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"If this is true, the Administration has some questions to answer."

From the Meet the Press transcript:

MR. RUSSERT: The New Yorker magazine revisited the subject that we talked about in December, and they insist that in November—and this is the article—that: “In interviews, however, the American intelligence officials and high-ranking military officers said that Pakistanis were indeed flown to safety, in a series of nighttime airlifts that were approved by the Bush Administration. The Americans also said that what was supposed to be a limited evacuation apparently slipped out of control, and, as an unintended consequence, and unknown number of Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters managed to join in the exodus.” The point being, in November, Pakistan was able to airlift people out of Afghanistan. Did that happen?

SEC’Y RUMSFELD: I do not believe it happened. I can’t prove a negative, but our people have checked to the extent that it is possible to check. We have had enormous numbers of aircraft and intelligence sensors in various ways watching that area. No one, that I know, in—connected with the United States in any way, has saw any such thing as a major air exodus out of Afghanistan into Pakistan. I have read these stories, I’ve heard these stories, I’ve never been able to run them down. No one has ever been able to run them down and prove them, and I doubt them. I think they’re not true.

a) If there was a Pakistani airlift, our military knew about it. It would not have been possible to run airplanes from Kunduz in November without American permission.

b) Hersch's source says 4,000 to 5,000 people were airlifted. That's 50 to 200 flights.

c) There has been one previous story about this activity. Are we to believe that no one saw or reported 50 to 200 Pakistani flights leaving Kunduz airfield, or that the only people who know about are the Indians (who had no known military observers on the ground)?

d) Hersch's story is simply implausible on the face of it.

" ... no ... MAJOR air exodus out ... "

I watched the Rumsfeld interview on MTP. He clearly was holding back on fully answering the question (which is understandable). Parse his answer ... he said he was not aware of a MAJOR air exodus ... a tacit admission, in my book, that they were aware of (and did nothing to stop) a "MINOR" air exodus out.

I'm sure everyone recalls the sketchy news reports at the time. I think it's best to fess up that they agreed to very limited evacuation of Pakistanis, but that it got out of hand.

Folks, I like Rumsfeld a lot. He's one of my favorites in the administration. But if you can't clearly read that transcript, whether you saw the interview or not, and see the stuttering, stammering, and wishy-washy way he handled that, your BushBlinders are on way too tight. Rumsfeld is normally right to the point, no crap. But this answer reads like something from a Clinton official.

Mark it down. We knew.

Rumsfeld: I do not believe it happened.

The weasel construction of this sentence means that he knows it did happen.

It was widely reported that transport aircraft landed and took off from Kunduz in the black of night during the siege. My own speculation at the time was that Bush et al. had agreed to allow high ranking Pakistanis, or the relatives of high ranking Pakistanis, to exit Kunduz unharmed. I figured maybe a couple hundred people were evacuated. I can see that figure rising maybe to 1000, but not to the 4000 to 5000 figure Hersh is hyping.