‘I Don’t Think They’ll Last Too Long’: Army Vet Pushes Biden Administration To Help Afghan Translators

By Bill Shields

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    EVERETT, Massachusetts (WBZ) — With the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan just days away, a program to bring people employed by the American military to the United States is backlogged, with thousands of applicants denied.

Sabib Nuristani couldn’t be happier. He got his family safely to America, and he’s got a good job in Everett. But had he not gotten out of Afghanistan, he knows what would have happened.

“I was on a hit list by the enemy,” Nuristani said. “I received many threat warnings.”

Marc Silvestri is an Army veteran, and was instrumental in getting Nuristani to the United States.

Books have been written about the battles at a northern outpost in the Korengal Valley, where Silvestri was in Afghanistan. Nuristani was the translator for Silvestri’s unit, and he never ran or abandoned the Americans.

“We did a lot of fighting. A lot of the interpreters would come and go, it was just heavily, heavily contacted and Sabib was actually one that stuck with us the whole time,” said Silvestri.

As the last American troops are now leaving Afghanistan, Marc Silvestri is now pushing the Biden administration to help the Afghans, who have helped the U.S.

“I don’t think they’ll last too long,” Silvestri said. “The Taliban takes them as complete traitors.”

Nuristani knows what will happen to those who helped Americans and stayed in Afghanistan. “If they’re not evacuated from Afghanistan they lose their life and the lives of family,” Nuristani said.

Silvestri estimates there are nearly 2,000 Afghans still in the country with security clearance whose lives are now in jeopardy.

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