President Joe Biden falsely claimed america had gotten rid of al Qaeda in Afghanistan — solely to be swiftly contradicted by the Pentagon minutes after his White Home speech.
The contradiction provides to the tally of deceptive statements which have accompanied the Biden administration’s dealing with of the Afghanistan disaster over the previous week.
Biden contended Friday that al Qaeda had been eradicated in Afghanistan after Osama bin Laden was killed by the U.S. As vice chairman, Biden opposed the daring Obama-era U.S. particular forces mission that killed the al Qaeda founder in Abbottabad, Pakistan, in 2011. Nevertheless, he has repeatedly claimed he really supported it.
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“Let’s put this factor in perspective right here. What curiosity do we’ve in Afghanistan at this level with al Qaeda gone?” Biden mentioned when answering questions after a Friday speech on the White Home. “We went to Afghanistan for the categorical objective of eliminating al Qaeda in Afghanistan in addition to — in addition to — getting Osama bin Laden. And we did … We went and did the mission. You’ve recognized my place for a protracted, very long time. It’s time to finish this warfare.”
Al Qaeda maintains a presence in Afghanistan, and it has continued its greater than two-decade alliance with the Taliban. The Pentagon admitted in a press convention Friday afternoon that al Qaeda stays in Afghanistan, although Protection Division press secretary John Kirby mentioned he didn’t know precisely what number of fighters remained, contending the terrorist group doesn’t pose a menace to the U.S. homeland.
“I haven’t seen an estimate on that … I don’t know that we’ve a precise estimate … We all know that al Qaeda is a presence, in addition to ISIS, in Afghanistan, and we’ve talked about that for fairly a while. We don’t consider it’s exorbitantly excessive, however we don’t have a precise determine for you,” Kirby mentioned. “As I feel you would possibly perceive … it’s not like they carry identification playing cards and register someplace. We don’t have an ideal image. And our means — our intelligence gathering means in Afghanistan isn’t what it was once as a result of we aren’t there in the identical numbers that we was once … What we consider is that there isn’t a presence that’s vital sufficient to benefit a menace to our homeland as there was again on 9/11 20 years in the past.”
Kirby added: “What I mentioned was we don’t have the diploma of dexterity intelligence to offer you a head rely, a nostril rely, of precisely what number of al Qaeda fighters are in Afghanistan. Nobody is strolling away from the truth that they aren’t there. And we’re actually going to keep up as a lot vigilance as we will absent a presence on the bottom.”
