LTE – JoAnn Utphall – 8-25-2021
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According to Frances Martel, “Under predecessor Donald Trump, Washington brokered a deal with the Taliban that would have seen the American military presence in the country end on May 1, 2021. In exchange, the Taliban promised not to attack American troops and to cut ties with international jihadist organizations like al-Qaeda, whose attacks on America on September 11, 2001, prompted the Afghan War. Instead, Biden broke the deal, extending the military presence initially into September before cutting it back to August. Taliban officials took Biden’s disavowal of the agreement as a license to begin a campaign of conquest nationwide.”
It is especially surprising that Biden could lose the entire country of Afghanistan in a few days when one month ago, a reporter pressed Biden about the lurking dangers in Afghanistan, over and over again he said the danger was false. In this last month, there was nothing that stopped Biden from evacuating our people and our allies in the last seven months. Nothing stopped him from destroying all the military equipment and supplies. Nothing stopped him from increasing our military presence when intel started revealing the increasing danger.
In February Biden’s administration started working to cancel Trump’s emergency evacuation plan. By June 11th, Deputy Sec. Brian P. McKeon sent an Action Memo stating that the (Trump’s) Contingency & Crisis Response plan would be discontinued.
American Military News: “based on a 2017 Government Accountability Office report, that between 2002 and 2016, the U.S. gave Afghan government forces 75,898 vehicles, 599,690 weapons, 162,643 pieces of communications equipment, 208 aircraft, and 16,191 pieces of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance equipment …. Further, a 2020 report by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR) found that between 2017 and 2019, the U.S. gave Afghan forces an additional 7,035 machine guns, 4,702 Humvees, 20,040 hand grenades, 2,520 bombs and 1,394 grenade launchers, along with other equipment.” Each F-15 is worth $87,000,000 (US $) and a Black Hawk helicopter is worth $ 6,000,000 (US $) each. One news article claimed that 166 Black Hawks were left and about 40 spare Black Hawk helicopters (for parts). Kalasknikov rifles were left behind at the airport. Cernovich stated, “The Taliban now has javelin missiles as well as the OS for Strykers and other military vehicles. Everyone is wondering what the black market is going to have in Iran,” Also captured were a flight simulator in Bagram that they can use to train their soldiers. Also the Taliban is in possession of CROWS (Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station).
This doesn’t cover all the US abandoned computers, phones, radios and other communication apparatus. I am sure either China or Russia would be more than willing to help the Taliban soldiers figure out how to use that equipment. Gen. Mike Flynn warned years ago of the inevitable collapse of the Afghanistan army and that China needed Afghanistan in order to fulfill its China’s Belt and Road Initiative (5-G spyware) to thrive. China will be the Taliban’s best friend going forward.
Also according to the official Intercept Report, last week Taliban fighters obtained US Handheld Interagency Identity Detection Equipment systems (HIIDE). According to the article written by Ryan Morgan, “We processed thousands of locals a day, had to ID, sweep for suicide vests, weapons, intel gathering, etc.” a U.S. military contractor told the Intercept. “[HIIDE] was used as a biometric ID tool to help ID locals working for the coalition.” HIIDE contains a lot of biographic information and is linked to a large centralized database. Let’s hope we have strong enough firewalls to keep those who now possess this from gaining access to this database. Fears are that the Pakistan government will ultimately assist the Taliban in breaking into the database.
The Taliban now controls more territory than it did 20 years ago. Remember, ISIS built its caliphate during the Obama/Biden era and that Obama released five terrorist from Gitmo Bay in 2014. Pres. Obama traded five Taliban commanders for one American, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl who has since pleaded guilty to desertion. Now Khairullah Khairkhwa (one of the jihadis Obama traded for Bergdahl) is among the Taliban leadership that just captured Kabul. Back in 2014, the US intelligence warned Obama that four of the five were almost certain to return to the jihad.
JoAnn Utphall
Boyceville