Former Afghan interpreter says Taliban tortured him for weeks but U.S. still won't give him a visa_我的网站
A | “我们企业贷款遇到了一点问题，能否帮帮我们？”近日，彭埠街道“信用直通车”服务站的信用服务专员收到了一则求助信息 。到底怎么回事？记者了解到，东站商圈的一家商贸企业因年报疏忽，被列入了经营异常名录，想找银行贷款，但是授信受阻，企业多次自主申报移出名录均未成功。正在发愁之际，听到街道正在宣传信用修复，就立马找到了“信用直通车”服务站。
B | As Massoud walked down a Kabul street one cold Sunday morning, looking for a day job to feed his family, pickup trucks full of armed Taliban members stopped in front of him. He told CBS News the men aimed their AK-47s at him, he was handcuffed, blindfolded and taken to an office of the Taliban's General Directorate of Intelligence.For more than a month, Massoud's family had no idea where he was. They searched everywhere, including hospitals, until they arrived at the Taliban's intelligence department. "After six weeks of searching, they found me at the Taliban's 040 intelligence department," Massoud told CBS News in a phone interview. He said during the first 15 days of his imprisonment, he was "beaten, struck with electric shock sticks, electrocuted, waterboarded and hanged upside down."Taliban members ride in a pickup truck during a celebration of the first anniversary of the Taliban's return to power, August 15, 2022, in Kabul, Afghanistan. Nava Jamshidi/Getty His crime? Massoud worked for the U.S. military as an interpreter from 2011 to 2013, including a year spent working with U.S. Navy SEALs. (CBS News is not using the real name of Massoud or the other former interpreter interviewed for this story to protect them from possible retaliation.)
"Don't want to see that horror again"
Massoud said that during interrogations, Taliban intelligence officers told him that, "with my help, the Americans have killed our people, and that I was still spying for the Americans.""I told them, 'You have announced a general amnesty,'" Massoud told CBS News, but he was informed by the Taliban interrogators, "there is no amnesty for you people."
Massoud was finally released by the Taliban after more than three months of imprisonment, after his brothers signed two separate guarantees promising the Taliban they would bring him back to the intelligence agency if ever asked to do so. CBS News has seen the letters and other documents his family filed with Taliban officials while he was imprisoned."They can find me anytime they wish and put me back in the prison," he told CBS News. "I just don't want to see that horror again."
"Still in danger"
U.S. Army Sgt. Jordan David Johnson, who has since been honorably discharged, was Massoud's direct supervisor in Helmand province and has written to members of the U.S. Congress supporting his former Afghan colleague's application for a U.S. visa, but to no avail. "Every time I hear from Massoud I feel guilty, because he is still in danger," Johnson told CBS News. "We told them that, 'You help us, and we will help you.' But now we are not, and that is wrong."U.S. Army Sgt. Jordan David Johnson (right), who has since been honorably discharged, is seen during his deployment in Afghanistan's Helmand province, with his Afghan interpreter Massoud (top left) and others. Photo courtesy of Jordan David Johnson In a September 2022 letter to lawmakers, Johnson said he trusted Massoud then, "and I am proud to call him a friend today," adding that he did not believe the Afghan "poses a national security threat to the United States of America."
"They will come after me and my family"
Omar, 32, told CBS News that he worked with the U.S. military from 2008 until 2012 and was deployed alongside U.S. troops in eastern Paktia province. From 2012 until Afghanistan fell back into the Taliban's hands in August 2021, he worked on various projects with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul. He was threatened many times for working with the U.S. and was injured in what he believes was an assassination attempt in 2014, after he filed for a U.S. visa.
Afghan women who served with Americans fight for U.S. residency 2 years after Taliban takeover03:05Despite the threats, which he continued reporting to his supervisors at the embassy, Omar was informed that his U.S. Special Immigration Visa, or SIV, application had been rejected because documents he submitted previously had been deemed fraudulent. He believes it's because he failed a polygraph administered by U.S. officials eight years earlier, and that the process was unfair. "They intentionally make you a criminal," he told CBS News. "You are only allowed to answer their questions with yes and no, and they don't give you a chance to explain." Omar filed an appeal against the rejection of his application in mid-June and is waiting for a response. He urged the U.S. government to "seriously look into our cases and take us into safety," adding that if it doesn't happen, "they will come after me and my family one day."
"Absurd that it takes so long"
During the 20-year war that followed the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan, thousands of Afghans served as interpreters and translators, working shoulder to shoulder with U.S. troops and diplomats, risking their lives serving on the battlefield and communicating with locals.
These interpreters were essential to bridge the language barrier, but also to provide cultural context, gather intelligence, negotiate with tribal elders and build trust with local communities. Massoud and Omar both applied for SIVs under a program created by the U.S. Congress in 2006 to offer legal pathways to the United States for Iraqis and Afghans who helped during the U.S. military operations in those countries. But the bureaucracy of the SIV application process has left many applicants frustrated, with little faith in the program.Massoud said his application was rejected due to a lack of documentation from his supervisors, despite Johnson trying to help. He said he submitted the requested documents and has waited for more than 320 days with no update from the U.S. government. "Every time Massoud submits all his documents and we think, 'now we are waiting for his visa to be approved,' then Massoud would contact me again saying, 'I need this and this document, because they keep changing the requirements,'" Johnson said.
The backlog, and work to improve a "vital program"
"We have surged resources to this vital program, significantly increasing the number of staff dedicated to it. We have reviewed every stage of the multiple step application process to streamline it wherever possible, consistent with U.S. law, and continue to look for areas to improve," a State Department spokesperson told CBS News.The official said the steps had enabled the State Department to issue "nearly 34,000 SIVs to principal applicants and their eligible family members" from the beginning of the Biden administration until August 1, 2023.
As of the end of March, State Department figures show about 9,800 principal SIV applicants had cleared a major hurdle in the process, securing Chief Of Mission (COM) approval. Those individuals are "awaiting further processing and their eventual visa interview before being issued an SIV," the spokesperson said, adding: "We are working to process these cases as quickly as possible."The State Department's figures show that another 69,000 principal applicants were undergoing the review process, and the spokesperson told CBS News that, historically, about half of the applications who reach that stage of the process do not end up qualifying for an SIV.According to the figures, 3,241 Afghan applicants were "deemed unqualified to receive COM approval or had the approval revoked during the second quarter" of 2023."The Department will continue to ensure Afghan SIV applications are processed as quickly as possible in accordance with the statutorily required program parameters and national security requirements," the spokesman told CBS News. A report issued this week by a State Department inspector general said, meanwhile, that according to the department's own estimation, as of April 2023, a total of "more than 840,000 principal and derivative SIV applicants remained in Afghanistan."CBS News' Tucker Reals and Paulina Smolinski contributed to this report.
D | 东站枢纽商圈汇聚了大量初创型商贸企业、物流配套企业和中小微服务商，商圈企业轻微失信、不懂信用政策、轻信虚假代办等问题较为突出。
E | 一旦留下不良记录，不仅银行贷款受阻，还可能在参与招投标、申请政策补贴、签订商业合同时处处碰壁。然而，许多企业主对信用修复的路径并不清晰——有的不知道应该通过哪个部门办理，有的被网上真假难辨的“代办中介”误导，花冤枉钱不说，还耽误了时间。正是看到这一普遍痛点，彭埠街道今年创新设立了“信用直通车”服务站，专门派驻3名信用服务专员，下沉商圈驻点服务，以“一对一”问诊帮扶方式，提供信用修复、合规经营指导、反诈宣传等一站式服务，真正把信用服务送到企业“门口”，精准破解商圈初创和中小微企业“不会办、办不对、怕被坑”的痛点。“干了三年信用修复工作，我感受最深的是企业不是不想守信，而是缺少及时、靠谱的指导。”应逸霄说，“今年二季度我们修复了100多条失信记录，这些企业大多是初次违规、轻微失信，只要指导到位，很快就能恢复。我们把服务送到门口，既节省了企业往返行政窗口的时间，也避免了他们被不良中介忽悠，真正让企业‘少跑腿、不添堵’。”这只是上城区优化营商环境的一个缩影。对于“一人公司”和中小微企业创业初期在年报公示、用工规范、税务申报、融资贷款等方面合规经营意识不强、易发多发违法违约等失信问题，上城区为企服务中心联合各部门街道通过专项服务、主题沙龙、共创联盟等形式，提供信用记录自查、修复帮办代办、政策咨询解读等专项服务，打通信用服务“最后一公里”。上城区审管办相关负责人表示，诚信是创业的立身之本，信用是企业参与市场竞争的“金字招牌”，更是享受政府扶持和金融服务的“硬门槛”和行稳致远的内在驱动力。他们通过今年把信用服务从传统商户延伸至新兴创业群体，让“信用”这一无形资产成为创业者实实在在的助力。据统计，今年以来上城区 “为企办实事·十无忧”——法税无忧项目，截至目前，已提供失信预警服务450余次，失信修复帮办代办186件，完成行政处罚一般失信信息治理2263条，举办诚信主题沙龙6次、宣传活动37次。这串数字背后，是一家家企业卸下包袱、“轻装上阵”的获得感，更彰显了上城以信用服务夯实营商环境软实力的坚定决心。
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