‘Blacklisted’ Afghan interpreters were disqualified from U.S. visas.— whom The Times is identifying by his initials for his safety — worked as an interpreter for U.S. government contractors training Afghan national police and army forces to do his job.was fired and his application for a U.S. visa was denied in 2021, just a few months before the remaining U.S. troops left his country as the Taliban took power.No One Left Behind, a service organization that assists Afghan and Iraqi interpreters, counted 339 killings of special immigrant visa, or SIV, applicants by the Taliban throughout the war until late 2021, though the nonprofit considers it an undercount.Now the Taliban recognizes him as a target, he said: Its members have threatened him over the phone and ordered shopkeepers in his neighborhood and the local mosque leader to call them if he is spotted."