for flights out of the country, the New York Times reported....

The senior Republican on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, Mike McCaul, told “Fox News Sunday” that six airplanes were stuck at Mazar-i-Sharif airport with Americans and Afghan interpreters on board, unable to take off because they had not received clearance from the Taliban. He said the Taliban were holding passengers “hostage for demands,” but multiple reports disputed McCaul’s statement....

...One person familiar with the evacuation effort told Reuters that it was not correct to characterize the passengers as “hostages.”

The New York Times reported that organizers of evacuation flights in Qatar said the planes in Mazar-i-Sharif had received necessary clearance and were awaiting final Taliban approval.

“The Taliban are not holding the planes hostage,” it quoted Eric Montalvo, a retired U.S. Marines major involved in organizing the flights, as saying.

A spokesperson for the U.S. State Department said it did not have a reliable means to confirm the basic details of charter flights, including the number of U.S. citizens and others aboard, but added: “We will hold the Taliban to its pledge to let people freely depart Afghanistan.”