- Even though much of what'shappening in Afghanistan

isn't making headlines now,

the situation is still critical there

for Americans and othersattempting to leave the country.

I spoke with Tori Richardswith the Washington Examiner

about what her sources are telling her

from inside Afghanistan.

You've been covering the situation

in Afghanistan extensively,

and even though it's notdominating the headlines

as it was a few weeks ago,

what can you tell us?

We're hearing direreports of Taliban rule.

- Oh my gosh, it's horrible.

I mean, they're back to beheading people,

hunting people down,going from home to home.

And just terrorizing the citizens.

I mean, it's not thekinder, gentler Taliban

that they had promised.

- Are there still Americans in the country

and allies who are stilltrying to get out, Tori?

- Yes, there are probablythousands of Americans.

No one know exactly how many.

Plenty of allies.

I've been talking to a family

that is desperately trying to get out

because someone in that family worked

for Special Operations under our command.

And even a general whois a source of mine wrote

to the State Departmentsaying help these people

but that doesn't really matter.

They haven't gotten on a plane.

So they just hear gunfire every night.

They see people hung up in the square.

They're just terrified, hunkered down

in some home that's not even theirs

because they don't want anytrace coming back to them.

And so then they text mealmost every day saying

when is it our turn?

It's just tragic.

- Wow, well, there'smuch concern specifically

for women and children.

Can they expect anyfreedoms under the Taliban?

- No, in fact, the personthat's communicating with me

is an engineer and it is the sister

of the Special Operations soldier,

and she is afraid to even go outside.

She's heard of people who are females

who have their phones seized

when they're just on the street

and the Taliban will gothrough the telephone

and see who's on there.

One woman was arrested

for having a male's phone number in there.

Another woman was beaten forhaving music on her phone.

And so this woman is ahigh-ranking official.

She had an engineer job

with electrical androads, that type of thing.

She has a college degree

but she can't go to work

because they don't usewomen in jobs anymore.

She couldn't even get a job

doing driver education for buses.

So she's just at home.

I don't know how they're making ends meet.

It's just very sad.

- Do you think the Taliban

will eventually become less extreme?

I mean, in one of your reports,

a Taliban spokesman saidthey don't want any internal

or external enemies, yetthey're a terrorist group.

Can you elaborate on this?

- No, they're gonna be more extreme

as they're emboldened.

Right after this happenedwith the takeover,

I was sent a video by a source

of someone who was beheaded.

And they actually had the headon the person's body sitting

on the chest, and then theyheld it up by the hair,

and they were chanting praise be to God,

and the Taliban leader, andshooting their guns in the air.

This is several weeks ago.

I've had more videos and emails sent to me

regarding other people that were beheaded

or just slaughtered by the Taliban.

So I really think it's goingto be worse unfortunately.

And now that the mediahas kind of pulled out

and they're not getting all the attention

that they had before,

where they, quote, unquoteare kinder and gentler,

I just think it's open season now.

- Why do you think that the media

in large part is not coveringthis like they used to?

- I just think, first of all,

I mean, half the country's Democrat,

half is Republican and for the Democrats,

this is not a goodsituation to report for them

because it's just a debacle.

And for the Republicans,

I just think it's really sad and horrific.

There's other things going on now

like this port crisis and our economy.

So I just don't think the news cycle

is just going to keep goingwith it unfortunately.

I really don't.

I mean, it's kind of off thefront pages so to speak now,

so it's up to investigativereporters like myself

to keep coming back with new stories

that are compelling,

and hopefully people will pay attention.

But the lack of media coverage is just bad

for the citizens there.

The Taliban has taken overtheir airwaves as well,

so they don't really have a free press.

They don't have journalistsdoing anything compelling.

It's just talking points like China has.

- Okay, Tori Richards withthe Washington Examiner.

Thank you for your insights, Tori.

We appreciate it.

- Thank you, no problem.