09/01/2021 / By Franz Walker
President Joe Biden’s disastrous pullout from Afghanistan has fulfilled a “prophecy” made by Osama Bin Laden back in 2002.
The letter by the late Al-Qaeda leader was written in Arabic before being translated and posted by The Guardian in November of 2002. Here, Bin Laden offers this prophecy: “If Americans refuse to listen to our advice – then be aware that you will lose this Crusade Bush began, just like the previous Crusades.”
On Sunday, Aug. 29, The Center of Security Policy’s John Rossomando reposted the 2002 letter from Bin Laden with his own prediction – that Bin Laden’s “prophecy” will be how jihadists see Biden’s Afghan disaster for years to come.
#Biden has fulfilled Osama Bin Laden's prophecy. This is how this #AfghanistanDisaster will be portrayed by #jihadists for decades to come. https://t.co/X7HArHDeBK pic.twitter.com/QY5ZP1KxvD
— John Rossomando (@JohnRossomando) August 29, 2021
Bin Laden’s 2002 letter paints Al Qaeda’s — and by extension, the Taliban’s — fight against the United States and her allies as a struggle against oppressors.
“Because you attacked us and continue to attack us,” Bin Laden wrote.
He then listed examples, going as far back as the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Here, Bin Laden stated that the U.S. has fabricated lies about the Jews having “a historical right to Palestine, as it was promised to them in the Torah.”
Other examples that Bin Laden listed include the U.S.-led U.N. intervention in Somalia, the supposed support for “Russian atrocities” against Muslims in Chechnya, claimed Indian oppression against Muslims in Kashmir and Israeli “aggression” in Lebanon.
He then states that these have put an “obligation” on them to fight against governments allied with the U.S.
While he didn’t name the country in this context, it can be easy to draw a line from what Bin Laden wrote here and the events in Afghanistan. By bringing up Bil Laden’s letter, Rossomando is pointing out that jihadists will make that connection. That the fall of the Afghan government in the middle of the botched withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country was prophesized by Bin Laden in 2002.
This then raises the specter of increased activity from jihadists who will see Afghanistan as a victory, as proof that their fight against America and her allies is “just” and that victory is achievable. (Related: Countries in Central Asia and Europe are worried Afghanistan chaos will spread.)
With the Taliban once again in power in Afghanistan, the question now becomes whether the country will once again become a safe haven for terrorists.
In February of 2020, President Donald Trump negotiated an accord with the Taliban where the group agreed to “not allow any of its members, other individuals or groups, including Al Qaeda, to use the soil of Afghanistan to threaten the security of the United States and its allies.”
Indeed, some experts are saying that the Taliban may not be as quick to support other terrorists. John Sawer, former head of the United Kingdom’s foreign intelligence service MI6 said the group would have “learned some lessons in the last 20 years.”
“To have a friend of terrorists, which Taliban have been, running a whole country is not a good thing,” Sawers stated.
That said, questions remain whether the Taliban’s fighters in Afghanistan share the same views as its leadership, which has been at the negotiating table in Qatar.
“The question is always how much control the leadership negotiating in Doha has over the fighters,” Sawers points out. “Since traditionally in civil wars those on the battlefield have more power than those who sit in five-star hotels.”
Other experts, especially in Washington, aren’t as optimistic.
“The terrorism risk to the United States is going to get dramatically worse,” argues former State Department coordinator for counterterrorism Nathan Sales, now a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council.
Sales says that with the Taliban back in power, “it is virtually certain that Al Qaeda will re-establish a safe haven in Afghanistan and use it to plot terrorism against the United States and others.”
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Tagged Under:
Afghanistan, al Qaeda, chaos, Collapse, failure, Islam, Jihadist, Joe Biden, Osama Bin Laden, terrorism, Traitor, treason, war in Afghanistan, War on Terror
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