More information has come out about an altercation between the Trump campaign staff and an Arlington National Cemetery official on Monday.
JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:
Former President Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery on Monday, along with family members of troops killed in Afghanistan. They were there to mark the three-year anniversary of a deadly attack that claimed the lives of 13 U.S. troops and over 100 Afghans. But NPR has learned that, during the visit, there was an altercation between Trump campaign staff and an Arlington Cemetery official. NPR's Quil Lawrence joins us with the latest. Hey there.
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: Hi.
SUMMERS: So Quil, before we get to what's happened since we first reported this story, can you just tell us a bit more about the altercation itself?
LAWRENCE: Sure. Former President Trump took part in laying wreaths on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington, and that was filmed and photographed. But Arlington National Cemetery told NPR they were crystal clear that their rules did not allow an outside photographer to enter Section 60, where Iraq and Afghanistan vets are mostly buried. They said only cemetery staff could take photos there and then share them with the visitors.
A source with knowledge of the incident told NPR that when the Trump campaign went into that section, that an Arlington official tried to stop the campaign from bringing in an outside photographer. The source says two members of the campaign verbally abused and then pushed the cemetery official aside. At that point, the official decided not to escalate things out of respect for the Gold Star families.
SUMMERS: Well, Quil, I understand the Trump campaign denies all of this. Is that right?
LAWRENCE: Yes. Trump spokesman Steven Cheung confirmed that there was an incident with what he called an unidentified person he accused of having a mental health crisis and trying to prevent Trump from entering Section 60. The Trump campaign says they have video proving this, but so far they won't share it with NPR or any other media outlet. President Trump posted on social media an image of Gold Star families who thanked him and wrote that they had invited him to film in Section 60.
SUMMERS: OK, I'm hoping you can unpack this for us. Does that mean that the Trump campaign essentially had permission here?
LAWRENCE: No. That's still illegal. It's illegal to do anything political on the grounds of Arlington Cemetery. And this isn't just about following some bureaucratic rules. If you look at one of the photos that's going around with former President Trump and these family members giving a thumbs up and smiling in front of the tombstone for Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover with his family there, well, there are two other gravestones that are visible, and they're both Green Berets.
One of those is a Special Forces master sergeant with many combat tours, and he died by suicide. And someone close to his family confirmed to me that they did not give permission for that grave to be used in a political ad or anything like that. This family is intensely private about what is still a very painful loss. And I asked the Trump campaign if they requested permission to use these other grave sites. I haven't heard back. But that's why Arlington has these rules. These officials know what's at stake.
SUMMERS: What else have you heard, if anything, from cemetery officials?
LAWRENCE: Well, nothing. They've told NPR and other media outlets that they're no longer going to ask - answer any questions about this because they want to protect the identity of the official who confronted the Trump campaign. But I should say, you know, these staff are quite used to guiding visitors of all kinds around what they consider hallowed ground. And they're used to explaining this protocol. They deal with tourists from all over the world. They deal with big troops of teenagers on school trips. They deal with misbehaving scout troops.
And they even have to navigate, you know, how do you talk with a combat veteran who's come there, and he wants to pour out a beer and a shot on his fallen buddy's grave? How do you navigate that situation? So they're used to this. They're - they've got a great reputation at being very good at finessing these delicate situations with, oftentimes, grieving families. But our source told me that they have never seen this level of disrespectful behavior at Arlington, ever.
SUMMERS: NPR's Quil Lawrence. Quil, thanks.
LAWRENCE: Thank you.
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Review says Kabul airport attack wasn't preventable, refutes claims troops sighted the would-be bomber
By Associated Press Washington, D.C.
UPDATED 2:41 PM ET Apr. 15, 2024 PUBLISHED 2:37 PM ET Apr. 15, 2024
The suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed U.S. troops and Afghans in August 2021 was not preventable, and the "bald man in black" spotted by U.S. service members the morning of the attack was not the bomber, according to a new review by U.S. Central Command.
What You Need To Know
- A new review says the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport that killed U.S. troops and Afghans in August 2021 was not preventable, and the "bald man in black" spotted by U.S. service members the morning of the attack was not the bomber
- The findings from U.S. Central Command were released Monday
- They refute assertions by some service members who believed they had a chance to take out the would-be bomber but did not get approval
- The U.S. military also for the first time is confirming that the bomber was Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an Islamic State militant who had been in an Afghan prison but was released by the Taliban
The findings, released Monday, refute assertions by some service members who believed they had a chance to take out the would-be bomber but did not get approval. And, for the first time, the U.S. military is confirming that the bomber was Abdul Rahman al-Logari, an Islamic State militant who had been in an Afghan prison but was released by the Taliban as the group took control of the country that summer.
The Abbey Gate bombing during the final chaotic days of the Afghanistan withdrawal killed 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans, and wounded scores more. It triggered widespread debate and congressional criticism, fueled by emotional testimony from a Marine injured in the blast, who said snipers believe they saw the possible bomber but couldn't get approval to take him out.
Former Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews told the House Foreign Affairs Committee last March that Marines and others aiding in the evacuation were given descriptions of men believed to be plotting an attack. Vargas-Andrews, who was injured in the blast but not interviewed in the initial investigation, said he and others saw a man matching the description and might have been able to stop the attack, but requests to take action were denied.
In a detailed briefing to a small number of reporters, members of the team that did the review released photos of the bald man identified by military snipers as a potential threat and compared it with photos of al-Logari. The team members, who spoke to reporters on condition of anonymity to provide details not yet made public, described facial recognition and other analysis they used that they said confirmed those were not the same man.
"For the past two years, some service members have claimed that they had the bomber in their sights and they could have prevented the attack. We now know that is not correct," said a team member.
They said they also showed the photo of the bald man to service members during the latest interviews, and that the troops again confirmed that was the suspicious man they had targeted.
The review notes that the bald man was first seen around 7 a.m. and that troops lost sight of him by 10 a.m. The bombing was more than seven hours later, and the U.S. says al-Logari didn't get to Abbey Gate until "very shortly" before the blast took place. They declined to be more specific about the timing, saying details are classified.
Family members of those killed in the blast received similar briefings over the past two weekends and some are still unconvinced.
"For me, personally, we are still not clear. I believe Tyler saw what Tyler saw and he knows what he saw. And it was not the guy that they were claiming was the man in black," Jim McCollum, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, told The Associated Press.
He said the team went into "pretty good detail, not trying to discredit Tyler, but effectively saying he was wrong. However, that ended up being as clear as mud to us."
And Mark Schmitz, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, questioned the photo itself.
"They kept saying this is who Tyler Vargas-Andrews was looking at and we were thinking to ourselves, 'well, that's interesting. Why is this a picture of a picture from a Canon camera?'" he said. "To me it felt like they were trying to find the guy in those cameras that may have come close to looking like somebody of interest that they can try to sell to us."
The families, however, also said they were relieved to get more details about their loved ones' deaths, saying the initial briefings were not as good.
Schmitz said that Army Gen. Eric Kurilla, head of U.S. Central Command, was part of the latest briefing and apologized for how the families were treated during the initial probe. This time around officials were able to share with Schmitz for the first time exactly where his son was when the bomb went off and that he was unconscious almost immediately, and therefore did not feel the impact of the shrapnel that went through his left torso, hitting a primary artery.
"That to me was, first and foremost, the best news I could have gotten," Schmitz said. "That gave me a little bit of closure that my son didn't suffer, which made me feel really good."
Team members said they also are planning to speak with the troops who were interviewed this time, to share the results of the report.
They said the review also could not completely rule out claims that militants did a test run of the bombing several days earlier. But after reviewing photos and other intelligence, the team concluded it was unlikely that three men seen carrying a large bag — which troops deemed suspicious — were doing a trial run.
More broadly, the team said the review brought some new details to light, including more discussion about the possible bombing test run. But they said overall it confirmed the findings of U.S. Central Command's initial investigation into the bombing: that it was not preventable and that reports of threats prior to the bombing were too vague.
As an example, the new review noted that threat reports talked about a possible bomber with groomed hair, wearing loose clothes, and carrying a black bag. That description, the review said, could have matched anyone in the enormous crowd desperately trying to get into the airport.
The team said they conducted 52 interviews for the review — adding up to a total of 190 when the previous investigation is included. Service members were asked about 64 questions, and the sessions lasted between one hour and seven hours long.
A number of those questioned weren't included in the original investigation, many because they were severely wounded in the attack. The new review was ordered last September by Kurilla, largely due to criticism of the initial investigation and assertions that the deadly assault could have been stopped.
Members of the team said the Islamic State group put out the bomber's name on social media, but U.S. intelligence was later able to independently confirm that report.
U.S. Central Command's initial investigation concluded in November 2021 that given the worsening security situation at the airport's Abbey Gate as Afghans became increasingly desperate to flee, " the attack was not preventable at the tactical level without degrading the mission to maximize the number of evacuees."
Critics have slammed the Biden administration for the catastrophic evacuation, and they've complained that no one was held accountable for it. And while the U.S. was able to get more than 130,000 civilians out of the country during the panic after the Taliban took control of the government, there were horrifying images of desperate Afghans clinging to military aircraft as they lifted off.
Review says Kabul airport attack wasn't preventable, refutes claims troops sighted the would-be bomber
By Associated Press Washington, D.C.
UPDATED 2:41 PM ET Apr. 15, 2024 PUBLISHED 2:37 PM ET Apr. 15, 2024
