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President Biden claimed on Friday that al Qaeda had “left” Afghanistan, but in an interview with “Fox News Sunday” Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted that was not true.
During a speech at the White House, the president questioned the interest of the United States to remain in Afghanistan “with the disappearance of Al-Qaeda”, despite a United Nations report claiming that the terrorist organization was present in 15 Afghan provinces, and General Mark Milley saying that if the Taliban got the upper hand, he should reinforce the terrorist threat from Al Qaeda. Blinken offered a clarification of Biden’s statement while acknowledging that at first glance this was not true.
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“As we all know, we went to Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission and one goal in mind: to deal with the people who attacked us on September 11, to bring Bin Laden to justice, what we did a decade ago, and diminish Al Qaeda’s ability to do the same thing again, to attack us from Afghanistan and that, from the president’s point of view, has been successful, ” Blinken said.
Host Chris Wallace insisted on the question, asking him again if al-Qaeda had left Afghanistan. Blinken responded by saying that Al Qaeda’s ability to carry out another 9/11 attack was “considerably, considerably diminished.”
When asked a third time if al-Qaeda had “gone,” Blinken admitted it was not.
“Are there any members and remnants of al-Qaeda in Afghanistan? Yes, ”he said. “But what the president was referring to was his ability to do what he did on 9/11 and that ability has been diminished with great success.”
Wallace also questioned Biden’s statement on Friday that he had “not heard of our credibility from our allies around the world.” Meanwhile, Armin Laschett, potential successor to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, said what was happening was “the biggest debacle NATO has seen since its founding”, and British MP Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, called Biden “shameful.” for accusing the Afghan forces of not wanting to fight for their country.
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“Doesn’t the president know what’s going on? Wallace asked.
“All I can tell you is what I heard,” Blinken said, saying he had heard “at all levels, deep gratitude and thanks from allies and partners for everything we have done to get our allies and partners out of the way of evil. “
Blinken has also been criticized for his own performance. Specifically, Wallace mentioned a note sent to Blinken on July 13 by 23 U.S. Embassy staff in Afghanistan, stating that the Taliban takeover was going faster than expected and calling for the evacuation of Afghan allies to be accelerated. When asked why he wasn’t going faster, Blinken pointed out the Trump administration.
“With regard to the special immigrant visa program… we inherited a program that was at an impasse,” Blinken said. “No maintenance had been done when we took office for visas for these people dating back to March 2020.”
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Blinken acknowledged that the lack of interviews was “in large part” due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The secretary then admitted that despite the memo, the administration didn’t believe the takeover would be so quick, “we thought we could do it very quickly, more resources, more people, but that we would have time to do it effectively. “
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