The Pentagon says Antony Blinken is so full of crap he needs laxatives. Yes, the brass told the Ministry of State, “there is ‘co-mingling’ between the Haqqani network and the Taliban in Afghanistan.” Blinken’s minions want you to believe they’re “separate entities.”
Pentagon slams the State Dept
Separate or entangled doesn’t make much difference. Khalil Haqqani was “placed in charge of security in Kabul after the militants seized the city last week.” He’s an ISIS-K bigwig and nephew of Sirajuddin Haqqani. The uncle trained side-by-side with Osama bin Laden against the Russians when America was still arming and training them.
Now the younger terrorist with a $5 million price on his head was the alleged mastermind of the Kabul suicide bombing last week. The Pentagon is convinced they’re both tangled up with Taliban. They claim Sirajuddin is “deputy leader of the Taliban.”
The scuffle between government agencies started when Ned Price, the guy in charge of wrangling the press for the State Department, described the Taliban and the Haqqani network as “separate entities.”
The reporter wanted to know if “the security coordination with the Taliban extended to the Haqqani network.” Price sounded shocked at the suggestion. “No, it does not. The Taliban and the Haqqani Network are separate entities.” The Pentagon calls bullsh-t.
Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby tried to take the high road and keep his mouth closed, claiming “he wasn’t going to offer a characterization of the Taliban or Haqqani.”
When reporters kept needling him about it, he let slip the “fact Haqqani is deputy leader of the Taliban and also has a $10 million bounty on his head.” His nephew’s only good for half that.
A marbling, if you will
One goat humper is the same as any other, the Pentagon insists. “We know that there is a certain amount of commingling here. I mean, there’s a marbling, if you will, of Taliban and Haqqani.” It doesn’t matter.
He scolded reporters for sidestepping what they should have been asking about. The “evacuation out of Kabul.” Later, someone over at the State Department came clean and waffled, “the Haqqani Network and the Taliban ‘are separate entities, but they are affiliated.'”
They’re separate groups but they hump the same goats. “The State Department has long noted the affiliation between the Haqqani Network and the Taliban.” They don’t need the Pentagon to rub their nose in it.
“As we have said, any information sharing with the Taliban has been focused on very specific tactical threats around the airport and resolving specific problems around access to the airport. We have been clear about that level of coordination.”
The State Department wants the Pentagon to do something about it but the generals keep demanding to know how, since Imperial Leader Joe Biden pulled all the soldiers and support out, before turning all the equipment over to the Taliban for free.
“The Haqqanis expose the lie that there is a line between Taliban and other jihadist groups, especially al Qaeda,” retired Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster, a Trump-era national security adviser, informed left leaning Wall Street Journal.
