Our investigation found that the Taliban have been committing revenge killings of former U.S. allies.
I wondered: Were these clips a preview of a looming campaign of mass violence? Or were these incidents little more than random acts committed during a lawless transition of power? |
Of course, larger policy questions were also in the air: Would the new Taliban leadership rule with the same brutal playbook of the 1990s? Would girls' schools be shut down? Would the press be permitted to report freely? What would be the fate of former Afghan soldiers and government officials who fought against the Taliban? |
Many new-generation Taliban officials are the sons of the leaders I covered from 2008 to 2009 while based in Kabul for The Times. Back then, Mullah Muhammad Omar, the founder of the Taliban who is thought to have housed Osama bin Laden after Sept. 11, was bedeviling Afghan and American troops. He died in 2013, but his son Yaqoob, who's in his early 30s, is now a top official in Kabul. |
Were new leaders like Yaqoob going to take the Taliban in a more moderate direction? Or were they cut from the same cloth as their fathers? |
The answers came quickly. Soon after the Taliban commandeered the halls of government in Kabul, we were hearing accounts of revenge killings in Afghanistan. The victims were former Afghan officials and soldiers who weren't lucky enough to secure a spot on those desperate evacuation flights from the Kabul airport in August. |
Our Opinion Video team, which aims to combine original reporting with visual storytelling, wanted to know what happened to those U.S. allies who had been left behind after the longest war in American history. |
So I hired Barbara Marcolini, an investigative reporter, to look into the matter. I paired her with Sanjar Sohail, the founding editor of the independent Afghan newspaper Hasht e Subh Daily, who oversees a network of brave reporters. During a seven-month investigation, we revealed a concerted campaign of bloody vengeance by the Taliban, verifying hundreds of killings and forced disappearances, and building the most extensive database of revenge killings in Afghanistan. Our verification techniques included forensic video research, confirming local news reports, collaborating with human rights organizations and old-fashioned boots-on-the-ground reporting, such as interviewing survivors and grieving family members. |
The Taliban have officially offered amnesty to their former enemies. But our investigation uncovered how the group is at times using this promise as a means of entrapment. The Times's Alexander Stockton, who edited and directed our film, combed through harrowing clips and photos of these crimes. "Stories like these, that are literally happening on the other side of the world, can feel so far away," he said. "But looking through the photos that the victims' relatives sent us — from weddings and vacations, professional portraits and selfies — is absolutely heartbreaking." The Times's Jonah Kessel and Yara Bayoumy were senior producers. In our studio, Jonah worked with Emily Holzknecht, an associate producer, to create a photographic memorial to the victims; this backdrop serves as the visual language of our film. |
America's war might be over and the mass evacuations may have ended. But it's not too late for the United States to save its former allies from being slaughtered. Many remain in hiding, fearful for their lives. The United States has a moral obligation to help them find a way to safety. |
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