CIA Director William Burns held a secret meeting with the Taliban’s

CIA director holds secret meeting with Taliban leader with a 31. August deadline.

Chaos has enveloped Kabul after Afghanistan's government's collapsed and the Taliban seized control, all but ending America's 20-year campaign as it began: under Taliban rule.

The U.S. has evacuated approximately 37,000 people since the effort began on Aug. 14, Pentagon officials said Monday, while reiterating their focus remains on maintaining the airport perimeter and increasing the number of evacuees out of Kabul ahead of the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline.

President Joe Biden in an interview at the White House last week, and his first interview since the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Biden addressed the nation again on evacuation efforts on Sunday.

CIA Director William Burns held a secret meeting with the Taliban’s de facto leader Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul on Monday.

The meeting, first reported by The Washington Post, is thought to be the highest face-to-face encounter between a U.S. official and Taliban leader since the militant group took control of the country and it comes as President Joe Biden is under international pressure to extend his Aug. 31 departure deadline -- something a Taliban spokesman says the group opposes.

Burns, a former deputy secretary of state and U.S. ambassador to Russia, oversees the agency that trained elite Afghan special forces units. He also made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan in April amid mounting concerns surrounding the full military withdrawal.

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