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CIA warned of rapid Afghanistan collapse. So why did U.S. get it so wrong?
NBC News / Comcast ^ | August 17, 2021 | By Ken Dilanian, Mike Memoli, Courtney Kube and Josh Lederman

Posted on 08/18/2021 4:03:45 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

As the Taliban began seizing provinces across Afghanistan in recent weeks, the CIA’s intelligence assessments began to warn in increasingly stark terms about the potential for a rapid, total collapse of the Afghan military and government, current and former U.S. officials told NBC News.

In the end, the CIA’s description of what a worst-case scenario could look like “was pretty close to what happened,” one former official briefed on the matter said.

The White House won’t confirm whether President Joe Biden ever received such a dire forecast from his national security team. The president himself appeared to dispute a month ago that intelligence suggested the increasing likelihood that the Afghan military would fold.

But it is precisely that outcome that has emerged as one of the administration’s chief arguments to justify the president standing by his decision to end the U.S. military operation in Afghanistan.

CIA officials were taken aback by the rapid pace of the military’s pullout, including the dead-of-night withdrawal from Bagram Air Base in July, according to the former official. And many officials are expressing annoyance at the State Department, which officials say was extremely slow in processing the paperwork needed to deal with Afghan translators and others eligible for resettlement.

“Interagency coordination, especially among warfighters, diplomats and intelligence officers, is critical at times like this,” the former official said. “Obviously, it was deficient.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nbcnews.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; bidenforeignpolicy; cia; leaks; taliban; wediditjoe
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1 posted on 08/18/2021 4:03:45 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

This article submitted by CIA as CYA.


2 posted on 08/18/2021 4:06:09 AM PDT by Fester Chugabrew (No audits. No peace.)
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To: Fester Chugabrew

Why did they get it so wrong?
_____________________________

This was their plan... Remember this is Obama’s third term.


3 posted on 08/18/2021 4:07:12 AM PDT by HypatiaTaught (Sounds like a conspiracy theory? Wait 6 months and it will be truth.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

It wouldn’t have mattered if Biden saw these dire CIA assessments.

He’s too arrogant and dumb to take advice.


4 posted on 08/18/2021 4:07:51 AM PDT by Col Frank Slade
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Biden’s National Security Adviser (Sullivan) preached the non-collapse theme over and over to Biden. If you add up goofball mistakes during his Obama-era, Sullivan is probably the least qualified person to ever have the position.

Some suggest that unless Biden fires the guy, Sullivan could end up in the next Democratic Administration as Secretary of State.


5 posted on 08/18/2021 4:08:02 AM PDT by pepsionice
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
Why did they get it so wrong?

Because they don’t give a dam*.

6 posted on 08/18/2021 4:10:54 AM PDT by gitmo (If your theology doesn't become your biography, what good is it?)
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To: Fester Chugabrew

Ken Dilanian is CIA


7 posted on 08/18/2021 4:12:30 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Just as I predicted: it’s “the U.S.” that “got it wtong,” not “the Biden Administration.”

Imagine who they would have laid the blame on if this had happened under the previous administration.


8 posted on 08/18/2021 4:13:06 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
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This is when it starts getting politically “interesting”. The CIA and defense dept are not going to just let the Biden administration make them the fall guys.

Now come the “leaks”. Popcorn time.


9 posted on 08/18/2021 4:13:20 AM PDT by BuckeyeGOP ( )
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To: Fester Chugabrew

Four people to write this story is also CYA for Comcast/NBC reporters


10 posted on 08/18/2021 4:13:32 AM PDT by frogjerk (I will not do business with fascists)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Com’on Man. Things are going along just swimingly. No mean Tweets. No more calling a spade a spade. Now we call a spade a shovel. The few litle glitches are all Orange Man Bad’s fault.


11 posted on 08/18/2021 4:13:41 AM PDT by Tupelo (Old, Tired, Cranky and Disgusted)
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To: Fester Chugabrew

“This article submitted by CIA as CYA”

We know where the Mainstream Marxist Media loyalties lie, Xiden is taking a back seat.

In unrelated news. Scmuckie Schumer acknowledges that “Let me tell you, you take on the intelligence community, they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you”


12 posted on 08/18/2021 4:14:28 AM PDT by DAC21
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To: HypatiaTaught

Exactly. This was Obama’s plan and it’s going all as planned.


13 posted on 08/18/2021 4:14:53 AM PDT by marcusmaximus
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

As usual, this was all part of their plan.


14 posted on 08/18/2021 4:16:38 AM PDT by DivineMomentsOfTruth ("There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily." -GW)
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To: Fester Chugabrew
You are 100% correct.

"The CIA predicted X long before it happened" is a transparently comical attempt to establish credibility by citing predictions that were never documented in the media until after X occurred.

15 posted on 08/18/2021 4:17:05 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("And once in a night I dreamed you were there; I canceled my flight from going nowhere.")
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To: BuckeyeGOP

also... go read Sullivans experience and biography, it’ll only take about 15 seconds.

Yale, short time at law firm, then right into politics. 80% of Americans probably have a better understanding of geopolitics and military strategy.

Not to mention, he looks like the president of the chess club at Riverdale High.


16 posted on 08/18/2021 4:19:52 AM PDT by BuckeyeGOP ( )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Islamics gonna Islam.

Afghanistan was always lost after Zoroastrianism was overcome by Islam.


17 posted on 08/18/2021 4:22:08 AM PDT by Paladin2 (Critical Marx Theory is The SOLUTION....)
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To: Fester Chugabrew

Four Gerbilists required to produce this drivel?


18 posted on 08/18/2021 4:23:45 AM PDT by Paladin2 (Critical Marx Theory is The SOLUTION....)
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To: DivineMomentsOfTruth

BLM,CRT COVID and the flood of refugees are all part of the plan.


19 posted on 08/18/2021 4:24:08 AM PDT by cnsmom
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

BREAKING: President Biden has flown out of the country on a helicopter loaded with cash.


20 posted on 08/18/2021 4:24:43 AM PDT by McGruff
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