Former Defense Secretary and CIA Director Leon Panetta warned Sunday that the withdrawal of military forces from Afghanistan could pave the way for future attacks on the United States if al Qaeda reforms under the new Taliban regime.
Panetta, who served under former President Barack Obama, alluded to a recent interview in which a spokesman for the Taliban denied any evidence that Osama bin Laden was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on U.S. soil.
“And if that is the case, then it’s clear to me that they’re going to continue to support al Qaeda and allow al Qaeda to basically continue to develop and expand,” he told Greta Van Susteren in an interview. “And I think they will plan additional attacks on our country, as well as elsewhere.”
As the Taliban began naming their Cabinet this week, the group selected Sirajuddin Haqqani, an FBI-wanted militant, as the acting interior minister. The FBI alleges that Haqqani participated in a 2008 Kabul hotel attack in which six people died, also accusing him of attempting to assassinate former Afghan President Hamid Karzai.
BIDEN SAYS AL QAEDA COULD ‘COME BACK’ BUT DEFENDS AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL ON 9/11 ANNIVERSARY
Former Sec of Def Leon Panetta: ‘The Taliban took us for a ride’ https://t.co/ySpLUJ9wjt via @YouTube
— Greta Van Susteren (@greta) September 11, 2021
When asked about what the U.S. accomplished during its 20-year war in Afghanistan, Panetta said, “We were successful at making sure that the United States did not suffer another 9/11 attack … We were able to go after bin Laden and get someone who was in charge of the attack on our country and send a message to the world that nobody attacks us and gets away with it.”
Like many people in the intelligence community who have raised doubts that the Taliban will stand by their promise to protect women and refrain from committing human rights abuses, Panetta held firm to his belief that the Taliban will falter in their ability to keep the region stable.
“I am reading, and those actions and the other actions that are being taken to shut down protests and really inhibit women’s rights there, that this is a Taliban that will indeed continue to provide a safe haven for terrorists, and that spells trouble for the United States,” he said.
President Joe Biden, who visited each of the three crash sites on the 9/11 attacks’ 20th anniversary Saturday, said a surge in militancy from al Qaeda is possible after asserting previously that the group was “gone” from Afghanistan.
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“Could al Qaeda come back? Yeah,” Biden told reporters in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, near the site where United Airlines Flight 93 crashed into an empty field on Sept. 11, 2001. “But guess what? It’s already back other places. What’s the strategy? Every place where al Qaeda is, we’re going to invade and have troops stay in? Come on.”
