The wife of Ryan Corbett was the guest of Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) for the State of the Union address Thursday night. The Taliban are detaining Corbett in Afghanistan.
President Biden did not mention Afghanistan in his speech. That isn’t particularly surprising, given the disastrous withdrawal of the American military from that country. Joe Biden refused to take the advice of military experts, including Pentagon officials, and made his own decisions. It was a disaster because Biden has no military experience and is not a veteran. All he wanted was to meet a self-imposed deadline of September 11, 2021, because he wanted to use the symbolism of the 20-year anniversary of the terror attacks led by Osama bin Laden.
Joe Biden’s popularity in polling has never recovered. The Taliban quickly took control of the country, though Biden reassured Americans that it would not happen. The world watched as the Taliban filled the vacuum of leadership. Many American citizens and Afghans who helped American troops were left behind.
One American family is feeling the effects of Biden’s ineptness. Ryan and Anna Corbett moved from Minneapolis to Afghanistan in 2010. Ryan started a business. In 2017, he founded Bloom Afghanistan, a business consultancy focused on strengthening Afghanistan’s private sector. He taught business and helped Afghans get microloans to buy livestock and auto rickshaws. Ryan worked with local NGOs. Anna said Ryan learned Pashto and made a lot of relationships. He enjoyed teaching business and showing Afghan men how they could make their country better.
The family evacuated through the French embassy. Anna is a dual French-American citizen. Ryan, Anna, and their three children (one born in Afghanistan) successfully evacuated. Almost a year later, Ryan decided to return to northern Afghanistan on a business trip. The Taliban arrested him and three colleagues. Anna has not seen her husband since then. That was on August 10, 2022.
I wrote about Ryan Corbett’s story in December 2023. Anna has been keeping his name in the press in hopes of helping get him released from the Taliban and back home. My conclusion at the time was that Corbett was naive to think he could pursue a normal business trip back to Afghanistan but that doesn’t change the fact that he is an American citizen in need of help from the Biden administration to return home to his family.
Rep. Claudia Tenney has advocated for Ryan’s release since meeting with the family in 2023. She is working to get Ryan officially designated as a wrongful detainee by the State Department. She introduced a resolution In October 2023 calling for the immediate release of Corbett. The bill has 70 bipartisan co-sponsors.
Corbett’s husband, Ryan, of Dansville, Livingston County, has been wrongfully detained by the Taliban since Aug. 10, 2022, said Tenney, R-24 of Cleveland, Oswego County. Tenney said Anna “has been tirelessly fighting for her husband’s release.” He is being held in a basement cell without regular access to a bathroom, sunlight, or medical care, according to Tenney. Other Westerners who have been released from the prison where Ryan Corbett is being held report that he is in deteriorating health, she noted.
“Anna Corbett has been bravely advocating for Ryan’s release for nearly 600 days, sharing her family’s story and bringing attention to her husband’s unjust detention and the brutal conditions of his captivity,” Tenney said. “I am pleased to have Anna as my State of the Union guest, and hope that her presence will increase attention to Ryan’s case and the urgency to bring Ryan home to his family.”
The trip to Washington, D.C. was Anna’s ninth since Ryan was detained.
“And while I am weary — the trauma of the daily uncertainties that my teenage children and I face daily is exhausting — I know that I cannot give up, or Ryan may never make it home alive,” she said. “I’m grateful to Congresswoman Tenney for her ongoing efforts to help bring Ryan home before it’s too late.”
Unfortunately for the Corbett family, Joe Biden and his administration don’t have a great level of success in bringing Americans home from being detained overseas in countries that are hostile to the United States. One thing to note is that Ryan has not been charged with any crimes. Perhaps that will help him to be released.
Joe Biden didn’t acknowledge Anna’s presence during the State of the Union address. To acknowledge her presence would require Biden to admit his failures in the Afghanistan withdrawal. He and his administration insist that the withdrawal came off perfectly or some such nonsense. Thirteen American military members were killed in a terrorist attack at the airport in Kabul during the final evacuations. When their bodies were received at Dover Air Force Base, Biden was there and seen looking at his watch as though he was bored.
Biden has failed the American citizens left behind in Afghanistan and the Afghan helpers who were promised they would be allowed to seek residency in America after the war. Biden’s weakness on the world stage puts Americans in danger overseas. Bad actors detain Americans to use for leverage.
The State of the Union address was interrupted by a grieving Gold Star father. He was removed, handcuffed, and arrested. Steve Nikour, the guest of Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL), stood up and screamed, “Abbey Gate” and “Marines” several times as Biden spoke. Biden briefly glanced at him. He was charged with a misdemeanor for disrupting the speech. His son died in that terrorist attack during the withdrawal in Afghanistan. His other son committed suicide as he mourned his brother’s death.
Pro-Hamas protesters blocked Biden’s motorcade from approaching the Capitol before Biden arrived. He was late to the event. There are no press reports of arrests of those people. But, a grieving father, desperate to get the attention of his son’s commander-in-chief, was arrested. This is Biden’s world.
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