How a fake wedding was used to sneak hundreds of Afghans to safety | 60 Minutes

Escape from Afghanistan

• The US military's cornerstone is to "leave no one behind," but when American forces left Afghanistan after 20 years, many felt this oath had been violated, leaving countless Afghans who helped Americans vulnerable to the Taliban (11s).
• In response, hundreds of groups of veterans and civilians formed to help Afghans find passage to safety and freedom, with one network staging a fake wedding to outwit the enemy (38s).
• Jason Kander, a former Army intelligence officer in Afghanistan, felt a personal sense of defeat and responsibility to help those left behind, including his translator Salam's nephew Raheem, who was in danger due to his work with the Afghanistan International Bank (1m42s).
• Raheem possessed critical documents, including a list of tens of thousands of Afghans who worked with the UN, US Embassy, and other organizations, making him a target for the Taliban (2m18s).

A Promise to Help

• The Taliban sent "night letters" to Raheem's family, threatening to kill them for betraying the Islamic Emirate, and Raheem refused to cooperate, leading to increased threats (3m7s).
• Jason Kander, who had previously served with Raheem's uncle Salam, began exchanging encrypted text messages with Raheem to help him and his family of 12 escape to safety (3m40s).
• Kander, a former Army Captain and rising Democratic party star, felt a sense of responsibility to help Raheem and his family, and worked to find a way to get them out of Afghanistan (4m7s).

The Rising Threat

• Jason, a former politician from Missouri, decided to help evacuate nearly 400 endangered Afghans, including soldiers, poets, doctors, and the Rui family, despite struggling with untreated PTSD from his time in Afghanistan (4m17s).
• The initial plan to evacuate the Afghans was unclear, and Jason's wife, Diana, was concerned that his desire to rescue the Rui family might damage his own family (5m15s).

A Dangerous Journey

• After the last American military plane departed Afghanistan on August 30th, 2021, the Taliban controlled the Kabul airport, and Jason's group directed the Afghans to head to the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif (5m49s).
• The Rui family, consisting of 12 people, had to make an 11-hour drive from Kabul to Mazar-i-Sharif, which was treacherous and dotted with Taliban checkpoints (6m33s).
• Jason was aware of the risks and feared that he might be sending the Rui family to their death, but he couldn't walk away from the situation (6m38s).
• The Rui family's documents, including headshots of all 12 members, were sent to Jason, and he felt a personal connection to the family, especially the little girls, reminding him of his wife's experience as a refugee from Ukraine (7m4s).

The Fake Wedding

• Jason's group came up with a new plan to evacuate the Afghans, but the details are not specified in this part of the text (8m36s).
• The Rui family began their journey to Mazar-i-Sharif on September 1st, 2021, but were stopped by the Taliban, who searched their car and had guns pointed at them (7m41s).
• The Taliban eventually let the Rui family go, possibly due to the sympathy they felt for the crying children (8m18s).
• The Rui family finally arrived in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan's fourth-largest city (8m23s).

Hiding in Mazar-i-Sharif

• In September 2021, the Taliban paraded in the center of Mazar, prompting the Rui family to go underground and find their own safe houses, where they dodged the Taliban for weeks (8m52s).
• Raheem Rui took a video of a Taliban roundup across the street from where the family was hiding, highlighting the danger they faced (9m6s).

The Evacuation Plan

• Jason Kander and his co-conspirators were finalizing a plan to evacuate the Rui family and hundreds of other Afghans with ties to the US and the fight for democracy (9m18s).
• On September 21st, Raheem was instructed to move to a new location with one bag per person and a code word, "Bella," which was the name of Jason's daughter (9m28s).
• Raheem was directed to a wedding palace in Mazar, where he met a man with a beard, turban, and laptop, who asked for his last name after hearing the code word "Bella" (10m6s).
• The Rui family was led to a large hall inside the wedding palace, where they found hundreds of other people, including women, men, and kids, all waiting to be evacuated (10m38s).
• The fake wedding was an ruse to slip past the unsuspecting Taliban and gather 383 Afghans in one place before a high-stakes attempt to reach the airport (11m33s).

Days of Uncertainty

• The Afghans were marooned in the wedding hall for three days, while Jason Kander and other orchestrators frantically raised money to charter a commercial plane to whisk them away to Albania (12m5s).
• The plane was intended to be a way station until the Afghans were granted clearance to enter the US, but the details of the plan were not clear to Raheem Rui at the time (12m30s).
• Inside the wedding palace, people started receiving travel documents, including boarding passes, which indicated that they would be on a special flight (12m57s).

Fake Documents, Real Hope

• A rescue team in America, in coordination with Jason Kander, created fake documents, including an email from a law firm, yearbook photos, and unofficial boarding passes, to help 380 people escape from Afghanistan (13m25s).
• The boarding passes were unofficial and only mattered if there was a flight manifest document from the nation of Albania, which would be sent to the Taliban, listing the people expected to land in Albania (13m47s).
• The Albanian government was going to send a Visa-cleared flight manifest to the Taliban, and the people escaping needed to present documents with their pictures, names, and date of birth to match the information on the manifest (14m15s).
• The Taliban, known for executions rather than following international protocol, was a significant threat to the escape plan, and the rescuers were playing a "lethal game of capture the flag" to get the people out of Afghanistan (14m25s).
• If the Taliban found someone they were looking for, they could do whatever they wanted, but if the person made it inside the airport and was on a manifest for a Visa-cleared flight, it would become an international incident if they were imprisoned or harmed (14m41s).

The Escape

• The rescue team's plan was put to the test as buses arrived at the Maseri Sharif airport filled with 383 members of a fake wedding party, who were attempting to board a charter plane (15m7s).
• The Taliban was present at the airport, and the escapees were nervous, knowing that a single mistake could mean capture and imprisonment (15m16s).
• Despite the risks, the Taliban honored the homemade boarding passes and the Albanian manifest, allowing the wedding party to board the charter plane (16m11s).
• The plane safely took off from Afghanistan, and the rescuers celebrated as the wedding party landed in Toronto, Albania, and were taken to a seaside resort (16m44s).
• The escapees were eventually taken to a hotel, the Raphaelo, which had a replica of the Statue of Liberty outside the front lobby, symbolizing their newfound freedom (16m57s).

A New Beginning

• The children of one of the escapees, Raheem Roui, recorded a video on the beach, thanking Jason Kander, whom they had not yet met, for their rescue (17m12s).
• The escapees were not expected to stay in Albania for long, with the Department of Homeland Security estimating that they would be there for only a few weeks (17m37s).
• Weeks after the initial evacuation, the US State Department announced that anyone who left Afghanistan after August 31st would not be part of Operation Allies Welcome, leaving those who escaped later to rely on private efforts for support (17m49s).

A Long Wait

• A year after the evacuation, the group of Afghans who were part of a fake wedding party to escape the country were still stuck at the Raphaelo Resort in Albania, facing uncertainty about their future and relying on private donations to cover their expenses (18m10s).
• Nearly two years after the evacuation, the US Department of Homeland Security finally approved the Afghans to resettle in America, bringing relief and joy to the group (18m57s).

Coming to America

• Raheem Rui, one of the Afghans who escaped, had never been to America but knew he wanted to call the same place home as Jason Cander, who had been helping him, and eventually settled in Kansas City with his family (19m24s).
• Jason Cander and his family greeted Raheem Rui and his family when they arrived in Kansas City in June 2023, marking the first time they had met in person despite their intense multi-year relationship (19m37s).
• The reunion was an emotional and special experience for Jason Cander, who felt a deep connection with Raheem Rui's family and realized that there was no difference between their children and his own (20m1s).
• Today, Raheem Rui is working in accounts at a bank in downtown Kansas City, and he and Jason Cander regularly get together with their families for traditional Afghan meals (20m24s).
• Despite the challenges they faced, Raheem Rui is grateful for the opportunity to start a new life in America and is still in awe of the reality of his situation (20m55s).

Reflections and Hope

• Jason Cander believes that the experience has been the most important thing he has ever done and hopes that Americans will recognize the heroism and resilience of the Afghans who have come to the US (18m48s).
• Jason Cander also acknowledges that the US military's involvement in Afghanistan was not a success, but believes that the efforts to help Afghans resettle in America are a way to make a positive impact (21m15s).
• He wants Americans to know that every Afghan they meet has a heroic story to tell and deserves respect and understanding, regardless of their occupation or circumstances (21m33s).
• Afghans are described as some of the most industrious, resilient, and incredible people one can meet (21m51s)
• It is expressed that every American should be aware of the characteristics of Afghans (21m57s)