|
2022-12-29 Home Front: WoT
|
|
This Afghan interpreter risked his life for US Marines. Now, they’re fighting for him to stay in the US
|
|
President Biden didn’t doesn’t care, and clearly not enough senior bureaucrats in whatever department is in charge of this stuff didn’t don’t care, because we knew pretty quickly that most of those being approved were bad guys of various flavours, not those at risk for helping us. Which is not the point the CNN journalist is trying to make. The set-up: [CNN
...the organization formerly known as the Cable News Network . Now who knows what it might stand for...
] It was November 2010 and a platoon of Marines was patrolling outside of a village in Helmand
...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...
Province, Afghanistan — slowly, and carefully, to avoid accidentally stepping on hidden improvised bombs. They walked in a single file line meant to reduce the risk of multiple Marines being taken out in one blast.
Continued from Page 2
In the patrol formation was Zainullah Zaki, a young Afghan man working as an interpreter with 3rd Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division. As the Marines scanned for hidden explosives, Zaki, known as Zak by his American counterparts, listened to the radio, monitoring frequencies for Taliban
...Arabic for students ...
communications.
As they walked, he heard a Taliban commander coordinating an ambush on the very Marines he was with.
Maj. Tom Schueman, the platoon commander at the time, told CNN that Zaki told him what was happening and said the Marines needed to "hurry up" to get into town. He recalled telling Zaki that they could only move as fast as the Marines at the front of the column, but Zaki insisted they move faster to avoid being caught in an attack.
"Zak said, ’That’s not fast enough,’" Schueman recalled, "And he just took off, ran a couple hundred meters through this active IED belt, mine field. He was able to correlate where the guy was observing us from, he knew what building the guy was in and went in there, tackled him, and detained him."
It wasn’t the last time Zaki would go far outside his job description to help the Marines he served alongside. But despite the deep trust and camaraderie Zaki formed with the Marines and his employment by US contractors for more than two years in Afghanistan, he recently received notice that his request for a Special Immigrant Visa was denied for the last time. Zaki and his family are now in uncertain territory alongside thousands of other Afghans who were evacuated from the country, as the humanitarian parole status they resettled in the US with is set to expire next year.
A notice from the chief of mission for the US Embassy in Kabul dated November 30 said that Zaki’s request for the visa, which is meant to provide a pathway to the United States for Afghans who were employed by or worked on behalf of the US government, was denied due to an insufficient length of employment.
"There is no further appeal of this decision," the letter says. The denial was first reported by military news outlet Task & Purpose.
Schueman said he doesn’t understand the problem: Zaki was employed by US contractors for more than a year, which is the required length of time to receive a SIV. Indeed, a letter of verification provided to CNN and signed by the chief operating officer of IAP Worldwide Services shows that he worked as a linguist in Kunar Province
...one of the four N2KL provinces (Nangarhar, Nuristan, Kunar and Laghman). N2KL is the designation used by US and Coalition Forces for the rugged and very violent region opposite Pakistain's Federally Administered Tribal Areas and Northwest Frontier Province. Kunar is the center of the N2KL region. Its population is 95% Pashtun. It is adjacent to Bajaur Agency..
from January 2012 to December 2013 — just short of two years. Another verification letter showed he was employed by Mission Essential, another US contractor, from September 2010 to July 2011.
However,
some people are alive only because it's illegal to kill them...
the denial letter says that his verification letter from IAP is not valid. Pete Lucier, a Marine veteran who works with #AfghanEvac, a non-profit focused on "fulfilling the United States’ duty to Afghan allies," said the problem likely lies with one sentence in the verification letter. The letter states that while Zaki "was not employed directly by my company, IAP Worldwide Services, Inc., he was assigned to me by our local [US Government] management."
"Reading denials is a bit like parsing a secret code, but they seem to be saying that since Zaki didn’t work for IAP, an IAP employee can’t confirm employment by a third company," Lucier said.
|
Posted by trailing wife 2022-12-29 00:46||
||
Front Page|| [18 views ]
Top
|
|
21:03 Ululating Platypus
20:38 Frank G
20:34 Injun+Sheger1721
20:10 Super Hose
20:07 Super Hose
20:07 SteveS
19:24 James
19:13 Besoeker
19:10 Besoeker
18:59 swksvolFF
18:56 swksvolFF
18:41 Frank G
18:18 Lord Garth
17:53 SteveS
17:51 M. Murcek
17:47 M. Murcek
17:38 SteveS
17:38 Whiskey Mike
16:47 SteveS
16:35 Procopius2k
16:34 Ebboluck Hupimp6002
16:33 ed in texas
16:33 Procopius2k
16:33 Super Hose
|
