Afghan hero waiting for visa to escape Taliban

| August 13, 2013

TSO sends us this video from Fox News about Hafez, the translator who helped Dakota Meyer carry wounded and dead Americans and Afghans in the action for which Meyer was awarded the Medal of Honor. In the process, Hafez killed several Taliban, an act which has made him a target of those creatures over there. He has applied for, and is mostly approved for a visa to escape the terrorism that he and his family faces over there. But his application has languished for four years in a Washington, DC office at the State Department.

Meyer tells the story of Hafez in this interview with Fox News;

“For the day that I received the medal of honor, he was in the truck with us,” Meyer said, recounting Hafez’s acts of courage. “He covered me multiple times with the gun on the truck … he was next to me, he was within arm’s distance of me almost the entire time, helping me look for my team.”

Meyer said that after Hafez suffered an initial injury of his own, Meyer once more asked him to go back with him into the line of danger. Instead of fleeing the scene, he agreed to stay by Meyer’s side, telling him, “if today’s my day to die, then it’s just my day.”

“…And he went in with me, and he stayed there the whole time,” the medal of honor recipient told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson.

Is there any doubt why we’re not trusted in that region? Our word is no better than the Taliban’s. There are 5000 visas available for the people who helped us fight that war and fewer than 200 have been approved. I guess nothing will distract us from our rush for the exits.

Thanks to TSO for the link.

Category: Terror War

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ChipNASA

State Department…Billery? Shocker.
Thanks Obama.

rb325th

WTF, get the man and his family if he has one here too!! He earned the right to be here!
Yet we want to let millions of illegals just stay put, and cannot get that hero over here? This countries priorities are all screwed to hell.

Susan

We can rent hotel rooms for illegals seeking asylum from Mexico but can’t get this guy a visa? WTF?!?!?!?

LZ

Well he does have only a Medal of Honor recipient as his character witness…

MCPO NYC USN (Ret.)

Susan … you beat me to it. These Mexicans walk up to the border crossing and give the secret password claiming political persecution or near death threats from drug dealers … and they get a better room then me on government travel. And they can not be touched for 90 days.

Dakota’s # 1 man can’t even get out of his country.

Shit … if I was senior military man on the ground in Afgan .. I would order a SPEC OP team to remove him and his entire family from Afgan and insert them in to Tijuana, Mexico. From there they can walk to the border and they are home free!

Ian

The terps put their lives, and the lives of their families, at risk by working with ISAF, and they were promised safety. Now they’re not getting it. I live in Canada, and we’re not much better – we have hundreds of terps in immigration backlog and they’re stuck over there until their cases are taken seriously here.

2/17 Air Cav

This is unconscionable.

Old Trooper

This State Department and Administration let 4 of our own swing in the breeze, so I doubt they give a rip about some terp and his family.

SGT Kane

Sounds about right to me. Our ‘terp in Iraq had been trying to get his visa for five years. In that time he’d been shot twice (once in the ass and once in the foot), blown up several times, and had amassed enough awards and letters of recomendation that his packet was thicker than his dick was long.

And it still took us ten months and using every trick in the book, including visits to the embassy, culling favor with local state department “players”, and the intervention of a one star general (who’d had him as a ‘terp back in ’04) to get his visa approved.

Flagwaver

Unfortunately, the Administration is probably purposefully dragging their feet on this issue until the man actually dies. At that point, they can use it as propaganda about what happens to true heroes. The way this admin plays games with people’s lives for political gain, this is the most likely scenario.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

This is an outrage on every level, I will call my mostly useless congress people today and let them know this complete abdication of responsibility needs to be corrected immediately.

I like Master Chief’s idea, except I would insert the folks right here in the US….if we can’t find 11 million Mexicans and we are going to offer them a path to a citizenship they have no right to, the least we could do is grant this guy asylum for risking his life on our behalf and placing his family in jeopardy as well.

OWB

All he needs to do is whisper the words “afraid of the drug cartel” to gain admittance. So they say. Throw in “credible threat” and there should be no question.

USMCE8Ret

It appears the character of Hafez is few and far between of other ‘terps or ISAF members, and he should be granted a visa most rikki-tik.

Did anyone besides Susan (@3) see the news article about the influx of Mexican illegals flowing through the border, claiming “asylum” status. Yeah, that’s the new word of the week, apparently – and ICE is putting folks up all over the country awaiting to be seen by immigration judges, but most of ’em aren’t showing up for their hearing. Imagine that.

I’ve written it before: Just how the f-ck am I supposed to trust the gov’t with my healthcare if they can’t secure its own border or fix the post office?

PtolemyInEgypt

Pathetic.

Veritas Omnia Vincit

@13 Come on man, we’re from the government and we’re here to help….trust us, we wouldn’t lie to you…much, well not very much, well maybe a bit much, or little more than much or mostly all the time, oh h3ll you know we’re full of sh1t we just want your vote little man!

Mr Wolf, non-Esq

Why can’t he step onto a US installation in AFG, and claim ‘sanctuary’ or ‘asylum’ and refuse to leave?

Assuming he’s still a terp working for us- he’d have to be allowed onto a facility.

royh

And people in Mexico can come to a border crossing and claim a “credible fear” of narcoterrorism and get in to the country. SMH.

Who do I write to about this? Is it in the article?

Michael

This sort of thin sickens me. Here’s a true hero helping our guys out at the risk of his own life and he’s tied up in red tape. Hafez earned his ticket to America. Meanwhile illegals sneak into this country in violation of our laws and then demand that we accept them and pinheaded leftist agree.

UpNorth

Smuggle him and his family into Syria or the West Bank. Then have them just say they want to come here. State and Obama will fall all over themselves to get them into the states right now.
Or, claim to be a member of the LuGBuT community, they’d send AF2 for him.

MGySgtRet.

Seriously, are any of you really surprised?? Another example of this governments disregard for the courage and sacrifice of our own troops and those Afghans and Iraqi’s who were willing to put it on the line for us. It is disgraceful but not surprising at all.

OWB

Finally figured it out – he is acting honorably and they simply have no clue how to deal with those who act honorably. Except to punish it thereby teaching everyone a lesson about their low expectations.

What? You got something to show that they do anything other than reward bad behavior and everything to discourage good behavior??

FatCircles0311

If he were a Somalian terrorist he’d have been here 4 years ago and recruiting while collecting welfare.

SFC D

I can see Mexico from my porch. If this man can make it there, I will declare my house to be a sanctuary and an immigrant welcome zone for only him. I’ll adopt him if necessary.

SFC D

He. In 1982 my roommate & I raised a Wyoming flag over our apartment and established the official Wyoming embassy in Utah. I may do that again in Arizona. I’ll grant this man a visa on humanitarian terms.

brat

Same issues in Canada and stories of our Troops, already home for years, STILL fighting to get ‘their’ ‘terps here..

CI Roller Dude

Does nobody in charge in Washington study history? Same shit happened in VN, Iraq and a few other places. They should think about this before shit happens instead of looking like “Duh, we never thought of that shit before.”

OldSoldier54

Dear Lord, this chaps my hips.

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