McCaul: U.S. Knew when Kabul Attack Would Happen, Didn’t Strike ISIS-K in Hotel Where They Were Plan

[mystery-ak]

McCaul: U.S. Knew when Kabul Attack Would Happen, Didn’t Strike ISIS-K in Hotel Where They Were Planning It

Ian Hanchett 28 Aug 2023

During an interview with the “Fox News Rundown” podcast released on Monday, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) previewed his meeting with the families of the 13 American soldiers killed in the suicide bombing at the Kabul airport in 2021 and stated that there is intelligence that the U.S. “knew, to the very day,” when the suicide bombing was going to happen, “and they asked the Taliban to target ISIS-K in a hotel where they were plotting the bombing, the Taliban refused, an airstrike was called in by the intelligence community, and, of course, that was denied as well.”

McCaul said, [relevant remarks begin around 6:10] “Well, we’ve been conducting a very active investigation. I’ll be meeting with the Gold Star families of the thirteen servicemembers who were killed, the parents. It’s very sad. But we’re going to hear their stories. But we’re also going to give them new information. We’ll have the sniper whose team had the suicide bomber in their sights, but were not given permission to engage the target, which then led to the bombing that killed or wounded 170 both Americans and [Afghans], very tragic for the families, because it could have been prevented. We also have new evidence that there was intelligence that they knew, to the very day, when this was going to happen and they asked the Taliban to target ISIS-K in a hotel where they were plotting the bombing, the Taliban refused, an airstrike was called in by the intelligence community, and, of course, that was denied as well.”

https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2023/08/28/mccaul-u-s-knew-when-kabul-attack-would-happen-didnt-strike-isis-k-in-hotel-where-they-were-planning-it/

[mystery-ak]

Afghanistan Gold Star Dad: ‘Frustrating’ We Keep Getting Slow ‘Drip’ of Info. on Multiple Chances to Stop Kabul Attack

On Monday’s broadcast of NewsNation’s “Elizabeth Vargas Reports,” Darin Hoover — whose son, Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover Jr., was killed during the Kabul airport attack during the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 reacted to reporting by NewsNation that Pentagon documents show the U.S. knew that ISIS-K members were in a hotel and that an attack was imminent, but failed to strike the group and the Taliban refused a U.S. request to take the group out by stating that it’s “infuriating,” that this kind of information about the multiple chances to prevent the Kabul attack keeps coming out in a piecemeal fashion.

Hoover said, “That’s the frustrating part, we’re finding out all of these different tidbits of information, and it’s coming out in a slow, drip, drip kind of way, and it’s infuriating, frankly, that they actually had three opportunities to take out that bomber or the cell that was working on it, and didn’t take the opportunity to do it. And look, we’ve got 45 injured of our military and, obviously, our 13 that were killed. And it’s just — this kind of stuff can’t continue to happen. Going from war to war to war that we have gone [into], and this is the best that we could do, this is the best that we could come up with? For those failures, wherever that may be — and that’s part of what we’re trying to do and trying to come to — is where those failures happened and why they happened, at whichever level, whether it was on the ground, whether it was in the White House.”

more
https://www.breitbart.com/clips/2023/08/28/afghanistan-gold-star-dad-frustrating-we-keep-getting-slow-drip-of-info-on-multiple-chances-to-stop-kabul-attack/

[bigheadfred]

They should have just done it and asked for permission later.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

I don't believe the on-scene commanders deliberately chose to have those Marines killed.  I think that they were put in a tactically untenable position by the Commander in Chief, didn't have enough troops to defend the perimeter adequately, and so had to make deals with the Taliban to try to get people out.

Looks like it was a bad judgement call on that shot, but the fact that the decision had to be made at all was a product of it being an impossible situation right from the start.

[mystery-ak]

This kinda reminds me of Clinton/Aspin's refusal to send tanks into Mogadishu...the refusal led to 18 US Soldiers being killed....which led to the book/movie Black Hawk Down..

CinC's need to trust their Generals...and stop making combat decisions themselves.

[Maj. Bill Martin]

This kinda reminds me of Clinton/Aspin's refusal to send tanks into Mogadishu...the refusal led to 18 US Soldiers being killed....which led to the book/movie Black Hawk Down..

CinC's need to trust their Generals...and stop making combat decisions themselves.

The excuse for Mogadishu was "those tanks wouldn't have arrived in time anyway", but the response to that is that if the CG had known those tanks would be arriving shortly, they might have put off any truly high-risk operations until the did.

[DefiantMassRINO]

The Biden Admin screwed the pooch on the Afghanistan withdrawal and evacuations.

It happened on their watch.

Intelligence officials were wrong about how long it would take the Taliban to regain control.

State Department officials dragged their feet issuing visas for Afghan interpreters.

Another Major Fail when the State Department is put in charge of a war/occupation zone.