Afghanistan: US faces greater terror threat now: ex-envoy

Pakistan’s former US ambassador, an expert on radical Islam, warns America could endure ‘another 9/11’.

Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US and expert on radical Islam has warned the nation faces a greater terrorist threat following the collapse of Afghanistan into Taliban hands, echoing veteran Republican Congressman Lindsay Graham’s fears the nation could endure “another 9/11”.

President Joe Biden returned to Washington DC on Monday, cutting his holiday short, facing intense criticism of the Afghanistan withdrawal, which is now widely seen as a debacle, pushing the Muslim nation into the hands of the Taliban within days and leaving tens of thousands of Afghans vulnerable to reprisal from the new fundamentalist regime.

Veteran Republican congressman Lindsay Graham said “another 9/11” was “far more likely today than a week ago”, adding the “threat to the homeland is through the roof, and we’re weaker throughout the world”.

“You have moral obligation to establish safe corridors so 60,000 odd Afghans that supported us can get out … it’s a stain on our honour to leave these people behind,” Mr Graham said on Monday, a few hours before the President was due to address the nation.

Husain Haqqani, Pakistan’s ambassador to the US between 2008 and 2011, said the Taliban regime, which lost power in 2001 when the US invaded, wouldn’t “crack down” on al Qa’ida, which instigated the 9/11 terrorist attack on New York, paving the way for the potential for terrorist attacks on the US.

“They have deep connection and relationship with al Qa’ida based on ideological affinity and family ties, many of Taliban leader are intermarried with family members of al Qa’ida leaders,” he explained.

“They are now armed with a new narrative that jihad pushed both the Soviets and the Americans out of Afghanistan, so they will get new recruits,” he told The Australian.

“Once the terrorists have a safe haven, we cannot predict how they will behave and whom they will target and when, and the US has no means anymore on the ground in to keep an eye on the rising terrorist threats,” he said.

As images of desperate Afghans clinging to departing US military aircraft, some plunging to their deaths, revealed the chaos on the ground in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken put in calls to the foreign ministers of Russia and China, to discuss “the security situation and our efforts to bring US citizens and vulnerable Afghans to safety”.

Afghans wait to leave the Kabul airport. Picture: AFP.

Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell said “it was pretty obvious what was going to happen”

“I predicted it and I’m not in the intelligence business,” he said.

“I know for a fact the president’s military leaders argued against it, the president felt strongly about it, and he owns it,” he added.

Democrat Senator Jeanne Shahenn said the images were “seared in our minds.” “Dire conditions on the ground persist today and without swift, decisive action from the administration, Afghan civilians will suffer or die at the hands of the Taliban,” she said in a statement.

Democrat Senator Tom Carper, an allay of President Biden said the withdrawal “should have been carefully planned to prevent violence and instability.”

“We have a moral obligation to act immediately to protect their lives and a national security imperative to ensure that Afghan soil does not again become a source of terrorist attacks on our allies and our homeland,” he said in a statement.

Senator Rick Scott questioned the president’s mental state on Twitter. “We must confront a serious question: Is Joe Biden capable of discharging the duties of his office or has time come to exercise the provisions of the 25th Amendment?”

Afghan passengers wait to leave the Kabul airport. Picture: AFP.

President Biden was briefed by the Secretary of Defence and Chairman Mark Milley on the security situation at Hamid Karzai International Airport a few hours before he was due to address the nation at 3.45pm ET (5.45am AEST).

“The Commander in Chief is now dangerous … the country is more at threat because he turned down sound military advice,” said Mr Graham, who served briefly in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Mr Haqqani, now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington, and author of four books on radical islam, said the Taliban were unlikely to strive for good relations with America or spurn

“They believe they are the righteous Muslims, endowed by God, so they will do whatever they believe is right, not on the basis of international compromises,” he said.

“Will they allow the same impunity in 1990s? I don’t know but will they crack down? I very much doubt it,” he added.

A day before Kabul fell into Taliban hands the US Homeland Security Department said the US faced a “heightened threat” from terrorism, especially in the lead-up to the 20th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 attacks.

“Racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists and anti-government/anti-authority violent extremists will remain a national threat priority for the United States,” it said.