Ebenso deutlich wie in der Gesamtbewertung wird die Enquete-Kommission des Bundestags bei der Auflistung der einzelnen Verfehlungen und Versäumnisse:
„Eine fortlaufende, selbstkritische Bestandsaufnahme hinsichtlich der sehr hoch gesetzten Ziele hat nicht ausreichend stattgefunden“, kritisiert das Gremium und nimmt damit sämtliche mit dem Einsatz befasste Bundesregierungen in den Jahren 2001 bis 2021 aufs Korn.
Gen. Michael E. Kurilla, who oversees U.S. Central Command, ordered the additional interviews “to ensure we do our due diligence” with information that came to light after the military closed its investigation of the incident, Michael Lawhorn, a Central Command spokesman, said in a statement. By itself, the move does not formally reopen the investigation, completed in November 2021, but the general could determine that doing so is necessary once the additional interviews are complete.
(…)
The attack’s suspected mastermind was killed by the Taliban earlier this year, U.S. officials disclosed in April.
While the third Meeting of Foreign Ministers of Afghanistan‘s Neighboring Countries is scheduled in China‘s Anhui Province on Wednesday and Thursday, China will also host a Troika Plus meeting there with Russia, the US and Pakistan over the Afghan situation. Observers said that against the backdrop of the Ukraine crisis, the upcoming meetings on Afghanistan will help congregate the stake-holding parties to help Afghanistan despite their grudges, which showcases China‘s efforts to promote regional stability and its capability to mediate heated issues.
Im Sondierungspapier einer möglichen künftigen Regierungskoalition von SPD, Grünen und FDP ist bereits festgehalten: Ein Parlamentarischer Untersuchungsausschuss soll im Bundestag die Geschehnisse rund um die militärische Evakuierung in Kabul durchleuchten. Und eine sogenannte Enquete-Kommission soll ergänzend die deutsche Afghanistan-Politik unter die Lupe nehmen. Braucht es da, zusätzlich, noch eine teure Ausschreibung?
It happened in my area of responsibility, so I‘m the responsible officer for that strike,” McKenzie said during a Senate hearing on Tuesday.
McKenzie said he was under “no pressure” and “no one in my chain of command below me was under any pressure to take that strike.”
Austin said military officials had discussed “a range of possibilities,” but no one planned for the possibility the Afghan government would collapse as quickly as it did.
“We certainly did not plan against a collapse of the government in 11 days,” Austin told lawmakers in response to a lawmaker question.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chair General Mark Milley, and General Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, testify on the Afghanistan withdrawal.
The committee‘s chair, the hawkish New Jersey Democrat Bob Menendez, pulled no punches in his opening statement, threatening to subpoena Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other Biden officials who decline to voluntarily appear before the committee.
„Mr. Secretary, the execution of the U.S. withdrawal was clearly and fatally flawed,“ Menendez told Blinken.
Amid reports of intense fighting in the Panjshir, Pakistan‘s powerful intelligence chief made a surprise visit to Kabul on Saturday.
Hameed arrived in Kabul Saturday morning, leading a delegation of „senior Pakistani officials“, to discuss security, economic and trade issues, according to Pakistani media reports.
(01.09.2021)
Chris Bryant then asks about reports that British officials told people to go to the airport on the very day of the terrorist attack.
Dominic Raab says the travel advice was changed the night before the attack, and people were told not to come to the airport. The team was shifted from the Barons Hotel through to the airport to protect them.
He says he saw the report and „I need to investigate it“, but doesn‘t reject the possibility.
(16.08.2021)
Naturally, the United States has financed the Afghan war with borrowed money. Brown University researchers estimate that more than $500 billion in interest has already been paid (included in the $2.26 trillion total sum), and they figure that by 2050 the cost of interest alone on our Afghan war debt could reach $6.5 trillion. That amounts to $20,000 for each and every U.S. citizen.
The Turkish embassy in Kabul has returned to its building in the city and Ankara will maintain its diplomatic presence in Afghanistan, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said.
NATO countries have been pulling out their diplomatic missions in Afghanistan following the Taliban’s victory two weeks ago.
The Taliban appointed Hajji Mohammad Idress as acting general director of the central bank „in efforts to align and arrange banking procedures and find a solution to people‘s trade problem and difficulties,“ Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid wrote on his social media account.
Nach Angaben der Bundeswehr kam es zu dem Schusswechsel gegen 04.15 Uhr (MESZ) am Nordtor des Airports. Das Tor ist jedoch geschlossen. Die deutsche Botschaft hatte erst kurz zuvor gewarnt, dass es an den Zugängen immer noch sehr häufig zu gefährlichen Situationen und bewaffneten Auseinandersetzungen komme.
It‘s not clear who started the fighting and German officials said the three Afghans were hurt by „unknown attackers“.
The Afghan forces are thought to be part of an army contingent who have been helping international forces, having refused to surrender to the Taliban.
Our first priority in Kabul is getting American citizens out of the country as quickly and as safely as possible. At my direction, the State Department continues to reach out to the remaining Americans we have identified by phone, e-mail, and other means to ascertain their whereabouts and their plans.
We’re executing a plan to move groups of these Americans to safety and to safely and effectively move them to the airport compound.
For security reasons, I’m not going to go into the detail of what these plans entail, but I will say again today that I have said before: Any American who wants to get home will get home.
We’ve also been evacuating the citizens of our NATO Allies and our partners, including their diplomats, their embassy staff who remain in Afghanistan and to get them back to their homes as well.
And as we do this, we’re also working to move our Afghan allies, who stood with us side by side, and other vulnerable Afghans such as women leaders and journalists, out of the country.
In recent days, the Qatari ambassador to Afghanistan has escorted small groups of Americans into the airport, according to two people familiar with the effort who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive operation. American citizens have been instructed to meet at rally points in the city, and the ambassador then accompanies them to guarantee safe passage, these people said. Qatar has served as an intermediary between the United States and the Taliban at several stages of the American withdrawal, sponsoring peace talks and serving as the first point of refuge for many evacuees.
Der Sender CNN berichtet von der Gefahr eines Anschlags der Terrorgruppe „Islamischer Staat“ und beruft sich dabei auf Quellen aus dem US-Verteidigungsministerium. Der Sprecher des Pentagons wollte bei einer Pressekonferenz dazu keine Details nennen. Die USA wollen eigentlich zum 31. August den Abzug ihrer Truppen abschließen. Daher drängt die Zeit: Die Luftbrücke könnte dann nicht mehr aufrechterhalten werden.
The US Embassy said on Saturday that American citizens in Afghanistan should stay away from Kabul’s airport, the only way out, “because of potential security threats outside the gates.”
The advisory directly contradicted President Biden’s insistence on Friday that Americans could proceed to the airport freely.
The Genius Media Nigeria reports that a security alert on Saturday told US citizens to stay away due to possible “security threats outside the gates”.
(21.08.2021)
A new threat from the Islamic State’s (ISIS) branch in Afghanistan prompted a new warning from the U.S. Embassy in Kabul that urged Americans to not come to the besieged airport in Kabul, officials confirmed to Fox News on Saturday.
(21.08.2021)
The development directly contradicts President Biden’s insistence Friday that Americans could proceed to the airport freely from the Afghan capital and that an “agreement” with the Taliban had been reached over the issue.
Auf einen „interessanten“ Nebenaspekt, worum es den US bei ihrem Afghanistan Einsatz auch gegangen zu sein scheint, weist der Hardliner John Bolton hin, die viele Jahre in führenden Positionen am Krieg mitgestrickt hatte.
„I didn’t hear a single thing that would give comfort to the very allies you spoke about. I’ve heard from people in the region. They are frightened by the American collapse—the American collapse of temerity and strength and power that we demonstrated for four years that had frankly kept the Taliban at bay and prevented precisely what you’re precisely seeing happen today, and I didn’t hear a single thing that would frighten a single Taliban who thinks there’s any risk that this administration would impose any cost on them for their activities, for what they are doing to Americans today and holding them hostage—not permitting them to get into the airport in Kabul so that we can get them home to their families. „
(23. Juni 2010)
Am Montag, den 22.Juni, veröffentlichte die Washington Post auf ihrer Webseite den neunundsiebzig Seiten langen Bericht des „Unterausschusses für Nationale Sicherheit und Auswärtige Angelegenheiten“ mit dem Titel „Warlord, Inc.: Extortion and Corruption Along the U.S. Supply Chain in Afghanistan“, für den der Leiter des Ausschusses, der Republikaner John F. Tierney (D-Mass.), verantwortlich zeichnete (1, 2).
Der „Unterausschuss für Nationale Sicherheit und Auswärtige Angelegenheiten“ ist ständiger Teil des „Ausschuss für Aufsicht und Reform der Regierung“ des Repräsentantenhauses.
Die Veröffentlichung des Berichts fällt mit den Machtkämpfen um die Kompetenzen der CIA, der Geheimdienste des US-Verteidigungsministeriums und den eigenmächtigen Spionagediensten des US-Militärs (wie diejenigen des General Petraeus) um die Kontrolle der Oberhoheit in den besetzten Gebieten zusammen, in denen sich Geschäfte mit Hilfe korrupter Politiker in mehrfacher Milliardenhöhe abwickeln lassen – die Möglichkeiten zum Geldverdienen reichen von der Opiumproduktion, den Rüstungsgeschäften und Waffenhandel, Lizenzen für die Ausbeutung der Rohstoffe, Aufträge für die Bauunternehmen bis hin in alle Bereiche des öffentlichen Lebens einer Gesellschaft. Es geht um die reine Ausbeutung eines Landes.
(2.9.2015)
Former CIA director David Petraeus is advocating giving arms to members of al-Nusra Front, an al-Qaida off-shoot, to beat Isis. That is madness
US-Präsident Biden und die Bundesregierung werfen der afghanischen Armee fehlenden Kampfwillen vor. Dem widerspricht im Interview mit STRG_F der ehemalige General und Ex-CIA-Chef Petraeus. Er verteidigt die afghanischen Soldaten.
– Petraeus commanded forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and helped formulate ‚counterinsurgency‘ strategies
– He criticized Biden‘s decision to pull out of Afghanistan in a New Yorker interview
– Disagreed with decision to pull out liaison, special forces trainers, contractors
– Said it began an epidemic of ‚surrender‘ for the Afghans
– Called departure ‚premature‘ but didn‘t say how much more time was needed
– Warned Al Qaeda could reemerge
– Acknowledged ‚overbuilt‘ nation-building aspects, but said it was necessary for a hand-off
– Biden said the U.S. could not fight when Afghans were unwilling to do so
– ‚To say that the Afghans won’t fight for their country needs an asterisk‘
Now, Justin Sink of Bloomberg.
Q Thank you, Mr. President. You just said that you would keep a laser-focus on counterterrorism efforts and that you don’t see as great of a threat of terrorism from Afghanistan as other parts of the world. But if you and your administration so badly misassessed how quickly the Taliban would sweep through Afghanistan and we no longer have an embassy there from which to run intelligence operations, how can you at all be confident of your assessment of the risk of terrorism and the ability of the U.S. to conduct over-the-horizon missions to keep it in check? Can you tell Americans that they’re safe and will remain safe from terror attacks in Afghanistan?
THE PRESIDENT: I think you’re comparing apples and oranges. One question was whether or not the Afghan forces we trained up would stay and fight in their own civil war they had going on.
No one — I shouldn’t say “no one” — the consensus was that it was highly unlikely that in 11 days they’d collapse and fall, and the leader of Afghanistan would flee the country.
The President is scheduled to speak to the nation at 1 p.m. ET from the East Room of the White House. His remarks will be broadcast live on television and online on C-Span, as well as on the White House‘s YouTube channel.
He said: „The UK Government’s overriding priority has been to secure Kabul airport so that flights can leave.
„The call was delegated to a Minister of State because I was prioritising security and capacity at the airport on the direct advice of the Director and the Director General overseeing the crisis response.
„In any event, the Afghan Foreign Minister agreed to take the call, but was unable to because of the rapidly deteriorating situation.“
It has been reported that help for interpreters who supported British troops was delayed because Mr Raab was “unavailable” to make a call to call Afghan foreign minister Hanif Atmar on Friday.
Mr Raab reportedly delegated the call to a junior minister.
The briefing, which is believed to be the first in-person meeting with lawmakers, comes as four separate congressional committees have pledged to conduct oversight efforts into the administration’s moves in withdrawing from Afghanistan.
(18.08.2021)