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Afghanistan's collapse: Did US intelligence get it wrong?
ABC News / Disney ^ | August 15, 2021 | By James Gordon Meek

Posted on 08/15/2021 6:18:48 PM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer

As panicked Afghans watched Taliban fighters roll into the capital city of Kabul Sunday, sealing the collapse of the U.S.-backed government there, many Americans were left wondering how top Biden officials could have been so wrong in their recent proclamations that Kabul would not easily fall.

Just days ago, a U.S. military analysis reported by ABC News predicted that Kabul could fall within 90 days -- not by the weekend.

"This is a crisis of untold proportions," Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) told NBC News Sunday as Taliban militants swept into Kabul. "This is an intelligence failure. We underestimated the Taliban and overestimated the resolve of the Afghan Army."

But numerous U.S. officials tell ABC News that the opposite was true, insisting that key intelligence assessments had consistently informed policymakers that the Taliban could overwhelm the country and take the capital within week.

"[U.S.] leaders were told by the military it would take no time at all for the Taliban to take everything," an anonymous U.S. intelligence official told ABC News. "No one listened."

Other intelligence sources said that Biden and his team of advisers had reached their decision about the U.S. military's withdrawal -- which was all but completed on July 4 -- based on a variety of factors that went beyond Kabul's fate.

A senior congressional official who asked not to be named in order to discuss sensitive briefings told ABC News that intelligence officers had warned the U.S. leaders about a swift and total victory by the fundamentalist Taliban militants who had held power in Kabul during the late 1990s up until after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"The intelligence community assessment has always been accurate; they just disregarded it," the official told ABC News, speaking about the Biden administration.

(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: afghanistan; bidenvoters; bidenvstrump; election2020; ilhanomar; quagmire; taliban
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To: dirtboy

When has US Intelligence ever had it right


81 posted on 08/15/2021 8:14:33 PM PDT by Captain Peter Blood (https://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/3804407/posts?q=1&;pag, and that )
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That may be the single best take down since I joined FR.

Too bad it won’t last long.

L


82 posted on 08/15/2021 8:15:34 PM PDT by Lurker (Peaceful coexistence with the Left is not possible. Stop pretending that it is. )
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To: dirtboy

What does US Intelligence get right?


83 posted on 08/15/2021 8:15:52 PM PDT by dfwgator (Endut! Hoch Hech!)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

F-ing worthless, way over expensive FBI. CIA, NSA, failed to see the fall of the Soviet Union?
can’t see that you walk across the street on a green light?
How much do we spend on this horse shit agency?


84 posted on 08/15/2021 8:16:08 PM PDT by Joe Boucher (Dementia Joe and the Whore, leaders of the Free world.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

The border. The economy. Foreign Policy.

Biden has the Sadim touch. Everything he touches turns to shit.


85 posted on 08/15/2021 8:59:05 PM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

US intel? What a joke! They’ve been more involved in destroying DJT and WOKE and 1/6 Patriots then finding out what’s going on in the world.


86 posted on 08/15/2021 9:22:41 PM PDT by kenmcg (tHE WHOLE )
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

THIS is why they need fewer incompetent, politically-driven operatives making “analysis” and more software, AI-driven intelligence from companies like Palantir.


87 posted on 08/15/2021 9:24:23 PM PDT by montag813
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To: Kharis13

So does the house intel committee, which is worthless.


88 posted on 08/15/2021 10:16:31 PM PDT by KC_Conspirator
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

ABC coming to the rescue of our cracker jack “intelligence community.”

Really, show us peasants your INTELLIGENCE.


89 posted on 08/16/2021 3:15:08 AM PDT by Maris Crane
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Is that a rhetorical question?


90 posted on 08/16/2021 4:17:10 AM PDT by Eleutheria5 (不要相信中国。中国是个混蛋 "don't trust China. China is azzhoe" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hicC53AhZ6Y)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Why didn’t they send in Andrew Cuomo or Lori Lightfoot to straighten this thing out?


91 posted on 08/16/2021 4:40:51 AM PDT by Mashood
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

The other “intelligence”. It does’t take a triple digit IQ to figure out where the failure occurred.


92 posted on 08/16/2021 8:09:06 AM PDT by c-five
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To: Alas Babylon!; American_Centurion; An.American.Expatriate; arthurus; ASA.Ranger; ASA Vet; Ax; ...
MI Ping

"The intelligence community assessment has always been accurate; they just disregarded it"

Sound familiar?

93 posted on 08/16/2021 9:28:21 AM PDT by ASA Vet (Make American Intelligence Great Again. Bring back ASA.)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

I remember US Marine HUMINT reporting warnings on an incipient insurgency in Iraq before there was an insurgency in Iraq in OIF.

It was ignored too because it didn’t fit into the flag-waving narrative of winning.


94 posted on 08/16/2021 9:47:12 AM PDT by Salvavida
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To: ASA Vet

Yep.


95 posted on 08/16/2021 10:04:06 AM PDT by GreyFriar (Spearhead - 3rd Armored Division 75-78 & 83-87)
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To: ASA Vet
"The intelligence community assessment has always been accurate; they just disregarded it" Sound familiar?

Well, the assessment may have been right, but the pampered princes in the pentegon didn't want to hear it b because it didn't match the narrative the CIC was spouting. . . .

96 posted on 08/16/2021 10:06:28 AM PDT by Godzilla (Never give up, never surrender . . . . . .)
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To: ASA Vet

fyi

https://www.cnsnews.com/article/international/cnsnewscom-staff/ig-may-defense-intelligence-agency-said-taliban-very-likely?fbclid=IwAR3i1gCqqOdvDbbJE8nm5qzGC6259BvLoY0BMZeCw_dHwTFWCHLosJjSnuQ


97 posted on 08/16/2021 12:13:31 PM PDT by Godzilla (Never give up, never surrender . . . . . .)
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To: Oldeconomybuyer
When a boss only hires people who will tell him what he wants to hear, this is what you get.


98 posted on 08/16/2021 12:17:09 PM PDT by Magnum44 (...against all enemies, foreign and domestic...)
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To: Chgogal

Not so sure these psychotics got it right for their demonic plans.
For them its just another caper to bring in more foreigners more than happy to execute Americans in the homeland

The focus on airlifting Afghanis out of the airport w/o proper vetting and NOT prioritizing Americans is the evidence here


99 posted on 08/16/2021 12:40:20 PM PDT by magna carta
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To: Oldeconomybuyer

Well to use the old Clintoon standard it depends on the meaning of wrong.


100 posted on 08/16/2021 12:45:37 PM PDT by xp38
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