“It’s hard to explain what the thinking was in letting out people who were a threat to the Taliban.”
No, it isn’t, but it’s not surprising that a senior UN counterterrorism official would be clueless and ignorant. Either al-Logari was not actually a threat to the Taliban, or the Taliban knew (or were hoping) he would target the Americans.
“U.S. Military Focusing on ISIS Cell Behind Attack at Kabul Airport,” by Eric Schmitt, New York Times, January 1, 2022:
…The United States has not carried out any airstrikes in the country since the last American troops left on Aug. 30.
The attack at the airport’s Abbey Gate unfolded four days earlier, during the frenzied final days of the largest noncombatant evacuation ever conducted by the U.S. military. It was one of the deadliest attacks of the 20-year war in Afghanistan.
The Islamic State identified the suicide bomber as Abdul Rahman Al-Logari. American officials say he was a former engineering student who was one of several thousand militants freed from at least two high-security prisons after the Taliban seized control of Kabul on Aug. 15. The Taliban emptied the facilities indiscriminately, releasing not only their own imprisoned members but also fighters from Islamic State Khorasan, or ISIS-K, the group’s branch in Afghanistan and the Taliban’s nemesis.
“It’s hard to explain what the thinking was in letting out people who were a threat to the Taliban,” Edmund Fitton-Brown, a senior U.N. counterterrorism official, said at a recent security conference in Doha, Qatar….
gravenimage says
Taliban released Islamic State Kabul airport jihad mass murderer from prison days before attack
“It’s hard to explain what the thinking was in letting out people who were a threat to the Taliban.”
………………..
He wasn’t a threat to the Taliban–he was a threat to the Americans and anyone trying to escape the Taliban.
Infidel says
They hoped that US focus would turn from the Taliban to IS-K. And they were right!
gravenimage says
Just rival Jihadists–but they all hate and murder Infidels.
somehistory says
As the report I heard yesterday stated, this was already suspected to be the case. And most of us who come to this site, knew it without yesterday’s confirmation.
There is the saying: The enemy of my enemy, is my friend. Sure, the members of isis want the same control as the taliban want. They are all mozlum terrorists, having the same goal for that part of the world and the entire globe. There is plenty of competition for the top spot.
However, they will work together as long as it is to their advantage. If they actually defeated the rest of mankind, then they would have time to fight against each other….as sunni and shia already do.
libertyORdeath says
“It’s hard to explain what the thinking was in letting out people who were a threat to the Taliban.”
So you’re telling me that a “senior UN counterterrorism official” has never heard of the military maxim that says “the enemy of my enemy is my friend “?
Even an attack by ISIS-K was acceptable to those “new age” terrorists, the Taliban, as long as it killed scores of Americans, our allies, and civilians trying to flee their oppressive rule.
I don’t know if this intel official has gotten around to reading the mission statements of both the Taliban and ISIS, but they both pretty much want the same thing – global islamic rule under a sharia compliant caliphate. Kinda seems like there might be a really good reason to release terrorists, including suicide bombers, from the US military detention centers.
Just wait until one of these monsters shows up in the US thanks to His Fraudulency, Joe Biden.