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August 16th, 2021 Breaking News

US Terror Threat Concerns Rise as Taliban Hold Grows

NEWSMAX — America’s top general said the United States could now face a rise in terrorist threats from a Taliban-run Afghanistan. That warning comes as intelligence agencies charged with anticipating those threats face new questions after the U.S.-backed Afghan military collapsed with shocking speed.

Less than a week after a military assessment predicted Kabul could be surrounded by insurgents in 30 days, the world on Sunday watched stunning scenes of Taliban fighters standing in the Afghan president’s office and crowds of Afghans and foreigners frantically trying to board planes to escape the country.

Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators on a briefing call Sunday that U.S. officials are expected to alter their earlier assessments about the pace of terrorist groups reconstituting in Afghanistan, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

In June, the Pentagon’s top leaders said an extremist group like al-Qaida may be able to regenerate in Afghanistan and pose a threat to the U.S. homeland within two years of the American military’s withdrawal from the country. Two decades after the U.S. invaded Afghanistan because the Taliban harbored al-Qaida leaders, experts say the Taliban and al-Qaida remain aligned, and other violent groups could also find safe haven under the new regime.

Based on the evolving situation, officials now believe terror groups like al-Qaida may be able to grow much faster than expected, according to the person, who had direct knowledge of the briefing but was not authorized to discuss the details of the call publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The Biden administration officials on the call with senators – among them were Milley, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin — said U.S. intelligence agencies are working on forming a new timeline based on the evolving threats, the person familiar with the matter said.

[READ MORE]

August 16th, 2021 Breaking News

Thousands of Top al-Qaeda, ISIS Terrorists Freed As Taliban Takes Afghanistan

LEGAL INSURRECTION — As Taliban forces swept through Afghanistan, thousands of high-level Taliban, al-Qaeda, and Islamic State terrorists have been set free.  

Around 5,000 top terrorists fled when Afghan government forces surrendered Bagram Air Base, 40 miles from Kabul. The prison at the base housed some of the world’s most notorious jihadis besides the Guantanamo Bay terrorist detention center. 

“Afghan forces at Bagram Air Base, home to a prison housing 5,000 inmates, surrendered to the Taliban, according to Bagram district chief Darwaish Raufi,” The Associated Press reported on Monday. “The prison at the former U.S. base held both Taliban and Islamic State group fighters.”

The Taliban released thousands more from the National Detention Facility in Kabul, the BBC and other media outlets reported. 

The Taliban claims it overran Bagram Air Base and freed prisoners. Many high value detainees were located there, including members of Al Qaeda. This will reverberate for years to come. https://t.co/yt3eG0uZNk— Bill Roggio (@billroggio) August 15, 2021

The Times of London reported the release of high-profile terrorists:

Thousands of Afghanistan’s most dangerous terrorism captives have been set free after the Taliban seized control of the former American base at Bagram and the prison known as Afghanistan’s Guantanamo Bay.

Bagram prison contained the 5,000 “highest value” Taliban, al-Qaeda and Islamic State fighters captured on the battlefield. A Taliban spokesman said they were “being evacuated to a safe place”.

The freeing of these high-level terror operatives will have sweeping consequences on the raging worldwide jihad. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the slain ISIS chief was a Camp Bucca inmate, a U.S. detention center in Iraq. Camp Bucca was nicknamed the  ‘Jihadist university,’ where the future ISIS leadership came from. “Camp Bucca became what has been described as a ‘university’ for the future leaders of IS, with inmates becoming radicalised and developing important contacts and networks,” the BBC noted.

Former inmates from Guantanamo Bay make up the current Taliban leadership, including the mujahedeen commander who took the presidential palace in Kabul. “The Al-Jazeera news channel livestreamed the press conference from inside the palace, which showed a group of Taliban fighters sitting at the President’s desk before a fighter claimed he was a former inmate of the US-controlled Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba,” UK’s Daily Mail reported.

The real tragedy of Afghanistan is that the former “inmates” will now run the horror show, creating an “Islamic Emirate,” the second Islamic State since the fall of the caliphate in Syria under President Donald Trump’s watch four years ago. 

The Taliban makes no secret of its intention to see a worldwide Islamic rule. Taliban commander Muhammed Arif Mustafa told CCN recently that “one day mujahedeen will have victory and Islamic law will come not just to Afghanistan, but all over the world. We are not in a hurry. We believe it will come one day. Jihad will not end until the last day,” — a reference to the Islamic end times. 

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August 15th, 2021 Breaking News

‘They are going to kill us’: Afghans terrorized as Kabul embassy tells Americans shelter in place

JUST THE NEWS — People in Kabul reported chaos in the streets Sunday as Afghans try to escape the encroaching Taliban while exit routes, including commercial air flights, increasingly are closed. 

“Things are manic,” one person told Just the News from inside Kabul on Sunday. “There is gunfire, and people are fleeing.”

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a security bulletin announcing a deteriorating situation at the last seemingly viable exit point, Hamid Karzai International Airport, just outside the city center.

“There are reports of the airport taking fire; therefore we are instructing U.S. citizens to shelter in place,” the embassy wrote in the Aug. 15 bulletin. Any U.S. citizens wanting help should register on the embassy website, the bulletin read. Afghans seeking visas should also register, even if they already have sent information to the embassy, the bulletin noted.

A video viewed by Just the News depicts the streets filled with cars blaring their horns, while ordinary citizens – men, women, and young children – hastily walk while talking on cell phones and carrying bags of belongings.

The scene unfolded rapidly amid a long-telegraphed Taliban advance on Kabul that nonetheless seemed to come as a surprise as it evolved in the overnight hours. The breakthrough came around 2:45 a.m. EDT, when contacts in Kabul reported that the city had been breached.

The breach spurred intense action among official and private networks, as Westerners scrambled to help their friends and co-workers exit the besieged country. It also spurred a furious exchange of information and rumors, including the story that one American company sent its workers home from the airport on the understanding that they would be evacuated, and now they are trapped inside the city. Just the News was not able to immediately reach the company for comment.

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August 15th, 2021 Breaking News

Joe Biden Blames Afghanistan Collapse On Donald Trump

NEWS PUNCH — Joe Biden is blaming former President Donald Trump for the Taliban taking over Afghanistan as the U.S. military withdraws.

Despite saying a Taliban takeover was ‘unlikely’ just a few weeks ago, Biden issued a statement on Saturday complaining that Trump had negotiated a deal “that left the Taliban in the strongest position militarily since 2001.”

Breitbart reports: The president said he had the choice of either following through with Trump’s withdrawal plan or sending more troops back into Afghanistan to secure the country.

But Biden set a later date for withdrawal, choosing a new deadline of September 11th before walking it back to August 31.

“I was the fourth President to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan—two Republicans, two Democrats,” he said. “I would not, and will not, pass this war onto a fifth.”

On Saturday, Biden announced his decision to surge 5,000 American troops into Afghanistan to help ensure the safe evacuation of American personal.

Despite the president blaming his predecessor, Biden signaled he was disillusioned by the Afghanistan conflict:

One more year, or five more years, of U.S. military presence, would not have made a difference if the Afghan military cannot or will not hold its own country. An endless American presence in the middle of another country’s civil conflict was not acceptable to me.

Biden’s remarks were sharply different from his tone just a month ago when he indicated the Taliban takeover of the country was not inevitable.

“So the question now is, where do they go from here?” Biden said in July about the Taliban’s failure to negotiate a deal with the Afghan government. “The jury is still out. But the likelihood there’s going to be the Taliban overrunning everything and owning the whole country is highly unlikely.”

Biden said he would appoint Ambassador Tracey Jacobson to be in charge of relocating Afghanistan allies in the country to get them out of danger.

“Our hearts go out to the brave Afghan men and women who are now at risk,” he said. “We are working to evacuate thousands of those who helped our cause and their families.”

Trump himself criticized Biden’s handling of the withdrawal in Afghanistan in a statement on Thursday.

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August 15th, 2021 Breaking News

CNN Praises Taliban For Wearing Masks During Attack

BABYLON BEE —

KABUL—Approximately twelve minutes after U.S. troops withdrew from Afghanistan, Taliban fighters have completely taken over the entire country.

“Woah, that’s a bummer,” said the Biden Administration’s foreign policy team. “We didn’t see that one coming.” 

As the Taliban began its campaign of shooting and killing, as is their time-honored tradition, CNN anchors gushed with praise after noticing all the Taliban fighters were responsibly wearing masks to protect themselves and others from COVID.

“Wow! In the midst of the battle and bloodshed, these noble desert knights of Islamic superiority are wearing masks! Bravo!” said Brian Stelter. 

TV anchor and world-renown polemicist Don Lemon was also quick to weigh in. “All things considered, we ought to be praising the COVID-safe masks these majestic mujahideen warriors are wearing,” he said. 

“They are showing all of us the proper way to behave during a pandemic—something those horrible idiot Trump supporters don’t seem to get.”

Inspired by their example, the Biden Administration has invited the Taliban to the White House to record TikTok videos in hopes of convincing Trump supporters to get vaccinated.

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August 15th, 2021 Breaking News

Afghanistan conflict: As Kabul falls, Biden backlash grows

BBC NEWS — The lightning advance of the Taliban in retaking the country has led Afghan Americans, former generals and leading statesmen to blame President Joe Biden for a hasty US withdrawal. But he appears to have the public on his side – for now.

Hadia Essazada wept as she recounted the horror the Taliban visited on her household, first beating her father, and then killing her brother.

The first time “they were beating my father with an iron rod because they were looking for my elder brother”, who had fought to resist their rule in the 1990s, she told BBC Persian.

They fled their house in the northern city of Mazar-I-Sharif, but “after six months when we returned to our home, Taliban again came to visit us. And they took my younger brother”.

“I don’t know how many days had passed when a shopkeeper in our neighborhood came to my father to tell him his son was killed,” she said.

The Taliban had executed him and dragged his body through the streets. Relatives were not allowed to collect his body for burial for weeks, and by then, dogs had been allowed to desecrate the remains.

Ms Essazada, today in her 20s and living in the US, said she now feared for the security of both Afghanistan and her new home, America, now that the Taliban is in control once more.

“The Taliban has not changed a bit,” she said, predicting that the West will be targeted by militants who she believes will be given shelter by the group. “Do you really want to go back to Afghanistan again?”

[READ MORE]

August 15th, 2021 Breaking News

Taliban Boasts of Seizing Black Hawk Helicopters, US Jets After Capturing Kandahar Airport – Video

SPUTNIK — A video has emerged on social media allegedly showing Taliban* militants flying in a helicopter that the group had seized from retreating government forces. The insurgent group’s fighters also repeatedly reported capturing small arms and armored vehicles supplied by the US to Afghanistan.

Some of the military vehicles previously operated by the Afghan Air Force stationed at Kandahar Airport have apparently ended up in the hands of the Taliban* after the terrorist group seized an airbase earlier this week.

Footage reportedly showing #Taliban at Kandahar airport #Afghanistan with 2 #US supplied UH-60 Blackhawk (one under maintenance, one on apron) and 2 stored Mi-17 Hip helicopters pic.twitter.com/STpePO12NO — Joseph Dempsey (@JosephHDempsey) August 14, 2021

In a series of videos and photos released by the terrorist group, at least two UH-60 Black Hawks and two Mi-17 helicopters can be seen apparently left by the retreating government forces at the airport. The Black Hawks were supplied by the US and are a part of Washington’s $88 billion spending on the security of the country and efforts to boost the Afghan military’s preparedness to fight the Taliban without any external assistance.

Additionally, a person can be heard in the background claiming that a total of five military helicopters and several jets had been seized by the Taliban at Kandahar Airport. The videos, however, suggest that not all of the equipment might be operational. One Mi-17 is missing rotor blades, while another is covered in a sheet with its blades either missing, or folded, or removed for storage.

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August 15th, 2021 Breaking News

Biden’s ‘fall of Saigon’ in Afghanistan presents worst moment yet of presidency

THE HILL — Fast forward one month, and the outcome is already a disaster, with the worst yet to come in Afghanistan. The Taliban has seized city after city and province after province with little resistance, and on Sunday has completely taken over the country, including in stunningly rapid fashion the capital city of Kabul, per multiple reports. Consequently, the U.S. embassy is rapidly being evacuated via helicopter.

“None whatsoever,” Biden replied. “Zero. What you had is you had entire brigades breaking through the gates of our embassy — six, if I’m not mistaken. The Taliban is not the South — the North Vietnamese army. They’re not — they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy in the — of the United States from Afghanistan. It is not at all comparable.”

Fast forward one month, and the outcome is already a disaster, with the worst yet to come in Afghanistan. The Taliban has seized city after city and province after province with little resistance, and on Sunday has completely taken over the country, including in stunningly rapid fashion the capital city of Kabul, per multiple reports. Consequently, the U.S. embassy is rapidly being evacuated via helicopter.

“What is abnormal is the scale of American helicopters circulating around the area of the embassy,” CNN reported early Sunday. “I have not seen anything like this in 20 years, in terms of the volume,” according to a CNN report early Sunday.

[READ MORE]

August 15th, 2021 Breaking News

President Ashraf Ghani Flees Afghanistan

BREITBART — President Ashraf Ghani fled Afghanistan on Sunday following the arrival of Taliban forces to the nation’s capital, Kabul, Afghan outlet Tolo News reported.

Tolo added that, according to Taliban sources, Ghani had agreed to a formal resignation. Ghani reportedly took his top aides with him.

Reuters reported on Sunday the Taliban were still working to confirm Ghani’s whereabouts as of press time. Ghani’s office declined to comment on his apparent abandonment of the nation, refusing to “say anything about Ashraf Ghani’s movement for security reasons.” The outlet suggested he was bound for neighboring Tajikistan, like many Afghan troops fleeing the battlefield.

Ghani has served as president since 2014.

Ghani appeared before the nation in a pre-recorded speech on Saturday claiming that he was working to “remobilize” the Afghan military to fight the Taliban.

“Under the current situation, remobilizing of the security and defense forces is our top priority and required measures are underway for this purpose,” Ghani said, vowing to work to prevent “further killings, loss of the gains of the last 20 years, destruction of public property and continued instability.”

Ghani’s reported flight follows the Taliban reconquest of many of the nation’s major cities, including Herat and Kandahar. While Kabul has yet to fall, American forces and those of allied nations are scrambling to evacuate their civilian personnel, expecting the Taliban to claim the city at any time.

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August 14th, 2021 Breaking News

Unpredictable consequences from the Afghan crisis

THE JERUSALEM POST — The US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the rapid advance of the Taliban are not necessarily a simple cause and effect. The US had very few troops in Afghanistan, and they weren’t doing much fighting for years. The Taliban appear to have planned a massive offensive, unlike anything seen in the past, likely with foreign intelligence and other support, after having sent delegations to Russia, China, Iran, Qatar and Pakistan. This means that what is happening has unforeseen consequences. There are many unanswered questions. The New York Times claims that “few will gang up on the U.S. for finally stopping a failed enterprise.” But in the longer term, “the notion that you cannot count on the Americans will strike deeper roots because of Afghanistan.’’ This may underpin some European reactions, according to the article. What is more perplexing is that other NATO members, including European countries, also withdrew from Afghanistan and yet, oddly, this doesn’t erode confidence in whether anyone can count on NATO or European countries. The unspoken point may be that no one was counting on NATO or European states anyway, so it was America’s war to lose. There many arguments floating around now about whether things had to turn out this way in Afghanistan. An article at The Dispatch by Paul Miller argues it didn’t have to end like this. The US could have kept training the Afghan army until it was ready to fight. They could have given Kabul more leverage in discussions with the Taliban. It’s hard to know. Many countries appear to be rushing in to feast on the failure. Turkey wants to have discussions with the Taliban and run the airport. Iran, working with China, sees a silver lining in Afghanistan. As Pakistan, Russia, Iran, China and Turkey prepare to rush in, European countries are evacuating embassy staff. [READ MORE]