Whatever happened to Jason Kander? He’s been operating daring rescues overseas

By Don Bradley

More than a few people have probably wondered, “What ever happened to that Jason Kander guy?”

He was a rising star in politics. War veteran, Missouri House, secretary of state, ran for a U.S. Senate seat, even stirred talk of a 2020 presidential run.

Then, poof…gone. Out of the news.

Well, the other night at Kansas City’s Union Station, Kander, a former Army intelligence officer, brought folks up to date on what he’s been up to.

He planned a wedding. He knows nothing about wedding planning, but that didn’t matter because it was a fake wedding.

No bride, no groom, but wonderfully catered.

The nuptials, fake as they were, were part of a clandestine scheme called “Operation Bella” to sneak a bunch of people out of Afghanistan.

It is a tale of a daring escape. Fake wedding, coded messages, cries of children on a dark road, a crowded plane _ lights off to avoid Taliban gunfire _ taking off into pitch darkness.

At one point during the Union Station event sponsored by Jewish Vocational Service, moderator Diana Kander rattled off enough challenges and danger to make the whole thing seem mission impossible.

She leaned to her husband: “What were you thinking?”

He sort of shook his head, smiled and said, “I have an irrational sense of self-confidence.”

Remember Argo…the story of how a CIA operative managed to get American diplomats out of Iran during the hostage crisis? Factor out the Hollywood hype of that movie, and “Operation Bella” might be in the ballpark.

Kander, 42, is quick to deflect praise.

“I’m not the hero of this story,” he said. “I was never in danger, I never got shot at. This is about these families.”

The story of Operation Bella is also one of diversity.

Kander, raised in a Jewish household in Johnson County, going all out to rescue Muslims and getting them to Kansas City where they were welcomed by all, including the Christian community.

“I am so proud to be a Kansas Citian tonight,” an emotional Lauren Weinhold, JVS chief external affairs officer, told the Union Station audience.

The event was sold out. Seated at the front with microphones, the Kanders were joined by Rahim Rauffi, the nephew of a man who served as Jason Kander’s interpreter in Afghanistan. Because Rauffi had also worked for the Americans and had names of others, he was on the Taliban’s wanted list.

Getting Rauffi, his wife and four children out of the country was the catalyst for Operation Bella (named for Kander’s young daughter).

Also present at the JVS event were the Kander and Rauffi kids and extended families.

Weinhold later told The Telegraph that at a time when the words ‘immigrant’ and ‘refugee’ have become so politically charged, it’s good to “be alongside Kansas Citians who see beyond labels and welcome our newest neighbors so warmly.”

Operation Bella

Jason Kander joined the National Guard after the 9/11 attacks in 2001.

During law school at Georgetown, he earned a commission as a second lieutenant and then volunteered for duty in Afghanistan where he investigated corruption and espionage, rising to the rank of captain.

Back home, he taught and then served in the Missouri House before being elected Secretary of State. In 2016, he lost a U.S. Senate race to Republican Roy Blunt. While being talked about as a possible presidential candidate in 2018, Kander instead announced he was running for Kansas City mayor, but soon withdrew citing PTSD (post-traumatic stress) from his military service.

He then worked with the Veterans Community Project, providing help, including tiny homes, for at-risk veterans.

In 2021, after the clumsy U.S. pullout from Afghanistan _ desperate people trying to hang on to planes’ landing gears _ Kander was pulled back into the conflict.

He learned that his translator had gotten out, but that the man’s nephew, Rahim Rauffi, was still there and needed help.

The Taliban had already tried to kidnap Rauffi and they had beaten his brothers. So he and his family fled to India but struggled to make a living there so he returned to Afghanistan, hoping the danger had passed.

It hadn’t. The Taliban took over and wanted Rauffi and his list of names.

Seven thousand miles away in Kansas City, Kander contacted friends in the intelligence community to try to help. He told Rauffi it would be a lot easier if it was just him and his family.

Rauffi, 36, said it had to be the whole bunch.

“Everybody is in danger because of me,” Rauffi told him.

Thus began Operation Bella. Kander would call it the craziest thing he’s ever done.

The Wedding

Kander soon learned that other vets faced the same problem. The number grew to 75 families. Getting everybody out, Kander knew, would not come cheap so he started a GoFundMe with the job of overseeing the money going to JVS, which was started 75 years ago to help Holocaust survivors after World War II.

Because of concern for capture, none of the Afghan families were told of the others.

At one point, Rauffi’s extended family was stopped by masked Taliban gunmen. Kander’s map of Taliban checkpoints was out of date.

It was 2:30 a.m. The road was dark. Collaborators were being killed wherever they were found. The gunmen yelled for Rauffi and his brothers to get out of the vans.

Their story was they were headed to a funeral in Mazar-e-Sharif. Rauffi doesn’t know if the gunmen believed the ruse, but he does think that all the children crying played a role in the family being allowed to proceed.

“That was the scariest time in all of this,” Rauffi told the Union Station audience.

Throughout, Kander was calling the shots and he knew phones were unsafe.

“We had every reason to think the Russians were helping the Taliban and listening to everything I say,” Kander said.

The wedding came three weeks after the American pullout. The hotel ballroom in Mazar-e-Sharif was packed with the 75 families, 383 people total. One suitcase per person. Because of secrecy, they were all surprised to see the others. 

The whole bunch stayed an extra day in the ballroom because of a last-minute problem with the flight. Taliban could be seen lurking out the windows.

Finally, in the wee hours of Sept 24,2021, the wedding guests loaded onto an Airbus 340. But any relief was short lived.

The plane suddenly went dark, in and out, as did the runway when the plane increased speed for takeoff. Taliban gunmen were shooting at the plane as it banked sharply into the Afghan night.

First to Tibilisi, Georgia, then to Albania. Kander met Rauffi and his family when they arrived in Kansas City.

It was 10 p.m. They embraced and said, “We did it.”

Afghan Rescue Project

Donations came from all over the country to JVS, the same organization that helped Diana Kander and her family when they came as Jewish refugees from Soviet Ukraine when she was 8, to help pay for Operation Bella.

Since then, Kander helped start the Afghan Rescue Project which has helped nearly 2,100 people get out of Afghanistan.

“These are people who stood up for democracy and they put their lives out there for us,” Kander said. “Unfortunately, a lot of them are still there.”

Rauffi said of Kander, “This doesn’t happen without him.”

His family has settled in Kansas City with jobs, homes and new friends. He talked about their warm welcome.

Kander jumped in with a couple examples of generosity. Somebody bought the family Kansas City Zoo memberships and another “sold them a car for a dollar.”

The audience laughed. Then they didn’t.

“I’m really glad my kids are safe,” Rauffi told them. “There was no life for my daughters there. But half my heart is in my country with my people. Islam is not Taliban.

“But now we are safe and we are here.”

Finally, in the spirit of the full circle, people now know what that Jason Kander guy has been up to.