Biden Willfully Oblivious of Taliban-AQ Ties
Michael Hughes
July 8, 2023
Once the Soviets left in 1989, Afghanistan at whiplash speed became an afterthought in the corridors of power in Washington, a forgetfulness that came even easier after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the start of Gulf War I. The oblivion was especially pronounced at the top, evidenced in a conversation the CIA’s Milt Bearden had with President George H.W. Bush in 1991, when the latter seemed surprised to learn the U.S. covert pipeline through Pakistan was still active. Not only that, the president appeared just as baffled Afghanistan was embroiled in a civil war, according to Bearden’s account of the discussion cited in Steve Coll’s Ghost Wars.
“Is that thing still going on?” Bush 41 had asked.
One could liken this forgetfulness at the top with what is playing out in the Biden administration right now, although in Bush the elder’s case, the ignorance was genuine. Bush had nothing to gain by misremembering a forgotten conflict, and there was no intention to deceive, deflect, or reshape reality.
On the other hand, President Joe Biden has every reason to feign blindness to the highly-visible chaotic American exit from Afghanistan, a mess he was forced to reckon with again by the latest State Department after action review, which paints a disturbing picture of the administration’s incompetent handling of the entire withdrawal process. Although the State Department review could not hide the incompetence, they tried like hell to blame as much of the tragedy on Trump as possible. Meanwhile, nobody has raised the issue that Trump’s plan was ahead of schedule and that if Biden did not delay the plan by three months – none of this needed to happen!
When pressed by a reporter earlier this month about his failed policy, Biden indicated that he correctly predicted “al-Qaeda would not be there.” The absurd comment was seized upon by the Taliban as an “acknowledgement of reality,” showing that Biden and the extremists in Kabul share a common need to tell the world the sky is any color but blue.
Conspicuously missing amid this charade were all the mainstream media “fact checkers” who blew up the internet every time Trump opened his mouth. Ironically, Trump’s claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen seems much more plausible than the non-existence of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.
The president would have Americans believe that al-Qaeda was vanquished when its leader, Ayman al-Zawahiri, was killed in a U.S. strike last summer. The AQ leader, by the way, was found in a guesthouse tied to international terrorist and Taliban interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani. The strike, more than anything, proved that the Taliban were providing comfy sanctuary to the head of the global jihadist network that took down the Twin Towers.
Biden’s adversaries exploited the moment, with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul rightfully declaring the president’s claim “divorced from reality.” McCaul basically accused Biden of actively colluding with the Taliban in pushing this false narrative.
“President Biden’s words can only be interpreted as an attempt to whitewash the Taliban and al Qaeda’s longstanding ties,” McCaul said in a statement issued on July 6.
A group of former Afghan ministers, military leaders, and parliamentarians were so appalled by Biden’s comments they sent a letter to U.S. lawmakers this week calling for sanctions on the Taliban. The leaders in the letter, spearheaded by General Sami Sadat, said they “categorically rebuke President Biden’s baseless and irresponsible characterization of the relationship between the Taliban and al-Qaeda.”
Citing a newly-released UNSC report, the letter, dated July 6, said Afghanistan is again “the greatest terrorist safe haven in the world.” Biden’s remark certainly looks even more foolish when you dig into the aforementioned UN assessment, released last month, that shows al-Qaeda is more than merely present inside Afghanistan.
“With the patronage of the Taliban, al-Qaeda members have received appointments and advisory roles in the Taliban security and administrative structures,” the report said. “Interlocutors confirmed that the Taliban provided al-Qaeda with monthly ‘welfare payments.’”
And not only did they leave Afghanistan in the hands of a Taliban movement in bed with al-Qaeda, the U.S. and its allies left them many toys – about $8.5 billion worth – to wreak havoc on neighboring states. According to the UN report, member states have raised concerns about the increased availability of large quantities of U.S. and NATO weaponry and military equipment inside Afghanistan, and how they were being used.
“Regional Member States have reported the use of sophisticated weapons against government forces of neighboring States,” the report continued. “Those concerns have been exacerbated by the fear that such transfers could add to the offensive capability of ISIL (Da’esh), al-Qaeda and affiliated groups.”
In fact, once one starts connecting these dots, Moscow accusing the U.S. of plotting to destabilize Central Asia doesn’t seem so far-fetched.