https://townhall.com/tipsheet/spencerbrown/2021/08/19/pentagon-wont-deny-us-is-buying-fuel-from-taliban-n2594408
Pentagon Won't Deny U.S. Is Buying Fuel from the Taliban for Afghan Airlift
During Thursday's press briefing at the Pentagon, General Hank Taylor and Press Secretary John Kirby provided an update on the airlift of Americans and Afghan allies out of Kabul before taking questions on the Biden administration's handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
General Taylor reported that in the last 24 hours, the U.S. military footprint grew to number more than 5,200 total troops on the ground at Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport and that additional gates for entry to the airfield were opened while the airport remains open and secure.
He also reported that 13 C-17 transport planes had arrived at HKIA with additional troops and equipment and 12 C-17s departed with evacuees.
When asked by Fox News' Jennifer Griffin about how planes conducting the airlift were being fueled, Taylor and Kirby refused to deny whether the United States was buying from the Taliban.
"The assets on KHIA, on the airfield, are what we need to maintain the operations, all operations to support the mission," Taylor responded without answering the question.
Griffin pushed, asking "so that's a no — you're not buying fuel from the Taliban?"
Taylor stepped back from the podium and Kirby stepped in. "There's- um- plenty of fuel sustainment capability at Hamid Karzai Airport and as you know Jen, we also have the ability of our- on our own- our logistics ability to fuel our aircraft as needed," he explained without denying that the U.S. was paying the Taliban for fuel.
Of the 2,000 evacuees the Pentagon reports flying out of Afghanistan in the last 24 hours, just 300 were Americans, Kirby later explained, adding "we're very focused on making sure we get as many people out as possible and as fast as possible."
However, despite the seemingly impossible task of getting every American — not to mention Afghan ally or special immigrant visa recipient — out of Afghanistan by the current August 31st deadline, Kirby said "there has been no decision to change the deadline" even as he admitted "I don't know" how many Americans remain behind Taliban lines.