Exodus Afghanistan: A Personal Story ... 3 months later

It’s October and Thomas Baker is on a covert assignment in the Mediterranean. Ray Hennessy is convalescing at home in Denver after “a bout with the flu.” Deep Throat and the State Department decided that Baker and Hennessy were valuable assets to America and asked them to stay on as consultants. They both accepted.

(Author’s note: This Thomas Baker series novel is based on true events and contains opinion commentary. Thomas Baker is the ‘Sunset Playland’, ‘Sweet Land of Liberty’, and ‘Something for Nothing’ trilogy character as seen in the “Activity” section on this LinkedIn website. I’m using the Baker and company characters to tell the true story of Farid Nuri, a retired Afghanistan Army Colonel, a war hero and helicopter Medevac medic who worked closely with U.S. forces but is now being persecuted by the U.S. State Dept. for reasons they will not disclose, and possibly at this point, in their defense, they don’t even know. As you read this story, it is happening in real life, in real time, the outcome yet to be determined. Names have been changed and locations and incidents altered at the author's discretion, to protect the innocent in the name of privacy, safety, and national security. Any reference or similarity to real persons is purely coincidental.)

The situation with Farid Nuri is still unresolved. It’s been over a year now since the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan. Nuri, a retired Colonel and Medic in the ANAAC (Afghan National Army Air Corps) who worked closely with U.S. Forces, missed his flight out of Kabul during the exodus chaos last August. He has been continually denied an immigration visa by the U.S. State Department and he and his family (wife and three children) have been in constant hiding ever since in fear for their lives. His brother Abbas is at his wit’s end particularly with Utah Senator Witt Bromley and his staff, and frankly, with the State Department as well.

Abbas’s friend, Thomas Baker, has tried every trick in the book and pulled every string he knew to help secure a visa for his brother. Baker stepped aside, however, when Abbas acquired a new attorney to handle the matter, not wanting to interfere with her strategy, whatever it is. Baker recently asked Abbas how the strategy was going. Abbas just said, “... no luck so far ... one step forward, two steps back.”

The mystery had always been “the elephant in the living room.” Why was this man being denied a visa? The State Department branded Farid Nuri as having “provided material assistance to the Taliban, a terrorist organization.”, but with no substantiation. Abbas and Baker’s case couldn’t be stronger for a visa application acceptance considering Farid Nuri’s military background, his loyalty and alliance serving with U.S. Forces, even with the endorsements of top ranking U.S. military officers who worked with Nuri and knew him.

The elephant in the living room mystery is solved, however, with the news that anyone, any Afghan, as a “civil servant” working in a Taliban regime in any capacity as far back as 1996 was suspect. Farid Nuri was working as a pharmacist at the hospital in Kabul at the time. So, there is nothing specific that he is being accused of, he was merely caught up in the State Department’s post 9/11 terrorist mania blanket dragnet. Recently, however, the Biden administration has considered relaxing that blanket categorization realizing the unfairness to the innocent individuals and the associated unreliable profiling stigma attached to it.

There are literally thousands of Afghans in this situation. And although each individual has a right to his day in court, an no case is any more important than the next, it is both Baker’s and Abbas’s firm belief that Abbas’s younger brother Farid’s case deserves special attention by the powers that be at the State Department due to his background and military service with the U.S. Not to mention the fact that he is a marked man by the Taliban and in constant, imminent danger of being discovered and executed. A real possibility. Things are very bad in Kabul these days, not just for the women but specifically for anyone who supported the Americans.

What bothers Baker most about this whole episode with Abbas and his brother Farid was that the State Department specifically pointed to Utah Senator Witt Bromley as having the authority and the power to influence and redirect this immigration case. Baker and Abbas contacted Bromley through his constituent staff with multiple letters, emails, and phone calls, Baker even went to the Utah State Capitol Building to make a personal appeal to Romney, who, of course, was “not in.” The response from Bromley’s staff was minimal, to say the least. Baker and Abbas tried to arrange a personal meeting, even a phone call with Bromley. It never happened. Why wouldn’t he step up to the plate for Farid Nuri and Abbas? Baker was never even sure the message ever got through to Bromley.

Thomas Baker has a strong opinion on politics and politicians, especially, looking at the current state of affairs in Washington these days, and especially, in the wake of the former U.S. president, Donald “Goldfinger” Trump and his looney followers and zooey political allies. Baker branded Trump with the “Goldfinger” moniker citing the fact that Trump is a dead ringer for the 007 villain in both looks and criminality.

All that aside, politics has always been a weird and wild ride. In many ways it’s like religion. It’s just the nature of the beast. There are politics involved in everything from what color of socks you wear to who you want for president, and why. Unfortunately, politics (like religion) can bring out the worst in human behavior, and not very often the best. Greed, ego, power, money, fame, prejudice ... fear ... lies ... all seem to trump any good intentions with unintended consequences.

Politics is a sport, a betting sport. It’s the price we pay for democracy.

Whether Farid Nuri and his family will ever escape Afghanistan is anyone’s guess. Depending on how hard and dangerous things are for them over there, Farid must be frustrated with all the bureaucratic red tape and politics over his visa to the point of just resigning himself to stay there.

Baker feels badly for Farid and his family, and for Abbas who has worked so hard and spent so much time and money on attorney costs and administrative fees trying to secure a visa for his brother. But mostly he feels for Farid. Baker knows what it’s like to be left for dead. He knows what it’s like to be lied to. He knows what it’s like to be betrayed. He knows corruption and despises those who corrupt. Maybe he was a naive college student at the time, but his 1969 experience with Uncle Sam and America’s treacherous politics in Vietnam left an indelible mark on him. It shaped his personality and life’s course (See ‘Sunset Playland’). For better or worse, it made him who he is.

Baker’s seemingly improbable but very real experience over there should have turned him away from America, turned him into a dissident, it would anybody, but it turned him more toward America. It strengthened his sense of patriotism and forged a resolve to always do the right thing, or at least try to. He saw first-hand that there were some good people in government with good intentions, however few and far between they were. It turned him toward the America he knew it was and could be, not as a delusional MAGA republican, but as an American, the definition being the essence of itself.

You either get it or you don’t.

Baker is no wide-eyed boy scout about America, however. He holds in proper perspective the treachery of politics and politicians, and the storybook pipe dream fantasy about the American dream and “how we won the west.” Much of America is built on political greed and treachery as much as on the idea and ideals of freedom and democracy. It’s a volatile and combustive mix. But there is no doubt that honest, hard work by well intentioned people, mostly immigrants, is the backbone core of our country. These people will hold the line, while others fall behind.

An American poet (Bob Dylan) wrote, “Patriotism is the last refuge / to which a scoundrel clings / steal a little and they throw you in jail / steal a lot and they make you king.” No truer words have been spoken. We see it all around us today.

Baker’s current mission in the Mediterranean has him off the coast of Greece, on Corfu, a Greek island in the Ionian Sea. If you’ve seen the PBS Masterpiece Theater mini series ‘The Durrells of Corfu’ you know the place. His exact location and assignment are undisclosed, only Ray Hennessy and Ilene know what he’s up to over there ... and Deep Throat.

But always, on the back of his mind and never forgotten, is Farid Nuri and his family, and his brother Abbas’s mission to secure an immigration visa for him and reunite him with his family here in America. It’s a mission on which Baker will not relent until it’s accomplished. Baker’s resolve has been likened to “a dog with a bone.” He anticipates the best for Farid and his family, and he hopes that these Linkedin postings and subsequently published book will shed light on this family tragedy and injustice. He just needs to find a publisher with the temerity to publish the story.

Thomas Baker is a unique character. He has been described as a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma. Nonetheless, his perspective and great expectations for America, and Farid, are sacrosanct.

Ray Hennessy once asked Baker why he cares so much about truth and justice, why he gets so intense and personally involved in these issues. Baker’s answer was simply, “It’s not personal, Ray, it’s business. I don’t like burnt bridges and loose ends.”

John Kushma is a communication consultant and lives in Logan, Utah https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/john-george-kushma-379a5762