Report: CIA Director William Burns Met With Taliban Leader in Kabul
The conversation likely centered around the August 31st withdrawal deadline. The Taliban threatened the U.S. with consequences if Biden extends it.
The Washington Post reported that CIA Director William Burns met with Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Monday.
A senior official confirmed the report to Fox News.
No one knows what the men discussed in the meeting. They likely spoke about the August 31st withdrawal deadline.
Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said the U.S. would face the consequences if President Joe Biden extended the deadline:
The Pentagon might extend the deadline, though. Americans are stranded all around Afghanistan. The Taliban have made it hard for them to get to the Kabul airport:
France, the UK and Germany have all mentioned extending the Aug. 31 withdrawal deadline in order to carry out an orderly exit, the BBC reported.
“We are concerned about the deadline set by the United States on August 31,” Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s foreign minister, told the network. “Additional time is needed to complete ongoing operations.”
“The British position is we want to stay longer if it is possible to do so,” U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said, according to The Associated Press.
The left made a big deal about former President Donald Trump’s team meeting with the Taliban, including Baradar, in Qatar in 2020. Biden even blamed his horrible withdrawal on Trump’s deal.
The Biden administration, including the president, has done nothing but praise the Taliban. It’s almost like surrendering. Pentagon spokesman John Kirby told the press yesterday, “Thus far, and going forward, it does require constant coordination and deconfliction with the Taliban.”
In other words, American still has to rely on the Taliban to evacuate citizens.
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“Americans are stranded all around Afghanistan.”
Try “captured.”
The NWOers continue to try and fool us. And in truth we are fools because we continue to let the CFR and its members be our “leaders” cheered on by a CFR-controlled media. This pathetic trip by Burns reminded me of Chamberlain traveling to Munich and coming back with his flimsy “peace for our time” bit of nonsense.
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2021/08/none_dare_call_it_conspiracy.html
Burns is a career DIPLOMAT whom Brainless Biden made CIA chief March 2021, with unanimous Senate consent. Burns is a career talker, ingratiater, not a warrior or a spy.
His going to Kabul this Monday to talk Taliban shows how wretched and unable the US has become.
Trying to put myself in the opposition shoes. I would allow myself to be talked into a single extension with a hard deadline of 6 PM local time Friday 3 September.
Why? It’s a way to gain some credibility as a ‘reasonable’ governing coalition. They will definitely be financially rewarded for the extension whether we hear the details or not. Gives Biden a way to save a bit of face to break the string of disaster even for a fleeting moment.
The opposition will likely still have plenty of Americans and Afghans in country. I would hold kangaroo CT show trials and sentence them to a very light but humiliating beating with a cane. A dozen strokes, not enough to injure but enough to raise welts. Then exile them, extorting more money or perhaps agreement that the US and NATO will refuse to aid the remnant of the Northern Alliance.
That resistance is centered in Panjshir Province but has made inroads in Baghaln Province in the last several days. The opposition has to want outside support negated if possible. This would mostly deliver that goal.
Why 6 PM on Friday? Easy, on Friday AM call to prayer they basically get a pep talk/rally. In the evening call they get the pregame speech and ride the wave of energy until Monday. Historically, Friday to Monday is the most active, dangerous time. It’s fair to say that the opposition leaders may not be able to maintain control past then.
The opposition isn’t monolithic. Lots of factions. Currently united in victory but as the normal timeline of fighting season ends in August/early Sept they will disburse to a degree.
Maybe the Taliban is just trying to get the normal end of fighting season payoff.
With fighting season ending soon, I would think the Taliban leadership would be worried about holding strength in the field. There is a strong cultural affinity for laying low during the fall and winter.
However, the winter did not stop the Afghans from pursuing and destroying the British forces that were retreating from Kabul in 1842 when the Afghan tribesmen massacred every single British soldier save one, and 12,000 of 14,000 civilians, and this after the Afghans guaranteed the safe passage of the British forces and their families and civilians out of Kabul.
Hopefully, all they want this time is a payoff and the US out, and not replicating the glory of their ancestors.
It’s worth reading about The Wikipedia account is actually good.
About your proposed deadline extension – possible, but they can already claim they have given the westerners plenty of time to leave and they are still will not keep any westerners from leaving, who could simply do so in the normal manner of applying for a visa and getting on an airplane whenever is convenient. They can point to the general amnesty they have conferred.
But a greater point is that to keep the Taliban army from dissolving for the winter, they will need to keep the blood up of natives, and this will require action and momentum. I am not sure they can afford to sit still for another week. The natives will be restless and need to be focused in action, or they will just go home. Plus, driving the US out under fire will surely solidify their stature and authority. But I take you point that the 31st falls in the middle of a week, and Friday call to prayer is important to rile up the troops. So let’s see if this happens this Friday, if anyone is smart enough to report on it.
The US forces, if they are leaving, need to start packing up in a couple of days. And the Afghans need to be ready to start the siege if they do not. So their fighting positions prepared and ammunition caches stocked in 5 days or so.
If I were the Afghans, I know what I would do. It’s going to be real hard to push 7,000 US and other western Soldiers off that airport. In fact, it’s highly unlikely. It would be a siege and I would want to make it as uncomfortable as possible defending force by filling the airport with Afghan civilians attempting to flee.
If I were the Americans, I also know what I would do, which would have nothing to do with leaving, but rather with breaking the Taliban. I actually do not think it would be that hard since they have now all gathered in a convenient place where they can be isolated and destroyed.
Placing your fate in the hands of promises from the Taliban is folly.
BSR,
Agreed. IMO, an extension from Tuesday until Friday the 3rd benefits everyone. They get a financial payoff, we get maybe an extra 36 hours of time to fly folks home and then 24 hours to pull out the troops.
The drawback with military action isn’t that we couldn’t recapture Kabal but how many US Civilians would die in the process before US troops reach them.
These folks are not in a single location so we would need to conduct simultaneous ops across the city which is absolutely going to result in some being killed out of hand. Especially true for those outside Kabal who, honestly speaking, are probably on their own based on administration non-statements.
Assuming 6,000 US citizens remain in Kabal and a 90% success rate of reaching them and extraction to the airport leaves 600 Citizens likely dead. Then factor in retaliation on the Airport; mortars, rockets, artillery. Then factor in the likely outcome for those Citizens outside Kabal.
Some of these folks demanding swift action don’t seem to be taking all the almost certain negative implications and loss of life into account. We can mitigate but not eliminate those factors. The folks calling for action need to be willing to embrace the casualties among US civilians that will ensue, so far I haven’t seen one of them do so.
I am certainly not opposing military action and it may come to that, but I am cognizant of the risks and accept them. So far the ‘just do it’ on line crowd doesn’t seem to understand the realities or propose any effective plan beyond sounding charge.
“Some of these folks demanding swift action don’t seem to be taking all the almost certain negative implications and loss of life into account.”
My cold calculus.
If we do not stay past 31 AUG, several thousand Americans are left behind and subject to the mercy of the Taliban. Likely, they will be gathered up and held hostage for money and leverage against the US government. Some will die.
If we stay past 31 AUG, several thousand Americans will be trapped in Kabul and else where in Afghanistan and subject to the mercy of the Taliban, most likely gathered up and held hostage for money and leverage against the US government. Some will die.
So there is no real difference in outcome for either course of action as far as the Americans stranded in Afghanistan is concerned..
The solution is to stop playing the Taliban’s game and start playing your own. This new game would be called I win – you lose.
I do not want to go into how I would play this new game here, as it would be a very long post. Longer than my usual excursions. But it would be a major escalation, and yes, a lot pf people will die.
As you said in a another post, the US civilians in Afghanistan are not doe-eyed innocents. As I stated, they are by and large US government personnel or contractors who are there, by and large, for the extra money or because they like doing counterinsurgency stuff. After 20 years of war, none are unaware this is a warzone and that, as such, there are risk, risks they freely took and for which they have been compensated for. Most mistakenly placed their faith in the protection of the US government. This is true and sad, but somewhat irrelevant to the current situation other that to provide a lesson to others to not rely upon either that presumption or promise and either do not go, ask for more money that more accurately compensates for the risk, and/or learn certain survival skills (evasion or learn to be an insurgent yourself).
So it looks to me that, no matter what, they are on their own. So the choice is to leave with our tails between our legs and hope the Taliban treats our remaining people nicely, or we set forward to crush them, and hope the Taliban treats our remaining people nicely.
This time, no “nation building.” After we have done the damage we want to the Taliban, we leave. No civilians, no contractors, no non-DoD agencies, except for certain elements of the CIA.
People will die, this is true. A president who leads would rally and prepare the people for this. Unlike most of my time, everyone involved in this is a volunteer. If you join, you should expect that you shall have to fight. As I said in an earlier post, if you joined for college money, you potentially made a poor life decision. If you join, your are a Soldier, and that is all the expectation you get. That’s the deal.
So, we can leave with our tails between our legs or we can dedicate ourselves to crushing the Taliban. The fate of those who cannot make it out is not marginally changed, either way.
If this premise is accepted, now when can talk about how to crush the Taliban. I have definite ideas on the matter, which are probably different than what most people would envision or expect.
Calculus now…. not the big long term … reminder in integration.. 0 to 4 weeks is one thing… 0 to 30 years is entirely different. Carter set up long term issues…. Bush did.. Obama did and now for the long long long term Biden. It’s not about now it;s about over the horizon. Enjoy the Green New Deal… it won’t hurt you a bit.. for now.
BSR,
You and I agree. Of course the administration ain’t going to do that. They fear the repercussions too greatly to go ahead and amputate the diseased limb. Instead they are choosing to allow a slow, painful end for the patient.
We ceded the initiative and have a very narrow window to act to regain it. It appears that the administration isn’t willing to act decisively for fear of short term bad outcomes and are choosing even worse medium and longer term outcomes.
“You and I agree. Of course the administration ain’t going to do that. ”
Because they are feckless and incompetent. Focused on crushing internal political dissent in the US, they had no idea what was going on in a current theater of war.
Any, they would just screw it up if they tried.
The speed and degree to which this administration has damaged our country is breathtaking.
I hope the end in Afghanistan is anti-climatic. In any event, I expect the administration to do nothing helpful. The situation is fully in the grasp of the Taliban who may do whatever they will.
I agree the administration will not take decisive action. However, that does not mean the Taliban will not. Let’s speculate that the Taliban behead a couple of Americans on 9/11 on TV to “celebrate” the anniversary and Biden’s approval rating sinks to 30%. What then?
“The folks calling for action need to be willing to embrace the casualties among US civilians that will ensue, so far I haven’t seen one of them do so.”
I think that pussy footing with Taliban will lead to more civilian causalities than taking swift action and pounding them into dust.
Justice,
Agreed. The issue is rolling out to gather Citizens will inevitably result in less than 100% being located and safely transported. The remainder are going to be in a world of hurt.
Casualties will be taken on the op itself. Afghan civilians will be killed. I am totally fine with that. However, the American people are less likely to embrace the realities this will entail.
The admin knows this and is terrified of images of a worst case Mogadishu type outcome or even the image of successful direct action like Fallujah.
None of the mask Karen or vax mandate backers have any appetite for risk. They will go full bat shit when those scenes of carnage which would be necessary to conduct the op are shown.
These entirely unrealistic and unreasonably risk averse people are the base of the d/progressive party. Biden and his handlers are terrified of these people.
“Trying to put myself in the opposition shoes.”
Opposition? Are you talking about Biden or the taliban?
They’re both oppostion. I’m trying to think which one is a greater threat to our nation’s future.
I still stop politics at the waters edge.
This is a negotiated cease fire for a retreat from Afghanistan. Ending the war would include a signed treaty, exchange of prisoners and possibly establish an embassy. This is just another N Korea.
A signed treaty? I didn’t know we had ever declared war in Afghanistan? I thought this was another of our endless police actions.
Well, after all the hard work Trump put in to getting the Norks to the negotiating table President Alzimers fucked that one up to 🙄
Why would we want anything to do with Muslim savages like the Taliban? There should be a show of force and a demand for all of our people, if the demand is not met, then we should start incinerating them. Regardless, we need to destroy all our military hardware, failure to so so will cost far more life than the number of hostages.
Biden is absolutely the wrong person to be issuing a counter threat so someone with credibility needs to be threatening to destroy EVERYTHING the Taliban value if they touch a single American. Destroy the mosques, homes, everything standing. Chase them back into their caves and send the refugees back in to mop up. We can and should wipe these people right off of the face of the earth. We simply cannot allow ourselves to slapped around over hostages.
Then arrest and hang everyone who was responsible for this travesty including the generals, politicians, State department officials,… This has to stop. The Taliban will be executing hostages and I doubt many of them will come out of this alive if we play their game. End it now!
” I remember when I was with Special Forces. Seems a thousand centuries ago. We went into a camp to inoculate the children. We left the camp after we had inoculated the children for Polio, and this old man came running after us and he was crying. He couldn’t see. We went back there and they had come and hacked off every inoculated arm. There they were in a pile. A pile of little arms.
And I remember… I… I… I cried. I wept like some grandmother. I wanted to tear my teeth out. I didn’t know what I wanted to do. And I want to remember it. I never want to forget it. I never want to forget. And then I realized… like I was shot… like I was shot with a diamond… a diamond bullet right through my forehead.
And I thought: My God… the genius of that. The genius. The will to do that. Perfect, genuine, complete, crystalline, pure. And then I realized they were stronger than we. “
President Snarling Rodent in Corner with a dab of ice cream on his nose. The Left LOVES this moment. When you control the levers of power and media… are about to convert the country into one party rule …. what difference does it make?
The Left abandoned Americans , our allies and millions of innocent people now and later. Pray for payback time and as from 1945 on … Never Forget.
You don’t send the Director of CIA to negotiate for a few extra days.
There is more to this story than anyone realizes.
Biden is trying to duplicate Obama’s strategy. Remember Obama’s scheme was to use ISIS against Syria. But then ISIS started cutting off heads of westerners (they lost control of ISIS).
Who would Biden want to use the Sunni Taliban against ? Think about it.
Unfortunately – they will again lose control. They are playing with FIRE.
“You don’t send the Director of CIA to negotiate for a few extra days.”
Bingo!
Not sure about the rest of your post, but your opener is dead on balls accurate.
He was there to meet with whom ever and Biden is not in the loop any more than they let Trump in. The equipment was left on purpose for someone to use on some one else and not for the Afghan Army. None of this is an accident and malfeasance goes on while everyone looks at the pretty assistant. The administrative marches forward unbound by governance.
It feels to me like the story is that they knew this was going to be a disaster so they had to bullshit that they ‘did everything they could’ to extend the deadline, but everybody else said ‘fuck you, I’m not doing it’, so they went down the line of officials until they found somebody that they were willing to fire if they DIDN’T go.
That’s all this bullshit is, an ass-covering move.
Who the fuck sends the CIA director to ‘negotiate’ ANYTHING with another government!?!
I absolutely agree with your assessment. I believe this is a dangerous tactic and there’s much deeper muck with this CIA going there. Scrutinize scrutinize everything, this has a BAD SMELL TO IT! LIKE SOME NAFARIOUS AGREEMENT FOR BOO BOO BIDEN TO SAVE FACE, THAT’S ALL HE CARES ABOUT IS HIS SKIN! OH N HUNTER’S!
Americans Held Hostage in Afghanistan — Day 9
For the first time in my adult life I am ashamed of my country.
ashamed of anyone having such a low comprehension level (adult in U.S. 5th grade) as to VOTE THIS LIAR BIDEN AS LEADER OF ANY COUNTRY LET ALONE OF THE ‘FREE WORLD’!
Anyone think the Taliban trusts the CIA?
If I don’t trust the CIA, why would they?
Well, duh!
How much cash did Burns bring with him?
Taliban announce no extension for evacuations as they continue blocking access to the airport.
https://www.breitbart.com/news/un-rights-chief-warns-of-abuses-amid-talibans-afghan-blitz/
Now would be a good time to drop a MOAB right in the center of Kabul taking out several mosques and over Biden’s stash of military armaments.
“We are not negotiating for hostages so get ready to watch your world evaporate before your eyes the moment any Americans are hurt. Final warning.”
Watch this China!
Here’s the American Taliban continuing their all-out assault on our economy.
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2021/08/24/deja-vu-overnight-nancy-pelosi-changes-house-rules-to-pass-green-new-deal-3-5-trillion-spending-package-while-everyone-distracted-by-afghanistan/
Here come the Republican response: crickets.
CIA meeting Taliban….two less in a pod.