Few days ago, US President Joe Biden claimed that radical Islamic militancy outfit Al Qaeda was no longer operating in Afghanistan. During his statement opposing the Supreme Court’s decision preventing him from hijacking a post 9/11 military relief bill, the Heroes Act, to appropriate over $500 billion to selectively bailout student loan borrowers, Biden was asked about the disaster in Afghanistan after the release of the State Department’s report.
And he responded in typical fashion.
Q: Mr. President, do you admit failure in Afghanistan? Mistakes? There was a – there was a report on Afghanistan withdrawal, saying there was failure, mistakes. Do you admit there was mistakes during the withdrawal and before?
The President: No, no. All the evidence is coming back. Do you remember what I said about Afghanistan? I said al Qaeda would not be there. I said it wouldn’t be there. I said we’d get help from the Taliban. What’s happening now? What’s going on? Read your press. I was right.
Nope, Biden was not right. Instead he has blatantly lied. According to media reports, Al Qaeda is operating training camps in six provinces in Afghanistan, including Helmand, where hundreds of Marines had been killed and wounded trying to secure during Obama’s surge.
Al Qaeda also has safe houses across Afghanistan including in Kabul. The Taliban have appointed Al Qaeda leaders to key positions including as governors of entire provinces. Nuristan, where 53 American soldiers held off hundreds of Jihadists during the assault on Combat Outpost Keating, resulting in the awarding of two Medals of Honor and nine Silver Stars for the second deadliest battle of the war, is now under the governance of Al Qaeda.
Days after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) in a report documented the fact stating “Al-Qaeda members have received appointments and advisory roles in the Taliban security and administrative structures” and that the Islamic terror group “is rebuilding operational capability”, Joe Biden flatly claimed that the radical Islamic militancy outfit has been driven-out of Afghanistan. This made Taliban jihadists delighted as it used Biden’s statement as reference to reject the report of the UNSC.
It is though easily assumable the reason behind Taliban’s denial of existence of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, one may ask – why has Joe Biden also followed the same path.
According to experts, Joe Biden’s chosen method of withdrawing from Afghanistan was a massive disaster. Commenting on it, Ambassador John Bolton, American attorney, diplomat, Republican consultant, and political commentator said: “It was a grave mistake for the United States to withdraw from Afghanistan and they have NATO withdraw with it.
As you said, I think the mistake was back with the Trump administration and its initial decision to negotiate with the Taliban, which undercut the government, which made people and the military, the government and the civil society as a whole, feel that the US government was more interested simply withdrawing from Afghanistan than achieving in real. Please I don’t think statements made by the Taliban, commitments they may have made in the negotiations, whether it’s Taliban or Haqqani Network, or Gulbuddin Hekmatyar whoever it might be.
Wherever credible, I don’t think Taliban and its allies ever intended to adhere to some of the things that they promised, there’s a condition to get the United States to withdraw so, tragically what we see in Afghanistan right now was entirely predictable and, the negative consequences that the US feels now by bringing greater danger of terrorist attacks coming from Afghanistan. The strategic vacuum that we left for Russia and China and the terrible consequences for the population of Afghanistan, we can all see every day.
“So, I think the US’s response to this has to be, number 1: no recognition of the Taliban government directly or indirectly, I think we should certainly try to provide humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan not to the Taliban government, not to have them had any control over the supply or distribution or assistance, really to any fund government provides and then urgently speaking with leaders to the Afghan resistance to see what assistance we might be able to give them, communication assistance, certainly this point non{lethal} military assistance, there are many things we can do but, we need to know and have close conversations with resistance.
“I think all of this for surprise and how quickly the Afghan government fell including many people in Afghanistan who obviously didn’t want Taliban to take over. So, many were caught by surprise, there are resistance leaders outside of Afghanistan now, soon they will have to return”.
Almost echoing John Bolton’s comment, eminent counterterrorism expert Daniel Greenfield said: “The Biden administration made the decision to turn over Kabul to Al Qaeda’s old allies in the Haqqani Network resulting in thousands of Americans being trapped behind enemy lines. It then spent millions paying Osama bin Laden’s old airline to fly Americans out of Afghanistan. Over US$1 billion in “humanitarian aid” has been sent to Afghanistan while issuing global licenses authorizing financial transactions with the Taliban and the Al Qaeda allied Haqqani Network.
“Biden seized US$3.5 billion meant for 9/11 victims and diverted it to a ‘trust fund’ for Afghanistan. Last year, the Biden administration even arranged to have banknotes printed for the Taliban and photos were displayed of pallets of millions in hundred-dollar bills flown into Kabul Airport”.
Even while Al Qaeda and the Taliban remain tightly integrated, Biden is claiming that the Taliban are helping America against Al Qaeda, even while claiming that Al Qaeda isn’t in Afghanistan. But these aren’t even new lies. Biden has been falsely claiming that Al Qaeda had been destroyed for years. Even as he keeps repeating these lies, Al Qaeda keeps growing.
