CIA director held secret meeting with Taliban leader in Kabul
CBSN
Washington — CIA Director William Burns met with the Taliban's de facto leader in Kabul on Monday, a source familiar with the situation said, in what marks the group's highest-level encounter with the Biden administration since the fall of the Afghan capital.
News of the meeting between Burns and the Taliban leader, Abdul Ghani Baradar, comes one week before the August 31 deadline for the U.S. military to complete its evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies from Kabul. Roughly 21,600 people were evacuated from the capital over a 24-hour period on Monday and Tuesday, including 12,700 evacuees on 37 military flights, a White House official said. A U.S. defense official said the military expected a decision from the White House on Tuesday on whether or not the U.S. will leave Afghanistan by the August 31 deadline.Ashley White received her earliest combat action badge from the United States Army soon after the first lieutenant arrived in Afghanistan. The silver military award, recognizing soldiers who've been personally engaged by an attacker during conflict, was considered an achievement in and of itself as well as an affirming rite of passage for the newly deployed. White had earned it for using her own body to shield a group of civilian women and children from gunfire that broke out in the midst of her third mission in Kandahar province. All of them survived. She never mentioned the badge to anyone in her battalion.