Leave no one behind …. It’s one of the cornerstones of the U.S. military. But when, after 20 years, American armed forces left Afghanistan, in the eyes of many, this sacred oath had been violated. Countless Afghans who helped Americans and the cause for democracy were suddenly abandoned, vulnerable to being killed by the Taliban, the fundamentalist Islamic militia that had retaken the country…. Back in the U.S.—acting outside of military channels—hundreds of groups of veterans and civilians formed overnight, hatching escape plans to help Afghans find passage to safety and freedom. Tonight, the dramatic and cinematic story of one such network that outwitted the enemy and avoided a mass funeral by staging a mass wedding… 

This is not how America’s longest war was drawn up to end. Afghans fleeing the conquering Taliban in August 2021… so desperate to get out, they overwhelmed the Kabul airport and clung to departing U.S. military planes –a last grasp at freedom.

Jon Wertheim: Did it feel like defeat?

Jason Kander: I mean it felt like defeat, because technically it was a defeat. But it felt much more like leaving people behind personally.

Jason Kander had served as an Army intelligence officer in Afghanistan, meeting thugs, he says, to glean information about other thugs…often accompanied only by his translator, Salam Raoufi. 

Jason Kander: To know that there were people there who had put their lives on the line for us. It felt like leaving a friend behind when you had promised them you wouldn’t.

Home in Kansas City, Kander watched in shock as Afghanistan fell and immediately he reached out to his translator Salam, who was safe and out of the country…

Jason Kander: And at some point, I did say to him, you know, “Do you have anybody over there who’s in danger?”  And he told me about his nephew in Afghanistan.

Salam’s nephew Rahim was squarely in Taliban crosshairs, because he possessed critical documents from his work in payroll for Afghanistan International Bank…

Jon Wertheim: What list does Rahim have that makes him such a target?

Jason Kander: Rahim has access to the list of tens of thousands of Afghans who had worked directly with everybody from the UN to the U.S. Embassy, to any other multi-lateral just trying to build democracy in Afghanistan, everything that the Taliban stood against, and everything that once the Taliban took over, one of their first priorities was to find those people and make an example of them by imprisoning them or killing them.

Jon Wertheim: Does the Taliban ever get their hands on that list?

Rahim Rauffi: No, never. I never gave up. I never–

Jon Wertheim: Never got– never got the list? 

Rahim Rauffi: Never provide a single information.

Rahim Rauffi’s refusal to cooperate enraged the Taliban

Jon Wertheim: How were you threatened?

Rahim Rauffi: We just– receive night letters.

Jon Wertheim: Night letters?

Rahim Rauffi: Yeah, night letters. 

The night letters were Taliban edicts dropped under doors… under the shroud of dark. One sent to the Rauffi home in Kabul read: your whole family is sentenced to death for betraying the Islamic Emirate –using the Taliban’s choice term for Afghanistan.

Rahim Rauffi: They clearly mentioned that they are going to kill me.

Jon Wertheim: You had to get outta there.

Rahim Rauffi: Yeah.

For Rahim – and his clan of 12: his wife, their children, including triplets, his mom, his brothers, a nephew, sisters—in-law – hope for a passage to safety rested with a little league dad nine and half time zones away in Kansas City, Missouri: Jason Kander. The two began exchanging encrypted text messages… 

Rahim Rauffi: He was the only one, the only person who showed up for you that- in your worst time. 

Jon Wertheim: But you’ve never– never seen this guy?

Rahim Rauffi: No. Even I don’t know how he looks like.

Jason Kander: My thinking was, “How in the world can I go on with the rest of my life thinking, “Maybe there was something else I could’ve done for Rahim?”

Yet another dynamic: after Kander had been honorably discharged as an Army captain, a political career took off…he was seen as a rising Democratic party star and in 2016 Kander nearly won a U.S. senate seat from Missouri. Then, he stepped away from politics, citing his struggles with untreated PTSD, an unhappy legacy from Afghanistan.

Jon Wertheim: And this didn’t give you pause, “Maybe I shouldn’t jump back in the fire,” [in] the very country where this PTSD took root, no less?

Jason Kander: Ultimately I just made the decision that it didn’t matter. I would deal with it afterwards. And I made the decision, which I knew at the time was probably poor judgment, to say to Rahim, ‘No matter how long it takes, we’re gonna get this done.’ I knew that I was biting off more than I could chew.

Kander joined with other private citizens feverishly plotting to evacuate nearly 400 endangered Afghans, that included soldiers, poets, doctors and the Rauffis.

Jon Wertheim: And the overarching plan initially is what?

Jason Kander: Well, the overarching plan initially is, “What the hell are we doing? That didn’t work. Let’s try this.” 

Jason’s wife Diana became concerned her husband’s desire to rescue the Rauffi family might damage his own family.

Jon Wertheim: Are you worried he may decide to go over there?

Diana Kander: Yeah. He asked me for his pa– he, like, called me from the other room. He’s like, “Hey– where’s my passport, just by the by?” And I was like, “Yeah, zero chance you’re even getting access to your passport.”

Jon Wertheim: You brought it up?

Jason Kander: Oh, me and some other guys. Yeah. We– we had ideas as to what we were gonna– they were all bad ideas, but we were also running out of ideas by that point, so.

Once the last American military plane departed Afghanistan on August 30th, 2021, the Taliban controlled the Kabul airport, choking off the most obvious escape route. Kander and his ad hoc group directed the imperiled Afghans to head to the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif.

Jason Kander: “Let’s get everybody to Mazar-e-Sharif. Let’s have them in hiding.” And then let’s charter a plane, get it in there. And then we gotta figure out somehow how to take all these people who the Taliban are looking for, and stage them in one place, and get them into the airport.”

The thinking at that moment: in the north of the country, the Taliban wasn’t quite as entrenched…but for the Rauffi family the city of Mazar-e-Sharif was a treacherous 11-hour drive from Kabul, dotted with Taliban checkpoints…

Jon Wertheim: Is there not a fear that you are potentially sending this– this family of 12 to their death?

Jason Kander: Yeah. It was– a big fear. It was all I thought about. 

Jon Wertheim: How do you reckon with that?

Jason Kander: I wasn’t gonna walk away. And it also seemed like if we weren’t successful, that’s what was gonna happen anyway. You know, part of it was Rahim had to send me all the documents for the entire family. 

That included head shots of all 12 Rauffis

Jason Kander: So at this point, what’s living in my phone is pictures of these little girls. And– and for me, what I kept thinking about was, you know, my wife came here as a refugee at the age of eight from Ukraine with her family. And when I looked at– at these little girls– that’s what I saw. I saw little Diana. And– so not only was quitting not an option. Failure wasn’t an option.

In the early morning of September 1st, 2021 the Rauffis began their convoy to Mazar. A few minutes in…

Rahim Rauffi: Suddenly, the Taliban came out in front of my car. And they had their gun in their hands. Oh my God. I said, “Now you are done.” And they start searching us.

Jon Wertheim: Taliban searching your car–

Rahim Rauffi: Yeah, Taliban search me and the driver, and they have their gun. And the kids are just– they thought that they are going to shoot me or the driver. Only because of my kids crying and shouting they just released us.

Jon Wertheim: If your children are not crying in the car, which gets sympathy–

Rahim Rauffi: Done

Jon Wertheim: – from the Taliban, done.

Rahim Rauffi: Done.

They finally rolled into Mazar-e-Sharif… Afghanistan’s fourth largest city.  

Jon Wertheim: And now what?

Jason Kander: The Rauffis are in Mazar-e-Sharif, and myself and the people I was now working with are engaged in solving a few problems, or trying to. One, how do we raise the money to get an airplane chartered to fly in there to pick up close to 400 people? And also how do we make it so that the Taliban doesn’t know that we’re doing this? 

The day after the Rauffis arrived in Mazar in September 2021, the Taliban, in a show of strength, paraded in the center of town…the Rauffis went underground for weeks, finding their own safe houses… One night Rahim surreptitiously took this video of a Taliban roundup— just across the street from where the family was hiding… As the Rauffis dodged the Taliban, half a world away, Jason Kander and his co-conspirators were finalizing a Hail Mary plan of either genius or insanity…. on September 21st, it was go time….

Jason Kander: I tell Rahim, “OK, today’s the day. You’re moving.”

Rahim Rauffi: He said, “One bag per person. This is the location I am sending you. You have a code word, and it’s Bella.” I said– “Bella?” Said, “Yeah, my daughter’s name. 

Jon Wertheim: “Get ready. 

Rahim Rauffi: Yeah

Jon Wertheim: Bring a bag.

Rahim Rauffi: Yes

Jon Wertheim: Code word: Bella.”

Rahim Rauffi: Is it someone that I should give this code? Whom I should give?” Because Jason didn’t give me a name that, “You should go to that person.” He just told me to go to this location.

Jon Wertheim: Wait, wait. So– so you have a code, but you don’t know who to say– you– you say–

Rahim Rauffi: Yes.

Jon Wertheim: –the code to the wrong person–

Rahim Rauffi: If you say the code to the wrong person, then you’re “(hand across throat)” 

Kander directed the Rauffis to a wedding palace in Mazar. There, Rahim spotted a man with a beard, a turban and a look of authority… 

Rahim Rauffi: He had a laptop.

Jon Wertheim: That was your– clue?

Rahim Rauffi: Yeah. He ask me, “Do you have anything?” I said, “Bella.” When I said Bella, he open his laptop. And he ask me for my last name. I said, “Rauffi.” My heart was beating very fast. Then he said, “Twelve people?” I said, “Yes.” Then he said, “Bring them in.” 

The Rauffis were led to a large hall inside the wedding palace…

Rahim Rauffi: When they open the door, I was shocked. I see that there are more people. There are women, men, kids with their bag…

Jon Wertheim: Just like you? Hun–

Rahim Rauffi: Yeah.

Jon Wertheim: –hundreds, and hundreds of people?

Rahim Rauffi: Yes. The 370 or 380 people.

Jon Wertheim: Do you recognize any of them?

Rahim Rauffi: N– none of them. No–

Jon Wertheim: Didn’t know any of ’em?

Rahim Rauffi: No one is talking with each other, just “Hi, hello, salaam.” That’s it. Then– (laugh) I s– s– call Jason. I say, “Brother, I am in, but there are more people.” Then he told me, “Welcome to the wedding party. Welcome to the wedding party.”

Jon Wertheim: That’s what he said?

Rahim Rauffi: Yeah. “Welcome to the wedding.” 

Jon Wertheim: Is there a bride?

Rahim Rauffi: No.

Jon Wertheim: A groom?

Rahim Rauffi: Nothing.

Jon Wertheim: Music?

Rahim Rauffi: Nothing at all.

Jon Wertheim: I hope they fed you at least.

Rahim Rauffi: Very good.

It was a fake wedding…. a ruse to slip past the unsuspecting Taliban and gather 383 Afghans in one place, before a high stakes attempt to reach the airport…

The fake wedding threw the Taliban off the scent, but 383 Afghans with ties to the U.S. and the fight for democracy were marooned for three days in a wedding hall. All the while, Jason Kander, the former Army captain in Kansas City, continued concocting the evacuation plan. Through crowdfunding and private donations, Kander and other orchestrators frantically raised money to charter a commercial plane that would whisk away the entire “wedding party,” to, of all places, Albania… a way station, until the Afghans were granted clearance to enter the U.S….but inside the wedding palace, Rahim Rauffi knew none of this…

Rahim Rauffi: It was not clear for me what Jason is doing.

Jon Wertheim: It’s a lotta trust.

Rahim Rauffi: It’s just trust.

Jon Wertheim: When did you start to realize that things might be moving in– in a good direction?

Rahim Rauffi: Some people start receiving travel documents. Like, their boarding pass.

Jon Wertheim: So how did you get your boarding pass?

Rahim Rauffi: Yeah. We just receive it through email. 

Rahim Rauffi: This is the one.

Jon Wertheim: That?

Rahim Rauffi: Yes. It’s–

Jon Wertheim: That’s your boarding pass?

Rahim Rauffi: Yeah, it’s a boarding pass with my entire family names on it. And it says, “Special flight.” (laugh)

Jon Wertheim: This– this doesn’t look particularly official. This looks like an email from– from a law firm with some yearbook photos–

Rahim Rauffi: That’s–

Jon Wertheim: –Photoshopped.

Rahim Rauffi: That’s what the 380 people, they had only this one.

This too was the handiwork of the rescue team in America… in coordination with Jason Jander.

Jon Wertheim: Explain these boarding passes, which look something less than official.

Jason Kander: So the boarding passes, which were quite unofficial— only matter if there is a flight manifest document from the nation of Albania, otherwise they’re just a piece of paper you’re gonna present and then go to prison. So what was gonna happen was the Albanian government was going to send, to the Taliban, a visa-cleared flight manifest, a list of people that said, “These are the people who we are expecting to have land in our country.” Now, what these people needed to do was present something that had their pictures on it, had their names, their date of birth, everything that would match up to what was on that document.

In other words, everything rested on the Taliban—a group more known for executions, than for following international protocol.

Jason Kander: The really terrifying and lethal game of capture the flag that was trying to get someone out of Afghanistan at that moment in time worked like this: if the Taliban finds you and you’re someone they’re looking for, they can do whatever they want. They run the country. If they do not find you until you have made it inside the airport and you are on a manifest for a flight that is visa-cleared by another country, well, now if they imprison you or shoot you in the head, you are someone that was expected to land in another country and now it’s an international incident.

It was finally time to test the Taliban. Buses arrived at the Mazar-e-Sharif airport filled with the 383 members of the wedding party… 

Rahim Rauffi: Oh my God. There was checkpoints.

In the terminal and on the tarmac, the Taliban was everywhere.

Rahim Rauffi: They were just coming and see– to your face. I was shaking. I was sweating. Now what? Now you’re in front of the Taliban. They were just looking for a single mistake.

Jon Wertheim: One, little number–

Rahim Rauffi: One little–

Jon Wertheim: –one misspelled name–

Rahim Rauffi: –number, misspelled name, or anything to stop you. If they stop you, then you’re gone.

From the gate the Rauffis could see their aircraft—this vessel to freedom—so tantalizingly close.

Jon Wertheim: Are you thinking, “This– this is the big gamble. This is either gonna end terribly, or I’m gettin’ on that (laugh) plane–“

Rahim Rauffi: It’s– it’s a gambling that you even didn’t see your cards. (laugh) What you have? What you got? What will happen? But– you just gamble your entire life.

The bet paid off…. astonishingly, the Taliban honored the homemade boarding passes and the Albanian manifest – and relented. The wedding party boarded the charter plane.

Back in Kansas City… Jason Kander followed the drama on a flight tracking app. 

 Jason Kander: There’s zero planes over Afghanistan. And then finally, they’re on the plane and the transponder turns on. And you see one little– airplane– turn on on the runway in Mazar-e-Sharif.

Jon Wertheim: That’s your plane.

Jason Kander: That– that was Bella. That was our plane.

After the plane soared safely out of Afghan airspace, the champagne came out…  the rescuers celebrated… the wedding party landed in Tirana, Albania and were bused to a seaside resort, the Rafaelo… by sheer coincidence, a giant replica of the Statue of Liberty stands outside the front lobby…

Rahim Rauffi: That was a very beautiful– hotel, one of the toppest hotels near the ocean, with the ocean view. So when we arrive there, I say, “Wow.” 

Rahim Rauffi recorded this video of his kids on the beach addressing a guy they still hadn’t met…

Jon Wertheim: They get to Albania. Obviously not the ultimate final destination. How long did you anticipate everyone being in Albania for?

Jason Kander: So what we had been told by people– at the Department of Homeland Security– was that it would probably be a few weeks, and what happened is– is that weeks went by, and then somewhere, I wanna say two, three months after we got out, the State Department made an announcement that anybody who got out after August 31st would not be part of Operation Allies Welcome. And basically it was all code for, “You’re on your own. If you got out this way, that’s a private effort, we got nothing to do with it.” And that was a big shock and a huge problem.

A year passed. By the fall of 2022, the honeymoon long over,  the wedding party was still stuck at the Rafaelo Resort inAlbania…

Rahim Rauffi: Maybe we are not going to be accepted. Then they will send us back. So if they send us back, I am sure on the airport they will kill us.”

On top of that, private donations that had been covering the resort tab were running low…

Jon Wertheim: You’ve crossed the year mark. Who– who’s paying this hotel bill?

Jason Kander: There were some very generous donors– who helped us over time. And the people– who had helped me raise the money in the first place did a lot of work. And it’s taken a toll on all of us. But I think now if you talk to any of us we’d say it’s– you know, the most important thing we’ve ever done.

Finally, nearly two years into the wedding party’s saga… emails arrived from the U. S. Department of Homeland Security: the Afghans had been approved officially to resettle in America.

Rahim Rauffi: Oh my God. That was a big party. I just call Jason and say, “Hey. We all got the approval.”

Jon Wertheim: Emotional day?

Rahim Rauffi: (sigh) I was, like, crying inside. Yep. (sigh) Like, now you have a future.

Rahim Rauffi had never been to America…but he knew exactly where he wanted to call home … as he put it to Jason Kander:

Rahim Rauffi: “Where do you live, because I have no idea. But wherever you live, I’ll come to that state.”

In June of 2023, Rahim Rauffi and his family arrived in Kansas City… Jason Kander and his family were there to greet them…

Rahim Rauffi: I said, “Brother, is this real life?” (laugh) He said– Jason reply me, “Yes.” And I said, “We did it.” 

Jon Wertheim: You’ve had this intense, multi-year relationship with this family, but you’ve never met them. When you finally see them in person, what is that like for you?

Jason Kander: It was sort of an out-of-body experience. And to see my kids and– and the Rauffi kids sitting on the floor playing and not needing any language, it really underlined for me what I had felt all along, which was that there’s no really difference between these kids and my kids, and that they all deserve the same thing. And– yeah, it was pretty special.

Today, Rahim Rauffi is back to working in accounts at a bank…this one in downtown Kansas City, where his brothers serve as security guards. The Rauffis and the Kanders regularly get together for a traditional Afghan meal. Bella, of code word fame, included…. for all the distance that once divided them, they now live 10 minutes apart.

Rahim Rauffi: At midnight, when I wake up, I’m taking, like, one or two minutes to think, “Is it real?”

Jon Wertheim: Still?

Rahim Rauffi: Still. “Is it real?” I’m going to my kids’ room and see them and check them. They are sleeping very comfortable. And the next day, they are going to school. 

Jon Wertheim: Afghanistan doesn’t go down as a great U.S. military success. Do you feel like you– you got a W here?

Jason Kander: There was a point during this where somebody I was doing this with and I, we were talking, and one of us said, “Do you worry that maybe all we’re trying to do is win the war we just lost?” And yeah, I think there was a part of that. For sure. But I want Americans to know that every Afghan that they meet did something heroic to get here. And when you first meet them they might be in a job where you may not think about that. They might be bussing your table. They might be driving your Uber. But these are some of the most industrious and resilient and incredible people that you’ll ever meet. And I just would like every American to know that.

Produced by Draggan Mihailovich. Associate producer, Emily Cameron. Broadcast associate, Elizabeth Germino. Edited by Matthew Lev.