Althouse "I said in the comments yesterday, after I'd blogged about something else about Afghanistan and commenters tried to redirect me into the "hostage" situation.
""Did WaPo report on the hostages? Seems like a bigger deal than [what you've chosen to blog about]," one commenter wrote. I've been irked by comments of the don't-blog-that-blog-this kind since 2004. Maybe you've noticed.
"Anyway. This morning, speaking of WaPo, I see this headline over there: "Blinken denies Taliban holding Americans in Afghanistan ‘hostage.'"
"I don't trust Blinken, and I think avoiding the word "hostage" might be something you'd do if you had a hostage situation. So let's read:
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that some evacuation flights out of Afghanistan have been prevented from taking off because they included passengers without valid travel documents, an explanation that undercuts Republican claims that the Taliban is holding Americans hostage....
“It’s my understanding that the Taliban has not denied exit to anyone holding a valid document, but they have said those without valid documents, at this point, can’t leave,” Blinken said. “Because all of these people are grouped together, that’s meant that flights have not been allowed to go,” he said....
On Sunday, Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas said he received classified briefings indicating that Americans and Afghan allies are stranded at the Mazar-e Sharif airport. Taliban militants “are not clearing the airplanes to depart,” he told Fox News on Sunday. “This is really… turning into a hostage situation where they’re not going to allow American citizens to leave until they get full recognition from the United States of America.”...
By now, Obama would have given the Taliban a pallet of cash.
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