[FOX] A network of "hundreds of thousands" of people, including analysts using satellite imagery to locate Taliban checkpoints surrounding the Kabul airport, are coordinating to evacuate Afghan interpreters from the country, an Afghanistan war veteran and member of the coalition told Fox News.These interpreters, now targeted by the Taliban, were essential U.S. allies during the Afghanistan war and played roles much larger than simply acting as translators, according to Matt Zeller. The Biden administration has faced fierce criticism that the U.S. hasn’t made their evacuation more of a priority.
"These people that we’re talking about ... they were our eyes and ears on the battlefield," Zeller told Fox News. He said they’d hear Taliban communications ordering fighters to shoot the interpreters first.
"From the Taliban’s perspective, they won," Zeller, a former CIA analyst, continued. The Afghan interpreters "are the people who have been helping us to kill them over the last 20 years."
"They want revenge, they want retribution," he said. "There’s no place for these people in Afghanistan."
There’s estimated to be at least 20,000 Afghan interpreters and family members trapped in Afghanistan.
Zeller described a "digital Dunkirk" campaign working to evacuate the Afghan interpreters. He said "hundreds of thousands" of people joined the movement after just a few weeks, but that it could grow into the millions by the time it’s over.
"If you served in the Afghan war and you still care about these people, chances are you’re probably part of the digital Dunkirk," Zeller told Fox News.
He said it started as an "army of veterans" getting pinged by Afghans, but that the network has grown to include organizations for human rights, faith and political advocacy.
"It’s incredible," Zeller said. "It’s not just veterans. Literally it’s pastors, it’s my mom, it’s my relatives, people who have never served in Afghanistan ... widows, widowers, children of people who served."
"We’ve had intel analysts who have come and started doing satellite imagery analysis and actually putting together products for people where they’re mapping out Taliban checkpoints in real time using social media data" to provide safe routes to the airport, Zeller told Fox News.
The Taliban have said it would forgive any Afghans who helped the U.S. during the war. But the extremist group has established checkpoints blocking the path to the airport in Kabul, and numerous reports have indicated that they’re either recording or killing anyone they find that allied against them.