The communications reportedly took place this past summer during U.S. evacuation of the Afghan capital. The report found the Taliban was supposed to give Joe Biden enough time to evacuate Kabul before it would take over a deadline his administration failed to meet. The report also claimed Biden handed Afghanistan over to Taliban.
“The message from the Taliban to the Americans was: Take your time, a fortnight or more, we will wait before we enter the capital, we have absolutely no desire to preside over the evacuation,” explained Matthew d’Ancona, an investigative reporter for The Tortoise. “The astonishing response to the Taliban from U.S. was: No thanks, you need to get into Kabul and maintain order now. The Afghan government is a lame duck and NATO certainly isn’t going to take responsibility for the city.”
EXC: Before they seized Kabul, the Taliban sent a message to the US government via a CIA back-channel.
— Tortoise (@tortoise) November 22, 2021
Take your time, it said.
The astonishing response, revealed in this week's Slow Newscast, was:
No thanks, it’s over to you.
🗣️@MatthewdAncona
