Nearly 21 years after 9/11, a drone takes out al-Zawahiri
The wheels of retribution grind slow:
President Biden announced Monday that the U.S. government killed the leader of al Qaeda, Ayman Al Zawahiri in a “successful” counterterrorism operation in Afghanistan that removes the terrorist from the battlefield “once and for all,” and degrades the terror network’s ability to operate.
The United States government, on July 30 at 9:48 p.m. ET, and 6:18 a.m. Kabul time, undertook a “precision counterterrorism operation,” killing Al Zawahiri, who served as Usama bin Laden’s deputy during the 9/11 attacks, and as his successor in 2011, following bin Laden’s death.
Al Zawahiri was seventy years old. I can’t imagine he’s still completely vital to the terror networks.
Biden will of course brag about this and hopes it gives him a political lift, much as Bin Laden’s killing did for Obama. But I really don’t think it will matter much at this point, because people’s beefs with Biden are much more up close and personal – and recent – than anything about 9/11. I would guess that probably about a third of voters (or more?) don’t even know who al Zawahiri is[was] at this point.
Biden also tried to convince US voters that his shameful withdrawal from Afghanistan didn’t matter, and that this makes up for it:
The president, speaking to his decision to withdraw U.S. military assets from Afghanistan last August, said that he decided that “the United States no longer needed thousands of boots on the ground in Afghanistan to protect America from terrorists who seek to do us harm.”
“And I made a promise to the American people that we continue to conduct effective counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan and beyond,” Biden said. “We’ve done just that.”
Biden said that the killing of Zawahiri helps to “never again allow Afghanistan to become a terrorist safe have[n] because he’s gone.”
Every day Biden shows more and more, what a senile fool he is.
Why aren’t the Democrats being made to pay, for his being elected through fraud.
Biden also tried to convince US voters that his shameful withdrawal from Afghanistan didn’t matter, and that this makes up for it:
I don’t recall seeing the below topic here on Neo’s site, and I only caught a hint of it in the media at the time.
This experience broke a lot of people’: Inside State amid the Afghanistan withdrawal
The chaos that came with ending America’s longest war extended to Foggy Bottom, where staff were left with psychological scars.
It’s from Politico, of all sources.
Contrast democrat support for Biden authorizing the Pentagon taking out al Zawahiri with their demonizing Trump authorizing the Pentagon to take out Iran’s terrorist mastermind Soleimani…
Hypocrisy is the left’s especiality, deceit their M.O.
“I would guess that probably about a third of voters (or more?) don’t even know who al Zawahiri is[was] at this point.” neo
I suspect the ignorance is far higher than 1/3 of voters.
And maybe within 24 hours Biden will either have us in a war with China, or endorse the invasion of Taiwan. Either way the SWHTF.
I recall, long ago, Wretchard saying that these guys are going to be like songbirds huddling in bushes, forever looking over their shoulders.
Just heard an Australian reporter opine that given Zawahiri had been in Kabul almost all this year which – I’ll quote him because I nearly fell off my chair – “would suggest the Taliban are giving at least some support to Al Quaeda again despite assurances to the contrary.”
Yes…it might “suggest” just such a thing & mate…Did you really believe the Taliban would tell us the truth?
However…Zawahiri would be a bloody old man…and if the story of him sitting alone on the balcony of his house with no one else around is correct, I’m thinking he offered himself as a target to protect someone else or divert attention away from something else.
This story feels too convenient & too completely well done to be as described. There is not this much competence in the Biden faux-administration.
TommyJay @10:11pm:
“Biden also tried to convince US voters that his shameful withdrawal from Afghanistan didn’t matter, and that this makes up for it:
I don’t recall seeing the below topic here on Neo’s site, and I only caught a hint of it in the media at the time.
This experience broke a lot of people’: Inside State amid the Afghanistan withdrawal
The chaos that came with ending America’s longest war extended to Foggy
Bottom, where staff were left with psychological scars.”
TommyJay, I was one of the diplomats at State who worked those phones during Biden’s fiasco. I think some of the quotes in the article are emotionally over-the-top, but not by much and not all of them. I don’t want to share any of the conversations I had with Amcits in Kabul, but I will say that the 1st night I went home and just stared into space for a long while, letting my mind (and emotions) just float. At one point after a particularly wrenching call I turned to a colleague and stated that I just wanted to cry – and I was a damn jaded veteran with less than 6 months before retirement by this point in my dip career.
So many of my colleagues at State who voted for this mendacious (as Neo so rightly calls Biden) fraud had their eyes finally opened. I heard so much anger directed his and Blinken’s way. I know of one liberal Dem colleague who after this voted straight ticket Republican in the VA state elections in 2021. I cannot put into words my loathing of Joe Biden and his entire rotten, evil administration.
I will of course assume the truth is that this operation was successful is because the people in charge never told anybody in the Biden regime about it until an hour after it had happened.
The fact that al-Zawahiri wasn’t merely in Afghanistan but living in an expensive house in an expensive neighborhood in the heart of the capital city means that he was getting considerable support from the Taliban. If the al-Qaeda “emir” was getting that support than so was al-Qaeda itself.on It also suggests, at 71, he was planning on a nice, comfortable, safe retirement. Or at least a semi-retirement. I doubt he was playing much of an active role anymore. More advisory, although he could still make recruiting videos. He was always good at that.
So, Biden wants credit for this? Thanks to his catastrophic withdrawal Afghanistan is once again a safe haven for foreign terrorist organizations. And he managed to kill a man who is no longer central to his particular FTO.
Had we followed Trumps conditions-based withdrawal plan and left a small force there to provide support to counterterrorism we’d be in a lot better position to eliminate these FTOs. Actually, had we followed that plan they wouldn’t be there now.
@ Telemachus > “So many of my colleagues at State who voted for this mendacious (as Neo so rightly calls Biden) fraud had their eyes finally opened.”
Thank you for your comment, and your prior ones giving us an inside perspective on foreign affairs.
In this case, I wonder if the same eye-opening is happening at the FBI, where whistleblowers are finally turning on Biden and by extension the Democrats (took them long enough).
Was there anything specific that was as traumatic as Afghanistan on the domestic front, which outsiders might not recognize as such, or is it just the continued piling up of demented deceit and destruction?
Um, er, Geoffrey, Soleimani was an ally….
(Just in case that’s not entirely clear…he was a “Biden” ally…and the great man’s heroic death was a tremendous blow to the Mullahs and ALL their friends…)
If “we” can just fling missiles at random locations in other nations, can we object if other nations fling missiles at random locations in our nation?
Seems … presumptuous
Jim
To be frank, we don’t have to object. We merely warn. Terrorism doesn’t get the presumption of moral equivalence.
This is a good shot, if late. Everybody who goes to terror war with us needs to know he’s a dead man. We can’t eliminate it completely, but reducing the numbers is an important goal.
You don’t get three years at terror, retire and then a job and a house.
This seems to me to just be a convenient distraction from the disaster that is the Biden Administration, something that the Biden Administration could probably have done anytime in the last year or two–had the option on hand–but did it now to try to give Biden a “win.”
Snow. It can be a good thing without affecting the current domestic catastrophes.
I was curious what authority the President had to conduct military operations in a foreign country. Apparently the AUMF says use for anyone the President deems participated in the events of 2001, and I suppose Biden’s #2 counts. There seems to be no sunset clause in the AUMF. Still, I thought the withdrawal out of Afghanistan was supposed to be end of the war. The withdrawal was poorly done period, but the only justification I saw for doing it was to enter a new era of peace. Now we still seem to be on a war footing with armed assets over unfriendly countries.
I’ll admit skepticism that it even occurred. We were told very clearly in 2021 that a drone strike prevented a terrorist attack. We heard evidence early on that it might not be true, but it was months later we learned that a family was taken out, not terrorist. Also, al Zawahiri was presumed dead previously, but the evidence was sketchy then as it is now. It will be interesting to see what the rest of the world thinks of this.
Leland. The war against Islamist expansion is not going to turn into peace because we abandoned a theater.
It may even encourage the bad guys.
It will stop when they stop.
A senior enemy officer is taken out.
So what.
Did the IJN cease operations after we took out Yamamoto?
He was younger and probably more mentally aware than Joe.
One issue I have is why now. I bet the CIA etc. have had him located for years off and on and let him be. They killed him to make Joe and the Dems look tough. It was strictly a PR move.
“I was curious what authority the President had to conduct military operations in a foreign country”
It would be nice to have things spelled out.
We’re still in a COVID emergency, on both national and state level in California, which is BS.
It’s not beyond these guys to flat make stuff up
This now what day 2 so the take out is old news. Few really care.
we abandoned a theater.
Did we? Is an armed military asset in theater under US control mean we abandoned the theater? Seems like we are still in theater.
When Trump killed Soleimani; the US was conducting operations in Iraq. Soleimani was an Iranian military commander meeting with combatants in Iraq. Assassinating Soleimani in Iran would have been very provocative regardless of stated justification. Killing Soleimani on a battlefield when he is operating within enemy lines is not provocative at all. It is justified by nearly all understanding of military conflict except those held by people that claim war is never justified.
As you claim, Richard Aubrey, Al-Zawahiri was killed in a theater in which the US was no longer conducting military operations. Except apparently the US is, because a military operation occurred in theater. Maybe you are cool with it, because “global war on terror” or whatever continuous warfare you support. I’m not particularly opposed, because the AUMF allows it (as I read the text). I just thought the AUMF ended when the war ended. That may not be true. I think the Administration needs to explain. Less than a year ago, Biden gave a speech declaring the war in Afghanistan over, yet he just carried out an attack there 11 months later.
WHY do Democrat administrations feel the need to *brag* about covert operations to kill our enemies? This very-same Biden fellow flapped his jaws about Seal Team 6 (after they had taken out Osama bin Laden) and next thing you know a helicopter-full of S.T.-6 members was destroyed in an ambush.
I’d think the proper official response should be something like, “No comment”. Or maybe, “{cite litany of offenses committed by person X}” and then “No comment”.
It’s nice that Zawahiri is dead. Way back in the Carter administration Mr. Z was part of the Egyptian plot to assassinate Anwar Sadat after Sadat made peace with Begin. He was briefly incarcerated but avoided execution and went on to his exploits with Al Qaeda,
Biden may try to take a victory lap, but he might break a leg doing so,
Leland:
Was he killed by a US military drone or by a drone operated by a non-DOD US agency? Inconceivable.
Dead is dead.
He “was seventy years old. I can’t imagine he’s [he was] still completely vital to . . . . ”
Hey!!! I like to think I’m still completely vital to most (if not all) of the folks with whom I deal.
“It was strictly a PR move.”
Precisely.
“I got the sucker! Rah, Rah! Now just shut up and let me take apart the country in peace… Oh and listen up y’all to Paul Krugman. He’s one super smart guy—almost as smart as Hunter…”
https://nypost.com/2022/08/02/new-york-times-paul-krugman-blasted-for-touting-biden-boom/
File under: Optics, optics, optics…(in a “Biden” house of mirrors…)
+ Bonus:
“Lying About The Economy Will Only Make The Coming Crash Worse”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/lying-about-economy-will-only-make-coming-crash-worse
(I think the author seems to be forgetting that LYING is THE ONLY THING that “Biden” know how to do….)
Was he killed by a US military drone or by a drone operated by a non-DOD US agency?
Does the difference matter to you? If it does, you might want to research the answer.
dead is dead
Then I suspect you don’t care about how, which makes your question pointless.
Leland:
You raised the question about US Military involvement. How exactly can the public answer your deep question?
Is he dead this time? Dan Bongino noted that this is the third time he has joined the celestial choir.
Neo: “Biden will of course brag about this and hopes it gives him a political lift, much as Bin Laden’s killing did for Obama.”
I really do wonder if it gave Obama much political lift, or if this will help Biden any either.
Neo, I think you are right in that the beefs people have with Biden are personal – not being able to afford gas or food is personal!
But, aside from that I wonder if most voters see bin Laden’s or Al Zawahiri’s death as “credit due to the President.” I know that I didn’t. I felt that at some point in time the military and others took over. It was no longer in the President’s (any President!) day to day job. The only credit I gave to Obama and will give to Biden is that they didn’t try to stop our military from doing their job in either case – which they could have.
And, Al Zawahiri’s death, at least to me, is little more than a footnote in history.
Barack “burden” Obama 2.0
Hypocrisy is the left’s especiality, deceit their M.O.
Hypocrisy in logic, bigotry (i.e. sanctimonious hypocrisy) in principle, maybe.
They defer to the Twilight faith, the Pro-Choice ethical religion, and indulge progressive liberal ideology… effectively.
Telemachus:
Your story is both depressing and somewhat hopeful. The entire Afghanistan withdrawal and how it was handled is the absolutely horrendous part. The hopeful part is if, as a result, enough people see how awful this administration has been.
Was this the Zawahiri who reportedly died of asthma in 2020? Or the one who reportedly died in 2014 or 2015 or 2016? None of this gives the intelligence services and the media more credibility.
I’m old enough to remember when Zawahiri died of asthma back in 2020.
Dan Bongino pointed out his (al Z’s) multiple earlier deaths in this mornings radio broadcast.
“Bring out your dead!” …
“I’m not dead, I got better!”
“THWACK”
“Bring out your dead!”
Telemachus,
I wasn’t expecting to make cyber contact with someone who was there. Thanks for that.
If this was really al Zawahiri, and if he’s really dead this time, I am glad to hear it. It’s been 21 years that he’s had it coming.
It does seem to me that when the Israelis whack somebody, the official comment is usually “no comment.”
From The Atlantic – In Memoriam:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/a-key-9-11-plotter-is-dead-he-was-already-irrelevant/ar-AA10cMTo
You raised the question about US Military involvement. How exactly can the public answer your deep question?
I’m mentioning questions I have. They are mostly rhetorical, but I wouldn’t mind hearing the Biden Administration answer them. I don’t expect others to do so.
Is he dead this time? Dan Bongino noted that this is the third time he has joined the celestial choir.
That’s a good question too. Are you asking me or the public to answer?
Leland:
Regarding al Z’s metabolic state. How would you know? I don’t expect you to know or answer. Fog of war and a junta of lies.
as with bin laden ,his protector, is the important element
https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2022/08/al-zawahiri-death-shows-al-qaeda-back-kabul-and-daniel-greenfield/
siraj is the heir to the original taliban warlord, jalal haqquani, who the company and the firm, lavished funds on,
graeme wood is perhaps one of the last analysts, that doesn’t entirely clown himself, there is some what of a generation gap, among the top of the organization, take seif adel
https://nypost.com/2022/08/02/saif-al-adel-likely-to-become-al-qaedas-next-chief/
he’s ten years younger, then there’s one moroccan, he’s twenty years younger, maghrebi
he’s been involved as far back as black hawk down, and pushed the prototype of the operation that became 9/11
https://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2022/08/u-s-kills-al-qaeda-emir-ayman-al-zawahiri-in-drone-strike.php
some more details here,
Leland. We abandoned Afghanistan. It was in all the papers. To zap somebody there doesn’t change that.
I’m cool with keeping the war going? Planet check; this is Earth.
The Islamofascists are cool with keeping it going. I hope not to lose.
It just proves how intertwined the taliban and al queda are with qatar supporting both
The US Government and/or the US Military has used a flying drone to attack + kill a self-called, deadly enemy of The US, [Mister] Ayman al-Zawahiri.
This is a positive thing for The US Government.
This means that the 2003- War in Iraq, is now a morally good war/conflict, since- The US is again justified to attack and go to war against countries who are the enemies of the US, and single-person enemies of the US, and [these people] having weapons of mass destruction is not needed to justify these wars and combats.
Jts a chicken and egg question maybe al queda with all the weapons the taliban has gifted them were already preparing an offensive by their calendar not ours we know there are at least 50 assorted operatives who made it into this country but theyve moved up their time table
As all the cool kids say, “Pics or it didn’t happen.”
@ Steve:
Indeed. I seem to recall a long ago story where a bad actor planned an attack that killed 13 of our guys. We brought the entire weight and might of the United States to bear on that planner and droned him into oblivion. Oops- we droned a dude driving a car full of kids. Wrong dude.
I wouldn’t be surprised if we vaporized a pregnant woman (can I say that?) enjoying a sunset. But! That would make for a great press release.
“Biden Administration champions abortion rights in Afghanistan”
Queue applause.