Tell-All Book Reveals Pentagon Knew Kabul Airport Attack Was Coming Days In Advance
A new military tell-all book has shed more light on Biden's disastrous Afghan evacuation, and the events which led to a suicide bomber killing 13 American troops at Kabul airport in 2021.
It's been two years since the disaster at the airport gate which also killed some 170 Afghan civilians who were trying to flee the Taliban's rapid takeover of the capital. Authors Jerry Dunleavy and James Hasson, the latter a former Army officer who served in Afghanistan, reveal in the book that the foundation for a tragic ending was already laid given that the US relied on the Taliban for security during the chaotic exit.
"Our findings — tucked away in the Pentagon’s own documents and in the own words of military officers personally involved in the Afghanistan evacuation — provide more damning evidence about the dangerous stupidity of relying upon terrorists like the Taliban to provide security at Kabul airport," co-author Dunleavy has said.
The book is entitled 'Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden's Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End,' and comes out this week. It documents at least two opportunities that US forces had to disrupt the attack.
For example, the book reveals that intelligence surfaced of an impending ISIS-K attack on American troops manning entry points a full nine days before the tragic events of Aug.26 at Karzai airport's Abbey Gate. And up to within two days before the attack, "intelligence channels were humming with warnings"—but the Marines were kept in place to do the impossible task of crowd control while trying to allow airport access to fleeing US citizens, as thousands of desperate Afghans pushed against the gates.
The authors have accessed intelligence files which show that some US officials understood that a violent attack or bombing was almost inevitable:
'I shared intelligence about the pending attack, so everyone was aware, and knew it was happening,' said the officer. 'The intelligence community didn't know the gate, but assessed it would be Abbey Gate due to the number of people there.'
The gate was initially due to close around then but the British government and others lobbied to keep it open as they sought to rescue their last remaining citizens.
The threat of an attack was so high, report Dunleavy and Hassan, that Marines there were ordered on to one knee all night to reduce their exposure to an explosion. A day later medical units were told to be on alert for a mass casualty event.
The book describes that there was a major missed opportunity to take out an ISIS-K terror cell, but US operational decision-makers were too beholden to Taliban security officials, unbelievably...
Another officer described how there were was daily coordination with the Taliban on security, and nightly intelligence meetings between U.S. units to share latest information.
'Units at H.K.I.A (Hamid Karzai International Airport) used Chat Surfer to disseminate information on threats,' he said.
'Intelligence officers knew that ISIS-K. was staging in a hotel 2-3 kilometers west of H.K.I.A., and D2 asked the Taliban to conduct an assault on the hotel, but they never did.'
"As a result of the threat reporting, we conducted a targeting effort focused on ISIS K threats leading into Kabul," the officer was further quoted as saying. "The strike unit was 'authorized to look at ISIS-K targets' but had to submit detailed proposals for permission to engage.'"
That permission never came, as top commanders were reportedly worried about the "negative response" from the Taliban at a delicate moment the Pentagon needed its security cooperation to get American personnel out. Multiple other nations, especially the UK, were also scrambling.
#WATCH | Strong criticism of Joe Biden by Cheryl Rex, mother of Marine Dylan Merola, one of the victims of the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan on Aug. 26, 2021. pic.twitter.com/THr4TdmBDq
— VOZ (@Voz_US) August 8, 2023
Co-author James Hasson concludes, "Leaders in D.C. made one unforced error after another throughout the withdrawal, and each mistake compounded the risk to the men and women on the ground."
"Ultimately, it led to U.S. commanders tailoring decisions to the desires of Taliban leaders who had them surrounded, and to the loss of thirteen brave Americans," he added.
