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Pentagon on wretched conditions for Afghans at Qatar base: "Nobody’s making excuses"

24 August 2021
Dan Ackermann

Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday that "nobody is making excuses" and "everybody's focused on trying" to improve the conditions at the Qatar air base housing Afghan evacuees after Axios reported the the base was awash with loose feces and urine and a rat infestation.

Driving the news: In an email obtained by Axios, a U.S. official describes conditions at the Al Udeid Air Base in Doha as "a living hell." The email highlights the despair inside the federal government and some elements of the Biden administration at the handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, Axios' Jonathan Swan, Hans Nichols and Glen Johnson write.

  • President Biden faces intense criticism for failing to secure safe passage to the airport in Kabul or guarantee flights out for thousands of Afghans targeted by the Taliban.
  • But the account of conditions at Al Udeid Air Base in Doha shows how the U.S. was unprepared to receive thousands of desperate Afghans in a safe and sanitary environment.

What they're saying: "Nobody's making excuses, nobody's ducking from this. We recognize that things were, and in many ways still are, not at the level of sanitation and good hygiene that we want," Kirby said.

  • He added that efforts are being made to improve conditions at the Qatar air base and at "every other temporary safe haven that we're operating from."
  • The poor conditions were "facilitated by the sheer numbers, and the speed with which those numbers got there," Kirby said.
  • "Nobody, nobody here, wants anyone to be less than safe, secure, comfortable, and well-cared for as they go through this process," Kirby said. "We take it very seriously."
  • "But we'll be the first to admit that there were conditions at Al Udeid that could have been better, they are improving now," he added, saying that they are not "perfect."

Go deeper.... "A living hell": Leaked email describes Afghan refugee conditions

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.