In Afghanistan, one sign about security: @SecPompeo landed at Bagram, flew via small plane to State Dept facility at Kabul airport, went by helicopter to US embassy and drove in armored vehicle the few hundred yards to prez palace. He said Potus Afghan strategy is working. pic.twitter.com/hDF0Ik5KNM— Nicholas Wadhams (@nwadhams) July 9, 2018
The Warzone/The Drive: U.S. Secretary of State Rides in Gun-Toting "Embassy Air" Helicopter In Afghanistan
The contractor-operated service highlights how fragile the security situation remains in even the most heavily protected areas of the country.
U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has made his first visit to Afghanistan since officially becoming America’s top diplomat. Underscoring the still dangerous state of security in the country’s capital despite 17 years of U.S.-backed efforts to try and improve the situation, he did what any other State Department staffer would do upon arriving in the country, he took a very quick ride in an armed CH-46 helicopter to avoid having to drive the two miles from Kabul’s airport to the U.S. Embassy.
Pompeo’s arrival on July 9, 2018, was itself unannounced, another common security procedure in a country where Taliban militants and other terrorists can and do still have the ability to bombard Hamid Karzai International Airport. According to a report by CBS News’ “60 Minutes” in January 2018, U.S. diplomatic and other civilian government personnel remain banned from using any form of ground transportation, even armored vehicles, to get safely within the blast walls and other defenses that surround the American Embassy proper.
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WNU Editor:This sounds like Iraq months after the invasion in 2003.
