Did anyone really believe that the Taliban would honor its promise not to allow al-Qaeda to regroup in the country? Maybe the foreign policy establishment did, but no one with any sense.
“We went to Afghanistan almost 20 years ago with clear goals: get those who attacked us on September 11th, 2001, and make sure al Qaeda could not use Afghanistan as a base from which to attack us again. We did that. We severely degraded al Qaeda in Afghanistan.” — Old Joe Biden, lying again on August 16, 2021
“Taliban Flaunts Terrorism Commitments by Appointing al-Qaida-Affiliated Governors,” by Roshan Noorzai, VOA News,
June 26, 2023 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
For more than 15 years, Qari Baryal has been on a special list of Washington’s “most-wanted” Taliban and al-Qaida leaders in Afghanistan, accused of carrying out bombing and suicide attacks across the country.
Baryal and the militants he oversaw were “involved in the supervision of IED [improvised explosive device] production, suicide personnel allocation, and overall attack planning and execution” in Kabul and surrounding provinces, according to U.S. military reports.
In November 2021, two months after U.S. and NATO forces withdrew from Afghanistan, the Taliban appointed Baryal as the governor of Kabul province. In March 2022, he became the provincial governor for Kapisa province, northeast of Kabul.
Baryal is among those listed in a recent United Nations report as one of the Taliban’s leaders “affiliated” with al-Qaida. Besides Baryal, Nuristan Governor Hafiz Muhammad Agha Hakeem and Tajmir Jawad, the Taliban’s deputy director of intelligence, are also listed in the report.
“With the patronage of the Taliban, Al-Qaida members have received appointments and advisory roles in the Taliban security and administrative structures,” the U.N. Security Council’s Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team said in the report earlier in June. It called relations between the Taliban and al-Qaida “strong and symbiotic.”
According to the report, an estimated 400 al-Qaida fighters were in Afghanistan, and there are signs that the terrorist group “is rebuilding operational capability.”
The Taliban rejected the report, calling it “biased and far from reality.”
A statement posted on Twitter by Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the group “insists on its commitments and assures that there is no threat from the territory of Afghanistan to the region, neighbors and countries of the world and it does not allow anyone to use its territory against others.”…
CogitoErgoSum says
Interesting picture at the top. I can tell that the man seated at the desk loves the gun in front of him and that it gives him a feeling of peace and contentment – unlike that book over to the side which I assume is not a copy of the Koran. Interesting also is the clock made in the shape of a time bomb. And, oh yes, it’s always good to have a box of tissues handy for keeping the gun clean – or whatever.
Daniel says
I am shocked, shocked, to find Al Qaeda in here.
DHZ says
Clowns.
James Lincoln says
Can someone here at Jihad Watch tell me the REAL difference between the Taliban – and al-Qaeda?
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Just that the Taliban is restricted to Afghanistan and Pakistan, while al Qaeda is more global – from Mali all the way to Indonesia
James Lincoln says
Thanks for the info, Infidel.
Sounds more like geography than philosophy.
OLD GUY says
You are right it is all about domination of the world by islam/muslim rule.