Afghans reportedly escaped Kabul through a CIA gate so secret not even the Taliban knew it existed

Hamid Karzai International Airport.
(Image credit: DOMINIQUE FAGET/AFP via Getty Images)

In the final 48 hours of the United States' evacuation from Afghanistan last month, many vulnerable Afghans who were not able to make it through Taliban checkpoints blocking access to Kabul's airport were still able to escape the country when the CIA opened a back door about two miles away from the main airport gates. The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the gate, referred to as Glory Gate or Liberty Gate.

The entrance, which was so secretive that even the Taliban was unaware of its existence, was initially used to smuggle out the CIA's priority cases, like intelligence assets or local agents, but its role expanded as the clock wound down.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
Explore More
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.