Former US defense official criticizes 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan

WASHINGTON (AA) - A former US defense official said Tuesday that Afghanistan is “once again a terrorist safe haven.”

“Many of us remember that what happens in Afghanistan, unfortunately, does not stay there,” former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Middle East Policy Simone Ledeen said at a House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee hearing.

“In fiscal year 2022, 98 people on our terrorist watchlist crossed over our southern border that we know of, and 324 individuals evacuated from Afghanistan were allowed to enter the US despite appearing on the Defense Department's biometrically enabled watch lists,” she said.

“How many more have entered undetected?” she asked.

Ledeen said the US is not a “trustworthy partner anymore,” adding: “We abandon our human assets and many of them have been tortured and murdered now.”

“It doesn't only stay in Afghanistan. Our partners around the world have seen that. Saudi Arabia has gone from a potential Abraham Accords partner to de-dollarization in two years,” she said.

Ledeen was speaking before the Committee on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 along with former Ambassador-at-Large and Coordinator for Counterterrorism Nathan A. Sales; Ret. Col. Christopher J. Douglas and military operations analyst Jonathan Schroden.

Republican lawmakers have blamed President Joe Biden for the “failed” withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan and the chaos at Kabul Airport in August 2021.

In January, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee requested documents related to the withdrawal from the State Department to begin an investigation into the controversial withdrawal.

Earlier this month, the Biden administration released an after-action report on the withdrawal that blamed former President Donald Trump’s administration for a “lack of planning.”