♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Saifullah Haqmal: Hi, this is -- from Afghanistan.

I want to take my kids to the United States.

I want to raise them there where they can really go to school, where there is no fear of being killed or being kidnapped.

Here they don't have this opportunity.

The future of these kids is very uncertain and unknown.

Mark Milley: Afghans work for us, the United States Military.

They've been interpreters, they've been analysts, they've been doing a lot of things.

John Oliver: And over the last decade, good, local interpreters in Afghanistan and Iraq have saved countless American lives.

Jeanne Shaheen: Afghan interpreters who serve the US mission are being systematically hunted down by the Taliban.

Adam Kinzinger: Taliban are hunting these people down as we speak here today.

Tulsi Gabbard: These Afghan interpreters and their families put their lives on the line.

female: The Taliban is willing to pay up to $40,000 US leading to the capture of an interpreter.

male: A growing number of Afghan interpreters are being denied US visas allotted by Congress.

female: The Taliban is now effectively in control, including in the capital Kabul.

female: Thousands of Afghans' eligible for visas because they had worked for the US were left behind.

male: ISIS-K claiming that it is behind the suicide blast.

female: US withdrawal of forces after nearly 20 years.

Jimmy Carter: In Afghanistan.

Ronald Regan: In Afghanistan.

George Bush: Afghanistan.

Bill Clinton: In Afghanistan.

George: In Afghanistan.

Barak Obama: In Afghanistan.

Donald Trump: The war in Afghanistan.

Joe Biden: It's time for American troops to come home.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ male: Here we are, Summer 2020.

Let's start with that, just your background.

Your name and army background.

Yeah, here we go.

Take one.

Robert Ham: My name's Robert Ham.

I served in the US Army for 7 years active duty and another 3 years reserve, and I was a combat filmmaker, documentarian.

[mortars firing] male: Go, go, go get in.

male: Clear.

Clear.

Robert: And I was in the 4th Brigade 25th Infantry Division Airborne Paratrooper.

I was influenced after 9/11 to want to serve my country during a time of war.

And when I went to the recruiter, they said, "We have that job."

What I would be doing is telling the soldiers' story, and that's what I wanted to do, public affairs.

It felt like this is exactly what I needed to do, and I was ready to go.

I trained, I was hungry to get to the front lines, and I was still angry about 9/11 and wanted to be on the front lines to tell the stories of these guys.

To tell anybody's story, you have to put yourself in their shoes.

I spent every day when I was in Afghanistan talking to soldiers, hearing their stories, hearing about the brothers and the sisters that they were losing at war, and explain to an audience back home what they were doing.

male: You just get a bunch of footage of me pulling splinters out of my --?

[laughing] male: Do me a favor.

Edit that -- huh?

Robert: Oh, yeah.

Robert: I never thought when I went to Afghanistan that I would be telling the story of an Afghan, but war gives you a perspective about people.

male: It's been there for like 45 minutes.

male: Yeah, that truck's been there for a long time.

male: Just towards me and bring about ten rounds.

male: Oh.

male: Yeah, I know.

Robert: There's a bond that happens in war with interpreters and soldiers.

It's kind of hard to explain unless you have had that experience with them.

Here's a brotherhood.

This was their way of fighting against the radicals that were trying to take over the country.

male: Roger.

male: They say--what are they saying-- male: Yeah, I know.

Totally.

male: What are they saying now?

male: Said they're are coming towards to you.

Try your best, you know, because you're waiting just since this morning.

male: Hey, be prepared for both sides.

From what they say on the icon chatter is they're waiting for us to turn around that spur right there before they initiate the ambush, over.

The grid for possible ambush, over?

2, 5, 8, 5, break, 7, 0, 7, 9.

Over.

male: I got a weapon.

I can make it out.

Not to rise enough.

I'll see where the magazines at.

[male speaking foreign language] [male speaking foreign language] male: Where we plotted the potential ambush, I think that's where the majority of them are going to be at.

I think our trigger man's over here off to the -- left.

Roger.

You are in position.

Over.

male: It appears that the guys are on the move off trail.

Okay, roger that.

And I've also got that splinter.

It looks like an RPG.

[helicopter gun firing] male: Pushing up over toward-- male: Roger, this is-- Robert: How many times the interpreters make the right interpretation, in some cases even saved Americans' lives.

So the relationship between a service member and interpreters, they're brothers and sisters in arms.

Robert: My brigade's headquarters was out of forward operating base Salerno.

It was the largest base closest to Pakistan where the brigade commander worked out of.

It was where the Special Forces operated out of.

There was something always going on at Salerno, and we were replacing the 101st Airborne Division.

female: Here's a Pentagon briefing from Afghanistan earlier today.

male: Colonel Johnson has been commanding his unit in Afghanistan.

He's speaking to us from forward operating base Salerno in the Khost Province.

So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Pete and for his opening comments.

Pete Johnson: Thanks for attending today.

I appreciate the opportunity to discuss our current status here in Afghanistan and give a sense of the way ahead.

Our task force is principally formed around the Currahee brigade.

Your continued support is much needed as we carry on our duty on these many deployments.

Robert: Our public affairs shop was really small.

We had an officer, a sergeant, I was the combat videographer, and my partner Andrea Hill was the combat photographer; made videos and photos and she wrote articles and stories.

We come into the public affairs shop, and Saifullah is sitting there reading a book about the Gulf War in English.

You're kind of wary of everybody that's there that looks different and is Afghan.

I kind of thought all Afghans were the enemy.

Saifullah: My name is Saifullah Haqmal.

I worked for the US Army in Afghanistan from 2005 to 2013, was stationed at FOB Salerno, Khost Afghanistan.

Robert: Saifullah was the head cultural advisor and interpreter for the brigade commander.

Saifullah: And on the 4th of July, 2005, we went to the base and we were, you know, celebrating the Fourth of July there together, the governor, my father, and other tribal elders.

I just believed in, you know, to work for my country.

And this is--this was the good opportunity.

We were mainly engaged in the media, you know, working with the local media to tell the people and make them aware of what is happening, but I took that risk.

I was thinking, you know, if--even if I die or something happened to me, I would, you know, die for a good cause.

[Saifullah speaking foreign language] Robert: He was probably the most influential interpreter in that region.

[male speaking foreign language] Robert: Ismail, welcome.

All right, so I want to go way back.

male: Scene two take one.

Mark.

Ismail Haqmal: I started in 2006 when I graduated from high school.

Ismail: My name is Ismail.

I'm from Khost.

Robert: There's different types of interpreters.

There's interpreters that were going out into the field on a daily basis.

Ismail was one of those interpreters.

Ismail: And we were building schools, madrasas, diversion dams, roads, all, like, infrastructure, like, construction things.

We were in the battlefield, but we didn't have the weapons.

I never assumed that when I go out on a mission I'll come back alive.

Robert: Ismail told me a story one time.

There was a massive attack at a combat outpost called Sabari.

[male speaking foreign language] Ismail: They have their own cameras when they were setting up a plan, they have also captured some videos, and they had a very accurate map of the district.

They were pointing all the positions, all the tower guards.

[male speaking foreign language] [male speaking foreign language] Ismail: So we were a very small group in there.

Taliban, they were coming from all directions.

It was a very bad situation.

Robert: Ismail was right in the middle of this whole firefight, and he heard over the radio one of the interpreters in the Tactical Operations Center misinterpreted where the Taliban were.

Ismail: It was over on the radio.

I heard it on radio.

And I was rushing to get to the TOC when I got shots.

You know, just laid down.

I was pushing on my hands.

Robert: And ran through enemy fire to the Tactical Operations Center.

Ismail: They fired a shot at me, but I made it to the TOC and I went out there and told them, "Hey, the interpreter, he made a mistake."

Robert: And he got there just in time so that they could tell the Kiowa warriors that were about to bomb these buildings that that's not where the Taliban were hiding.

Ismail: I was scared if the helicopters hit the houses.

There were a lot of Afghans.

A lot of civilians would be killed.

Robert: And Ismail saved some innocent civilian lives that day.

[gunfire and explosions] The only way for Americans to connect with the locals was through interpreters.

Without guys like Saifullah and Ismail, we're left with nothing.

Saifullah is translating the videos and the leaflets.

He's doing radio messages that spread all over the country.

A soldier named Bowe Bergdahl walked off a base.

Saifullah did the radio communications that blasted out all over Afghanistan about--talking about a missing soldier.

Saifullah: One of the media reporter, he called me.

He said insurgents claim are capturing a US Army soldier.

And nobody know about that, and I shared that with my officer.

He was, like, freaked out.

"How did they know?"

I was translating all the leaflets, the messages for the army.

You know, they were trying to spread it and give information that leads to finding Bergdahl, you know.

female: While they're unwilling to talk about the hunt or theories on how he was captured, they do say it's an operation they will not give up on.

Robert: They called Salerno "Rocket City" because we had a constant bombardment of Katyusha rockets and mortars coming in from the mountains that were overlooking the base.

[rockets firing and exploding] Saifullah: And I and you, right?

Remember we were on the outside and standing there, one rocket came in.

So we run to the bunker with everybody.

And there was another one hit very close, you know, just, like, past our--the bunker.

Robert: And we would get rocketed three, four times a week sometimes.

male: Are you rolling?

male: Holy fuck.

Shit.

male: There was that one.

That was here.

male: That was fucking close.

male: That was right here.

male: Right in here.

Right there.

Saifullah: And my God, and we were, again, running back to the bunker.

male: Fuck that.

Saifullah: I remember that day.

I lost many friends.

We were working, you know, at the same base and coming to that base and daily see them.

They got killed.

male: Man, this shit was, like, right by the top.

male: That was.

male: That was.

male: That was exactly right by the-- male: And they went from here to here.

Saifullah: Good memories and some not very good memories.

You know, it was very difficult time seeing lots of people get killed, but what I was doing was very good, and I'm proud of it.

I was helping my people, my country, and as well the US military, you know, to do good things, right?

[male speaking foreign language] Saifullah: The US military needed interpreters.

They were--they did not know the culture, the community, the language.

So it was very difficult for them to connect with people.

male: He says here nobody listen to another.

male: Yeah.

male: He says, "I am--" [male speaking foreign language] [male speaking foreign language] male: Because he says everybody is crying.

Our children are, when they see helicopters.

male: Most people liked helicopters, I thought.

I thought helicopters made it safe.

I didn't know.

Saifullah: Interpreting is the very important thing to connect two parties.

It's not just about translating, you know, just what he said or you said.

It's about how you build the relation between the two, how you harmonize or come together.

That's the hardest part.

male: These guys.

male: Don't tell you shit, huh?

male: Sorry, we don't know anything.

male: I know.

Me too.

Saifullah: Without interpreters, they could not win the minds and hearts of the people, the community, their support.

Was impossible without the interpreters.

The United State military, their government, they did lots of good things.

Because of them, millions of people have a much better way of life.

Millions of kids, girls, they go to school.

Millions of people, they have better healthcare services.

Millions of people have electricity.

Millions of people have jobs, education opportunities.

Those are the sacrifices that the US military, the Afghan military, US government, and other coalition partners they all sacrifice and to give those sacrifices.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Saifullah: The people that I worked with were all very good people, you know?

They were very nice, nice to me, and they were just like family and friends.

Ismail: During my work with the army, I have some good friends and I have some good memories and good stories.

Yourself, we had a very good time with you.

Saifullah: My friendship with Robert Ham, it was like a family kind of relationship, you know.

Go and eat together, you know, talk to one another, laughing, talking about different cultures.

Robert: We talked about war and philosophy and love.

Robert: Remember the one time I mooned you.

Tell me what you did.

Saifullah: This was very strange thing to me, honestly, you know.

In our community, this is, like, offensive, you know.

Robert: You know, I didn't mean offense.

Saifullah: I know, I know, but you did not tell me, you know.

Like, you just came and, you know.

We know each other very well.

You know, we are, like, very close friends, you know, but I said, "Hey, Robert.

This is Afghanistan.

Please don't do this again to me," so.

Robert: And he and I grew to be really good friends.

It's the death sentence to work with the US as an interpreter.

If the Taliban or the insurgency found out who these people were and that they were helping the United States, they would be killed.

There was a point in which interpreters were getting killed every day.

Ismail: It was really hard to keep yourself safe.

We knew several interpreters who were shot and killed.

They captured the innocent people.

They were killing them like chickens.

They were calling for suicide bombers for jihad.

[explosions] Saifullah: They would send suicide bombers.

You know, you never know who they are.

They have the same kind of outfit and everything and they just blew up among the people.

Somebody would be standing with you, sitting with you, you know, maybe an insurgent.

Ismail: My mom always used to tell me, "It's very dangerous.

Please quit the job.

Quit the job."

We were on the way to Sabari district, when our Humvee was hit by a roadside bomb.

[explosion] Ismail: When I woke up, I was in the hospital.

Had injury in my leg, and the doctors told me I was really bad they were considering to cut my leg, but fortunately, it was after a while they said, "No.

It's getting better."

Saifullah: The interpreters were like the eyes for the US military in Afghanistan.

That's why the insurgent would all the time say that, "Kill those ears and eyes.

Cut that," and then they will be nothing.

Robert: They didn't just kill you.

They cut your head off.

And the way that they cut your head off was by sawing it off and they parade you in a video.

And, you know, those were the types of things that the Taliban were doing to guys like Saifullah.

Saifullah: So finally, the threats were a lot against me and my family.

Finally, our family was bombed.

We got an IED.

They call it an IED, but it was a bomb explosion attached to our house, but luckily, nobody was injured or killed.

And we decided to move our family from Khost to Kabul.

In that time, I wasn't just, like, staying in FOB Salerno.

So it was too much.

Lots of thing were going on, lots of attack.

Lots of killing and violence was going on.

It was a very hard situation, you know.

Like, I was every day thinking that, "I will die today."

You know?

I was one of those people that my life was in a great danger, and I wanted to come to the United States to live in, you know, free life and as well for my kids.

Robert: He wanted a real life.

I mean, he wanted freedom.

Saifullah: I applied for a Special Immigrant Visa in 2008, and I was supposed to get my visa in 2009.

Robert: But a year later, by time we had gotten there, nothing had moved with his visa.

The rule was if you gave 2 1/2 years of service to the Americans, to the NATO forces as an interpreter, you could get a visa to come to America.

Saifullah only wanted to come to America because the war was still going on.

Saifullah: When there is war in any country, it impact the life of everybody.

Robert: To understand Saifullah and Ismail and their story, you have to look at their history.

Saifullah: I was born in war and raised in war.

I have seen lots of hard days.

I mean, not just hard days, hard years.

♪♪♪ male: Hello.

Jimmy: Recently there has been another very serious development which threatens the maintenance of the peace in Southwest Asia.

Fifty thousand soviet military forces have invaded the small, non-aligned sovereign nation of Afghanistan, attempting to conquer the fiercely independent Muslim people of that country.

[male speaking foreign language] Saifullah: I was born in Kabul, Afghanistan, the capital of Afghanistan, in 1984.

That time the--you know, the Soviet Union, they were in Afghanistan, and I was born in that.

Ronald: Their heroic struggle has carried a terrible cost.

Many thousands of Afghans, often innocent civilians, women and children have been killed and maimed.

Nowhere are basic human rights more brutally violated than in Afghanistan today.

Robert: As a reaction to the brutality that the Soviet Union was wreaking upon the Afghan people at that time, guerrilla groups started to spring up in Afghanistan and Pakistan called the Mujahideen, and it brought in such fighters as Osama bin Laden.

Ismail: I was born in Khost Province where that's my homeland where we used to walk to the school about, like, 4, 5 miles one way, and we used to study under a tree because we didn't have the--our school didn't have the infrastructure, the building.

But still my father, he's a very, very committed person.

He's tried to educate all his children, male and female children.

[male speaking foreign language] Saifullah: When I was young, I always, you know, wanted to learn English.

I loved it.

I was in school.

I was learning it.

Then after that, I was taking some English classes.

We, like, in school, and sometimes the rocket would come out, and then we would be just, like, running home or we could not go outside, you know, too much because scared that maybe bomb explosion thing-- I remember all these things.

Yeah.

♪♪♪ [rockets firing] Robert: Come 1988, the Mujahideen defeats and pushes out the Soviet Union.

George: I welcome the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Angola Agreement, as it would lead to a peaceful Afghanistan with no more blood baths.

male: Mr. President, assuming-- Robert: A non-elected government called the Taliban rose to power, and they were very brutal against the people.

Saifullah: During the Taliban was extra hard and very harsh because we--everybody was living under a very harsh condition, you know.

Ismail: No social activities, no social media, no radio, no TV station, no nothing.

So, you know, the people are in complete darkness.

Robert: There were no real public services, no running water throughout the country, very limited electricity.

All radios and television and cameras were banned.

Saifullah: You must have beard, or why you don't have a hat, or why you don't go to mosque.

They were imposing very strict rules upon the people.

I mean, force the people to accept things.

Robert: All sports, including volleyball, were banned.

Ismail: The volleyball was very famous at that time.

There was no sport at all.

They didn't want the people to gather and enjoy the sports as well.

Saifullah: On two occasions, they beat me up when I was, like, around 14 years old.

I already prayed at home.

I have never, ever in my life remember that I missed the prayer.

I was going to a English class, and when they saw me, it was, like, prayer time.

So I was not in the mosque.

And when they, you know, saw me, and they had their lashes, you know, their stick, and they beat me up very badly.

They have no idea for the society.

Their only ideology is to, you know, spread violence, kill people, terrorize people.

That is the only way.

Ismail: My father, he wanted a democratic Afghanistan.

He always wanted to build and give a good thing to them and the new generation.

He always focused on the new generation, to educate them so that Afghanistan can never get back to the time of the darkness.

His car was blown up.

He lost both of his feet.

Saifullah: The Taliban were behind that because my father was a very well-known person and he had the influence in our society and the tribe.

Everything happened in front of my eyes, and I will never, you know, forget that.

Their interpretation from Islam is very, very different from the--what is the actual meaning of Islam.

The message that I got from Islam is the message of peace, the message of love, you know, the message of life.

Bill: Good afternoon.

Today I ordered our armed forces to strike at terrorist-related facilities in Afghanistan and Sudan to counter an immediate threat from the Bin Laden network, perhaps the preeminent organizer and financier of international terrorism in the world today.

This will be a long ongoing struggle between freedom and fanaticism.

Robert: Osama bin Laden became one of the top ten most wanted on the CIA and FBI list.

Ismail: Very rainy night, my father was listening to the radio.

We heard there's something going on, and I heard that there's the September 11. female: News of a major possible air crash in the United States.

A plane appears to have crashed into one of New York's tallest buildings.

Ismail: And they had hit--the aircraft, they hit the towers.

And I said, "What's going on?"

And said, "Oh."

And afterward we heard that Osama bin Laden, he is hiding in Afghanistan, and they came over here.

Saifullah: Tragic September 11 incident.

Unfortunately, many people, you know, died in that attack.

It was after the September 11 attack, around, like, 2 months later the US military invaded Afghanistan, and they were coming to Afghanistan.

George: On September the 11th, enemies of freedom committed an act of war against our country.

Our grief has turned to anger and anger to resolution.

George: On my orders, the United States military has begun strikes against Al Qaeda terrorist training camps and military installations of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.

We will not waver, we will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail.

Peace and freedom will prevail.

Thank you, may God continue to bless America.

Robert: With almost 3,000 killed in the World Trade Centers and the Pentagon and Flight United 93, that began America's global war on terror.

male: The US has begun a major attack against the Taliban and the Al Qaeda network in Afghanistan.

Robert: They started bombing a couple kilometers from where Saifullah and Ismail were.

Ismail: I was in school when we first heard a US jet.

It was flying.

It was very high, very high altitude.

We were climbing to the top of our roof to see the fighter jets pounding the bombs on the hideouts of the Taliban.

They shoot two cruise missiles and hit where Osama bin Laden was hiding.

We heard a very huge boom, and I saw the flames in the sky that was going through.

They brought some soldiers into some of the parts.

That was the time they started the invasion.

Saifullah: We believed that the United State and other coalition partners they were in Afghanistan to help Afghanistan, to bring democracy.

We would have freedom, people would be able to pursue their life the way they want, a government to belong to the people.

Robert: By early December 2001, the American forces had pushed back Al Qaeda and Taliban into Pakistan, and they had basically defeated them in less than 3 months.

Saifullah: When the Taliban government collapsed, the people were hoping there will be a better way of life.

Donald Rumsfeld: We're at a point where we clearly have moved from major combat activity to a period of stability, and stabilization, and reconstruction, and activities.

Ismail: And that time, the Taliban leaders, they proposed to--the former Afghan President Hamid Karzai proposed to former President Bush to say that the Taliban, they want to make a peace with Afghan people.

I don't know why he refuses.

He said, "No, we want to eliminate it by force."

George: There's no shades of gray in this war against terror.

Either you're with the United States or you're not with the United States.

[audience applauding] Robert: And so the war continued.

Barak: But for 6 years, Afghanistan has been denied the resources that it demands because of the war in Iraq.

So I want the American people to understand that we have a clear and focused goal, to disrupt, dismantle, and defeat Al Qaeda in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

These soldiers and marines will take the fight to the Taliban in the south and the east.

This push will also help provide security in advance of the important presidential elections in Afghanistan in August.

male: Aiden.

Robert: In 2009, one of our biggest priorities was to secure and facilitate the free elections that were going to take place in August of 2009. male: Voting here at this Kabul polling station going smoothly this morning.

That was pretty much to be expected.

The true test of this election is outside of the capital, in the Taliban heartland where the threats of violence have been strongest.

Ismail: 2009 during the Afghan presidential election, the people, they were very optimistic.

Robert: You know, there was some hesitant hope.

When Saifullah, when he had voted that morning and he came in, it was one of the happiest days I'd seen him during the war.

He felt like maybe this would be a turning point.

Saifullah: I was very excited, very, very excited, you know, to see this kind of things happening in Afghanistan.

From my childhood, I mean, to that time, I have--had never seen any kind of election or talking about election.

Ismail: But unfortunately, the election process has some corruption and was hunted by corruption.

So the people that they were dreaming and in 2001, they're hopeless.

They're disappointing.

female: Bombs, assassinations, attacks on US and coalition forces in Afghanistan.

The Obama administration says all these are the work of the Haqqani Network.

Ismail: They just used the name Haqqani, but in fact it is ISI, the Pakistani Intelligence Agency and the military.

It's not Haqqani.

Saifullah: The war is an insurgency war.

It's not like a conventional military warfare, you know?

It's like hit and run at time.

Ismail: President Obama's administration, they really relied in Pakistan.

They helped in billion dollar, but unfortunately the billion dollars didn't spend on the war on terror.

The money they received, they were hiring people, they were training people, and they were hiring a lot of uneducated people.

They didn't know.

They were brainwashed, sent them to Afghanistan to fight and do the jihad to fight America.

Saifullah: They were getting lots of support from outside, not only from Pakistan, Iran, Russia, and other country, because they wanted to fail the mission, you know.

Ismail: They made Afghanistan a battlefield of the India and Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia, China.

They involved everybody to make it very complicated, and they turned Afghan war from the war on terror to a proxy war.

Barak: I want to speak to you tonight about our effort in Afghanistan and the strategy that my administration will pursue to bring this war to a successful conclusion.

I have determined that it is in our vital national interest to send an additional 30,000 US troops to Afghanistan.

Our new commander in Afghanistan, General McChrystal, has reported that the security situation is more serious than he anticipated.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal: By ne--by this time next year, 1 year from now, I believe I'll be able to tell you that the strategy is clearly worth it and will be successful.

Saifullah: When President Obama announced more troops to Afghanistan, they needed more and more interpreters and translators from all over the world.

Robert: The war was ramping up.

We were going to start a surge.

And they really needed their best interpreters.

They wanted Saifullah to stay.

Saifullah: The visa program, it was stopped, but I was unable, you know, to get out.

[speaking foreign language] Robert: And I remember the last conversation I had with Saifullah before I left, and he goes, "You know, your deployment in Afghanistan is coming to an end, but I fear my deployment in Afghanistan will never end."

You know, that really s--that really stuck with me.

I was leaving a friend.

I was leaving somebody behind, and we felt like we were leaving a lot of people behind.

And we didn't accomplish our mission completely in 2010.

♪♪♪ male: Good to see you.

Welcome home.

Welcome home.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Robert: When I got back home, it was one of the best days of my life.

Great to see my wife and my infant son, and, you know, I kind of moved on.

I got stationed in Hawaii next, which was awesome, you know, but the war is still raging in Afghanistan.

Saifullah's still there, and I kind of lost touch with Saifullah.

I mean, we were Facebook friends, but he didn't have regular internet, you know, ability.

We just--you know, you fall out of touch with people.

By that point Saifullah was still trying to get out and get a visa.

Saifullah: In 2012 I applied again for another, one was the Allied Freedom Act and another one was the SIV, and again in 2013, but unfortunately, we were still stuck.

Robert: He had all of these certificates of achievement from all of these generals from the highest levels of the military.

Saifullah: I was disappointed in many occasions, and I thought, "Okay, it would not happen."

But I was still hoping, you know, like, one day, because it was not rejected or anything, but I did not know why it was taking too long.

male: In 2009, Congress passed the Afghan Allies Protection Act with strong bipartisan support.

The law dramatically increased the number of visas.

John: Congress passed bills in 2008 and 2009 providing thousands of Special Immigrant Visas for local nationals who worked with the US military.

female: Individuals in Afghanistan who have been employed by the United States government would be able to come here, and that seems to be in jeopardy.

Richard Olson: The State Department is fully committed to the Special Immigrant Visa Program.

We consider it frankly a moral responsibility.

John: Through the Afghanistan bill, we could have given out up to 1,500 visas a year.

Guess how many we gave out?

It was three.

Jeanne: To once again urge that we extend the Special Immigrant Visa Program for Afghan interpreters.

Adam: Special Immigrant Visa program was designed to provide safe refuge to the countless brave Afghan men and women.

Tulsi: Placing their lives in the hands of our service members as they worked together to complete that mission.

Robert: It took years for interpreters to get--to finally get their visas because there were a thousand stories of these guys.

It wasn't just Saifullah.

You know, there was a whole bunch of people that were left behind.

Ismail: And 2014, the contract was over.

They shut down the base and they pull out all the soldiers.

There was nothing.

The business, the economy.

There was nothing to work over there.

Saifullah: In that time was just, like, sitting, could not go outside and do anything, and I would think, "Help.

What's going on?

What's happening?

You know, what will be the life if I don't go?"

I did not see any hope for myself and for my family in the community because it was not very good.

And at the same time, I was not sure what will happen with the visa.

Robert: I got out of the Army in 2014 and I started my master's degree at USC Film School.

You know, I'm in a different world now.

I got a wife and two kids, trying to study film, trying to work, and I was just--moved on.

I was trying to make films and doing my own thing.

male: Rolling.

female: Marker.

male: Set.

Action.

Robert: And I get a Facebook message early that year from Saifullah saying that he's in big trouble.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ male: Cut.

Saifullah: So I contacted you Robert Ham, my best friend, you know, to help.

Robert: The Taliban got his phone number a couple times and would call and threaten him.

They even found where they lived and would write death threats and notes, and so they had to move around.

Saifullah: The letter would say, you know, like, "You're a traitor.

We would kill you.

You know, we would find you out.

We know where you are," the US military were working for them.

Robert: His visas were not going through.

And, of course, I wanted to help, but I have no idea what to do.

What the hell do I do, you know.

I call a former army lieutenant, Matt Zeller.

He was the co-founder of a nonprofit called No One Left Behind that he co-founded with his interpreter Janis.

male: Zeller promised Janis Shinwari he would help if the translator ever wanted to come to the US.

Janis Shinwari: I found out that my name was added to the Taliban kill list, and they were trying to hunt me down or one of my member family.

Matt Zeller: And I said sure, thinking it might take 6 months, maybe a year at the most.

It ended up taking 4 years.

Robert: No One Left Behind was trying to get interpreters from Afghanistan to America.

He understood the process and explained it to me.

Saifullah: When I reached out to Robert Ham, you know, he helped me to write letters to the congressmen.

Their offices sent me letters, you know, to sign them and describe what's going on.

Robert: And we needed a lot of them because the more congressmen wrote letters of recommendation, the higher Saifullah would get on the list.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Robert: Every time a new message would come on Facebook, I would just feel this gut-punch in my stomach.

That burdened me, and I was really angry at America.

I was really sad too, and I felt like I had to do something.

Robert: All right, testing, recording.

The UN estimates that one in every 36--what?

That one interpreter is killed.

Okay.

Every night when I go to sleep, I wonder if my interpreter will have been murdered by time I wake.

What is it, the -- line?

Robert: I guess in the back of my mind I was thinking I'm going to get a message from his brother or somebody that he's dead, and how can I live with myself?

Questioning what we were doing and why it had to come to this.

Robert: Every night when I wake.

Robert: And kept me up at night.

Robert: I can't think.

Let's do this--let's pause.

I need to-- Saifullah: Hi.

This is Saifullah.

I'm from Afghanistan.

Robert: So my next idea was, "I think we need to put a face and a voice to your story."

And I told Saifullah he needs to record a personal message to the congressmen.

So Ismail brought a camera and he recorded Saifullah.

And I had to blur out his face and blur out his children's face because he was afraid that Taliban would see him.

Saifullah: I want to take my kids to the United States.

I want to raise them there where they can really go to school where there is no fear of being killed or being kidnapped.

Here they don't have this opportunity.

The future of these kids is very uncertain and unknown.

Robert: You know, you could hear Saifullah's desperation, you could hear his anxiety, his desire to get out of the country, and you could see his three children.

Now he had three children.

It just broke my heart.

This, like, broke my heart.

♪♪♪ After all the letters that wrote back and forth to the congressmen and women, after all the calls that I had with Saifullah and the video, I didn't know if I would ever see Saifullah again.

Barak: Last December, more than 13 years after our nation was attacked by Al Qaeda on 9/11, America's combat mission in Afghanistan came to a responsible end.

Donald: I watched last night and I watched a president truly that didn't know what he was doing.

Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.

We have no choice.

Robert: America's priority in Afghanistan was not to get interpreters to America.

There's a massive level of bureaucracy when it comes to getting interpreters a visa.

Has to go through multiple levels of security and background checks, and that was just not what we were focused on doing.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Saifullah: I had no job, you know, no work.

I pretty much was restricted to my home.

I couldn't go outside a lot.

Even if I would go, I would go, like, sneak out and, you know, just trying not to--anybody to find out.

The situation or the life will continue like this was not sustainable, you know.

♪♪♪ Robert: But on Christmas Eve 2015, Saifullah sends me a Facebook message, and they want to do a final security check on him.

Saifullah called me and he said he got his visa and that he had booked his flight to San Antonio.

I cried.

I just cried.

Saifullah: So I was really, really excited.

And that took another 2, 3 months.

And January 2016, January 25 I got my visa finally.

The soonest I found the ticket, I wanted to get out.

Honestly when we first landed in New York was like the airport was very big airport, and that was the first time I was outside of Afghanistan.

And John F. Kennedy Airport, you know, it was very huge and so many people.

Ten hours we stayed there, and from there to San Antonio.

So finally, we arrived, like, around 11 o'clock at night.

And my very close friend Robert Ham, you know, he flew all the way from California to come and welcome me over here.

Other friend, Andrea, you know, they were working with me in Afghanistan, they were at the airport with her husband and kids, and my other closest friend Farooq Hewadmal.

When I actually saw them, I was really, really excited.

Robert: I'm glad to see you.

Saifullah: Very, very glad.

Saifullah: The worries that I had and concern, "Okay, what will our life look like," all actually was, like, removed because I saw my friend.

Everybody was there.

Robert: Six years.

Saifullah: It was really excited.

I mean, at the same time was really tired, but really, really excited.

♪♪♪ Robert: They believe in something called Pashtunwali, which is like a loyalty.

If you are a foreigner and you come into their land, that they're going to protect you.

[Farooq Hewadmal speaking foreign language] Saifullah: Well, after that, then started a new life, but it was good, have friend, you know, were helping in every situation.

female: You are not filming me right now, baby.

You are not.

Saifullah: Say what?

Welcome to my home.

Yeah.

I'm very glad to have you here, man.

♪♪♪ Saifullah: Everything, every single thing was different from my country, you know.

So I had to start from, like, zero here, you know.

Difficult how to get things done, like getting documents, get a driving license, find a place to live, find a good job, how to know the society, you know, the rules, rules and regulation, the laws, get the kids back to school and start a life.

But really appreciate, you know, the government here, the people.

You know, they helped us a lot and, you know, to successfully transfer.

Robert: Hello.

These are Saifullah's kids.

Say hi.

Hamza Haqmal: Hi.

Robert: And then Saifullah worked really hard to get Ismail his visa.

Ismail: Hey.

Saifullah: Hi.

Ismail: What's up, man?

Robert: Say hi.

Nazifullah Haqmal: Hi.

Asma Haqmal: Hi.

Hamza: Hi.

Ismail: So did you like the food?

Robert: It was great.

Look at this.

Look at all the food that they gave me.

Ismail: In 2017 I came to United State.

Then I opened a new chapter in my life.

We already had some other Afghans here, and my brother Saifullah he was already here.

Saifullah: So when I came here, I was always in my mind to get further education because education is the key to success, you know.

Robert: So as soon as he could, he started to apply to colleges.

Saifullah: I was focusing on that.

And finally in 2018, I start in my school, you know.

I go to the Texas A&M University.

It's a very good university, you know, well-known university.

Now, I, you know, study business administration.

It's called MBA.

And I have some, like, 12 more credits, then I will be a master, hopefully.

Robert: You know, Saifullah confided with me multiple times that it was really hard, that he missed Afghanistan.

His parents are still in Afghanistan, he's afraid for their lives, but they're never going to come to America.

They're too old, and it's too different.

At the same time, he also told me how much he loves the freedom that we have, and that he's so thankful to be here, and maybe if Afghanistan becomes a safe place, maybe he'll move back one day.

Donald: I have plans on Afghanistan.

That if I wanted to win that war, Afghanistan would be wiped off the face of the earth, it would be gone.

It would be over in--literally, in 10 days.

I just don't want to kill 10 million people.

Does that make sense to you?

female: The United States has dropped one of the biggest non-nuclear bombs.

female: A 21,000-pound bomb in eastern Afghanistan.

male: After the bombing, President Trump suggested the weapons used says a lot about his administration in contrast to the previous one, watch.

Donald: If you look at what's happened over the last 8 weeks and compare that to what--really to what's happened over the last 8 years, you'll see there's a tremendous difference.

male: We are told there are hundreds of other caves in the area still filled with the ISIS fighters.

As one soldier here put it, "The more we kill, the more come from the other side of Durand Line from Pakistan."

Ismail: Hey.

What's up, buddy?

How are you doing?

Nice to see you again.

Ismail: So I'm a committed person.

I want to stand on my own feet.

I don't want to rely on the government benefits.

Over here I work four jobs because I have two children, and over here in United States is really, really hard to support a family.

I started a business along with my other friends, you know, the interpreters, auto mechanic shop and an auto dealership.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Saifullah: Rashid is--Rashid was born here.

Rashid is a citizen, you know.

So he's the youngest child, and actually he's very sweet, very cute.

When I come from work, when I'm tired, when I see him, and, you know, he's running towards me, giving me a hug, you know, so it really relax me, you know, make me happy.

The message of life, uncomfortable life.

But the Taliban--I mean, I haven't seen anything from the Taliban except the violence.

Any religion--I mean, I have as well, like, study other religion as well, what did-- Ismail: He always focused on the new generation to--you know, to educate them to the level so never--the Afghanistan can never get back to the time of the darkness.

We didn't fear after a while.

We--you know, everybody was scared at first.

I left my family over there, my parents, my brothers.

That they are out there, and they work for the army, even more than 15 years.

I want the SIV officials, the authorities to help out those interpreters, and my parents, my brothers.

That they are in really need, and find a-- to resolve this problem.

[male speaking foreign language] [explosion] Saifullah: The other day, just in Kabul, they have very big explosion, 63 people were killed and more than 100 were injured.

What does that mean?

Did they attack any government official?

No government official was there.

Nobody was there.

All innocent people.

This does not present our culture.

It's all against our religion, against our culture.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Ismail: What we got from Afghanistan?

What we got--the America got from all 18 years in Afghanistan?

Nothing.

The threat of Al Qaeda is there.

They went strong on that.

ISIS is even a new challenge.

ISIS is there.

The Taliban, the Pakistan-Iran's proxies, they might take over and make the environment for all the terrorists to come over and attack the rest.

The local people, the people are very angry.

They are angry on Americans because they've made a lot of mistakes.

Robert: People ask me, "Why should we care about Afghan interpreters coming to America and why should we care about the war?"

We made promises that if they served with us, that we would give them visas to come to America if we were not winning the war.

That was the deal that they made when they signed up to be interpreters.

[Saifullah speaking foreign language] Robert: Saifullah and Ismail and the interpreters who have sacrificed a lot are more worthy to be in this country than a lot of people.

I would happily trade some of my neighbors for more of Saifullah and Ismail.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Robert: Whether or not you like the wars that we are involved in, there's American soldiers who have to go and fight them, and some of the times they don't like the wars or they are confused about it, but they still got to go.

We lost 13 soldiers from our brigade that year.

It's a heavy sacrifice paid in Afghanistan and Iraq.

It's kind of just sad that we couldn't accomplish what we set out to do there, but I think the best thing that I've gotten from the war is that we got some of these great Afghans to this country.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Robert: Is this is good for everybody?

Okay, so this is final interview take one.

Last time we talked, it was 2019, and we started this film in 2009 when I was in Afghanistan.

Saifullah: Mm-hmm.

It's been almost 13 years, right?

Robert: Thirteen years.

Saifullah: Thirteen years.

A long time.

Robert: Long time.

But a lot has happened since then.

Saifullah: Mm-hmm.

male: In remarks later today, President Joe Biden is expected to announce the full withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.

Joe: We cannot continue the cycle, hoping to create ideal conditions for the withdrawal.

I'm now the fourth United States president to preside over American troop presence in Afghanistan.

It's time for American troops to come home.

Robert: President Biden announces, like, "This is the end.

We're going to get out by September 11th."

What was going on in Afghanistan?

Saifullah: Back in Afghanistan, it was during the pandemic, lots of people were dying there.

We didn't have the facilities that we have here.

For me, unfortunately, my father, he also died of COVID.

You know, that was a big shock for us and a big impact on our whole family.

And 2 weeks later, we lost our uncle, like, 10 days later, we lost our aunt, and it was really, really hard, and my family really needed a support.

Ismail in 2021, while his kids were already in Afghanistan, he wanted to go there to pay the respects for my dad and as well to bring his kids back to the State.

♪♪♪ [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [singing in foreign language] [balloons popping] Saifullah: I was really worried, really concerned that when they withdraw, the Taliban will certainly take power.

female: Twenty years after the US toppled the Taliban in the aftermath of 9/11, that group is back in full control.

Saifullah: While we were seeing, you know, the chaotic scenes in the Kabul airport, was really heart breaking and really sad about the unfolding events, and I was really concerned, like, what will happen to Ismail, his family, my other family members like my brothers, my mom, not sure how he will get out.

Ismail: This is my room, and we are leaving everything out here.

We are leaving everything.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Saifullah: We did not know what to do, and he did not know what to do because there was no escape routes, you know, where he should go.

♪♪♪ Ismail: This is the graveyard for my dad.

I didn't see him.

I was in the United States when he passed away with COVID-19.

But now we are all leaving with unknown destiny.

This is my last farewell.

Saifullah: When he was there, we--like, we were not sure how he will get out.

I reach out to you my friend, you know, asking for help about how we can try to bring him and his family and my other family if possible.

Robert: And I'm like, "Of course."

Once again, I'm like, "What am I going to do?

Like, I have no idea what to do."

Saifullah: Very sad, man.

It's very sad to see these people.

Terrorists can be the rulers.

Oh my god, this is--I can't take it honestly.

Like, I hope my family can get out.

That would be nice.

Robert: I called pretty much every veteran I knew that knew somebody that was there.

So many veterans who had fought in Afghanistan felt the same way, and they're all trying to get their interpreters out.

And we finally got connected to people that were in Kabul.

Saifullah: Did you--brother, did you send the letter to the Petraeus office?

Robert: I did yesterday.

Saifullah: Through you I connected with other friends, then we started the process.

Ismail: This is our village, and we left everything behind.

We are heading down to Kabul.

All the commercial flights have been canceled, and now we are going on the military flights, and then we'll see what happens.

Robert: Ismail is traveling from his house in Khost to Kabul, trying to avoid all of the Taliban that are everywhere.

Saifullah: Mm-hmm.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Saifullah: So then had communication here with the veteran, with you, and back there in Afghanistan with them.

They were sending the map where the Taliban locations were and the check posts so they can evade that, and that was really helpful.

Most of the people, they lived under the Taliban rule before.

They know how cruel they are, how inhuman they are.

So that's why everybody was fleeing.

It was a demise of a nation.

A whole nation was thrown out under the bus.

♪♪♪ [speaking foreign language] ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Robert: I'm able to connect with people to get them to the Abbey Gate, which was the only entrance.

They basically say, "Make sure they have the right paperwork and that they're ready to go."

And that they gave them a special code that I gave Ismail so that they know that these are the right people to get in.

[gunfire] And you were telling me that you were seeing all of these State department alerts that ISIS was planning an attack.

Saifullah: Absolutely, on the news they were saying that there might be a potential attack.

Robert: Who's at the gate right now still?

Saifullah: Everybody, my mantala, my mamala.

The list that I send you, everybody is there.

Ismail: We cannot--like, we drove about 3 miles, and now we got out the car and we are walking for like 3, 4 miles.

Saifullah: My whole family were there, so exhausted, no water, no food, and was hot because it was summer.

And so many people, I would say tens of thousands of people, they gather, and at the same time was really dangerous.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ Saifullah: Luckily, when we talked to the marines on the ground, they let Ismail, his wife and kids and along with my mother, but the rest of my family was still there.

They were unable to leave, and they were still outside at the Abbey Gate.

And after that, honestly, like 3 hours later, there was an explosion.

[explosion] male: Good afternoon, and we are coming on the air at this hour with breaking news, and it's difficult.

male: US officials confirming that there was an explosion outside the Abbey Gate.

male: Unbelievable chaos.

The explosion, the whizzing ball bearings.

Saifullah: I was really shocked, and I thought my brothers and family have gone.

female: Thirteen US service members, mostly marines, killed, 170 Afghans.

Saifullah: But after some while, I was able to reach out to them, and they said, "No.

We safely got out."

And I was like, "Oh, God, thank you.

Thank you so much, you know."

If they were there, honestly would have lost, like, around 30 other family members, you know.

Robert: I remember when Ismail called me and he was like, "I got to the airport."

And your mom got through too.

We weren't sure if your mom was going to be able to get through 'cause she didn't have the paperwork and stuff.

Saifullah: I couldn't control my emotions.

I was, like, extremely happy.

Robert: And he's here.

Saifullah: He's here.

Robert: He made it.

Ismail: Hey, guys.

Salam alaykum.

Saifullah: Alaikum salaam.

Hello, how are you, bro.

Robert: I wasn't sure if I was ever going to see you again, brother.

Ismail: Yeah, me as well, man.

Robert: It's good for you to be here.

Ismail: Nice to see you.

I'm very glad.

Robert: Yeah.

Ismail: The things that we went through, man, was horrible, very horrible.

Ismail: I was not only leaving my house, we were leaving our dreams-- dreaming for about 20 years.

Our country went back to the Stone Age.

Everywhere families were separated.

There were children that were on their own.

And I saw people stepping over other people.

I saw older men and women they died of people trampled them in the rampage.

[gunfire] Ismail: And I was not only concerned about myself, I was concerned about whole family, my brothers and my cousin's family and, you know, but unfortunately, they were not able to get into the evacuation process.

It was uncertain situation.

It was just like a disaster.

Saifullah: The withdrawal, you know, like, nobody was prepared for that.

Thousands of people were just flooding towards the airport, and there were, like, a couple hundred soldiers, and they were not prepared for that.

But despite that, I think the soldiers, I'm talking about the soldiers, they did an excellent job and they evacuated over 100,000 people.

I mean, that was an enormous accomplishment.

female: And in what's being called the largest airlift in US history, coalition forces brought more than 123,000 civilians out of Afghanistan in recent weeks.

Ismail: The sad thing is, like, all the big powers that came to Afghanistan, they were bringing their own ideas rather than asking Afghans, "What are the solutions?"

Saifullah: Today, millions of kids, women are starving.

They don't have enough food.

Millions of women, they can't go to school.

There is a potential threat that another September 11 type of attack inside the United States from Afghanistan because all the extremists are going there and they are creating sanctuaries, training camps.

So to me, the future of Afghanistan looks very bad.

I was stuck in Afghanistan.

If I did not reach you out, I think I would be still there or I would be killed.

We sit on the same table, eat together.

Whatever I think is good for me, I eat, and you eat the food that you want.

I pray, you pray, stay with one another like brothers.

Robert: Anybody.

Ismail: When you coming?

We miss you.

Saifullah: My family, my kids, my friends like Robert Ham, you know, in hard time when they are with you, then you become someone.

These are the things that give me the hopes for the future and these are everything I have.

Ismail: Man, this is fun.

Saifullah: Here to the people of the United State, you know, that they should not take everything for granted.

They have to be very grateful for what they have.

Ismail: I only know about like two, three stars.

Ismail: We have to be thankful for the people who has sacrificed for this country, and they did so much for this country.

I think sometimes the people, they are not appreciative of that.

Saifullah: Now it's the turn for America to keep its promises and help those people, take them out of Afghanistan, and their lives are in danger.

They deserve to be helped and be brought to safety.

Ismail: When I wake up every morning, hundreds of people reach out to me 'cause that's the only hope they have.

Some people are in very dangerous and need to be out of Afghanistan immediately.

Saifullah: The United States, a great country.

It's a very good country, has lots of opportunities.

The good thing is my kids are safe.

You know, they safely go to school.

And I really appreciate and thank the United State, the United State government, and the people of the United State for allowing us and for hosting us.

Robert: We are a country of so many different people, and your story is like the American story.

Saifullah: Yeah.

Robert: When you talk to veterans of both the Iraq and Afghan war, it's pretty much across the board.

We have grown a deep affection for those that we served with from those countries.

Saifullah: We have been friends for the past 13 years.

Robert: We forged a bond in war that is never forgotten.

Saifullah: Yes.

Ismail: Yes.

Saifullah: Exactly the way it is, you know, the bond that we have forged.

♪♪♪ Robert: I mean, an example is like, you know, I never thought I would lose my wife to cancer.

Saifullah: Mm-hmm.

Robert: And part of being a friend is like you came out and came and were there that day with me.

You know, you guys are like brothers to me.

I love you guys.

Saifullah: The same, likewise.

We are a family.

Robert: That's what we can show, I guess, with this film and our shared story now, is how we could try to make the world a little bit better.

Saifullah: Better.

Yes.

Robert: It's been a long journey doing this.

Saifullah: Yeah, definitely.

Definitely.

Ismail: Yeah.

♪♪♪ Robert: All right, that's a cut for "Interpreters Wanted."

We did it, guys.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪