Part 2 of 3: The rise of terror networks that led to 9-11
Also breaking news that the Taliban are entering Kabul from all sides. Reports of unknown helicopters overflying the city.
4. Earlier, the Taliban spokesman said that their fighters are being ordered to stay outside of Kabul pending negotiations on a transition. The US has deployed enough forces to stabilise the civilian withdrawal until the last US diplomat leaves town.
(a) The U.S. Embassy in Kabul - the nerve center of the war on terror - is being gutted of all its sensitive material, as the Taliban coils around Afghanistan's capital. The U.S. Embassy's demise will create an intelligence void that could plunge the U.S. into pre-9/11 blindness, unless it can find another nearby non-hostile country that will allow it rebuild its CIA network in Afg-Pak region.
(b) The U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan will be evacuated of all but a handful of key personnel within the next 36 hours, and all American diplomats should be out of the country entirely by August 31, multiple security and diplomatic sources in Washington and Kabul told CBS News.
5. Earlier, President Joe Biden
said America would not reverse its decision to leave Afghanistan, despite the Taliban advances. “I was the fourth president to preside over an American troop presence in Afghanistan – two Republicans, two Democrats. I would not, and will not, pass this war on to a fifth.” President Biden ordered another 1,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne at Fort Bragg to join the operation, bringing the total to 5,000. He pledged only an increased deployment of troops to accelerate the departure of U.S. diplomats and their Afghan allies, and warned the Taliban that any injury to Americans would prompt a “swift and strong” military reprisal.
6. On Saturday afternoon, president
Ashraf Ghani addressed the nation. Kabul had been swirling with rumours that he would step down to pave the way for a peace deal to spare the capital and its population. Instead he said he would reorganise the military, and made vague reference to “starting consultations” across society and with international allies — increasingly I think he is nuts. President Ghani’s “three-man banana republic” is drowning, but unfortunately, an entire generation of Afghan women are drowning with him.
7. Besides the Americans (5,000), the Australians (unknown number), the Canadians (unknown number) and the British (600 from the 16th Air Assault Brigade), have also deployed military forces to enable an evacuation of diplomats and friendly locals in the next 36 hours. Scott Morrison has flagged using troops to help evacuate Australians and interpreters who remain in Afghanistan.
(b) Sources say that situation has deteriorated so badly in Afghanistan that the U.S. State Department has reached out to advocates to request names of Afghans in Kabul who have worked with the U.S. and need to be evacuated, including journalists and human rights activists.
(c) USAF cargo planes and contracted aircraft are headed to Afghanistan to evacuate potentially thousands of Americans and Afghans per day.
8. It is reasonable to assume that in some areas, Taliban cells and supporters are already present in Kabul undercover. Witnesses say Taliban have entered Kabul, in small numbers, from two directions. However, the main Taliban forces are still outside the city. Afghan Acting Interior Minister Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal said Kabul will not be attacked and that the transition will happen peacefully — the Afghan police are instructed to surrender. There's also going to be a lot of disinformation as well as misinformation by various local and foreign actors in the days ahead. It's not going to easy to rule Afghanistan, no matter who is in power.
