Condoleezza Rice laments US losing ‘eyes and ears’ in Afghanistan

Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice

Former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said she is concerned that the United States has lost what she calls its "eyes and ears" in Afghanistan, following the American military withdrawal after implementing a policy of death and destruction for twenty years.

Rice served as the US secretary of state from 2005 to 2009 and as the national security advisor from 2001 to 2005.

In an interview on Sunday, Rice said that the United States is safer than it was before the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, which was a series of strikes that killed nearly 3,000 people and caused about $10 billion worth of property and infrastructure damage in the United States.

US officials assert that the attacks were carried out by 19 al-Qaeda terrorists, but many experts and independent researchers have raised questions about the official account.

They believe that rogue elements within the US government, such as former Vice President Dick Cheney, orchestrated or at least encouraged the 9/11 attacks in order to accelerate the US war machine and advance the Zionist agenda.

Following the 9/11 attacks, the United States under the presidency of Republican George W. Bush invaded and occupied Afghanistan, despite the fact that no Afghan was involved in the attacks. The occupation continued for 20 years. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans died in the US war on the country.

In her interview, Rice trumpeted the dismantling of the terrorist organization Al-Qaeda, which she insisted carried out the 9/11 attacks. “Denying them the territory of Afghanistan meant that they couldn't train and they couldn't operate in the way that they did on that day," she said.

She called the US invasion and occupation of Afghanistan a success and lamented US President Joe Biden’s decision to end American on-the-ground military involvement in the country.

“The part that doesn't make me feel very comforted is that we have lost the eyes and ears on the ground in Afghanistan that helped us to know where the terrorists were, that allowed us to run the kinds of operations that you sometimes have to run against terrorists,” she said.

Even so, she said the United States is still safer than it was before the 9/11 attacks.

“We have lost Bagram and other airfields that were able to allow us to run certain — even drone operations out of them,” Rice said. “And so I'd be the first to say we have lost some of the capabilities, but that shouldn't diminish the capabilities that we still have. We do — we are still safer. I hope we can remain that safe into the future.”  

Rice’s comments come a day after the US commemorated the 20th anniversary of the September 11th attacks, which the United States used as a pretext to attack several Islamic countries.

Wesley Clark, the retired 4-star US Army general and Supreme Allied Commander of NATO during the 1999 War on Yugoslavia, said in the famous 2007 interview that the purpose of the 9/11 attack was to take out the governments of seven countries in five years. These seven countries were Iraq, Syria, Somalia, Libya, Sudan, Yemen, and Iran.

Clark’s interview serves as a reminder regarding the diabolical timeline of the American Empire’s hegemonic project. All of these countries have been directly or indirectly been the object of US aggression.

Iran has been a target of malicious US intentions but the United States failed to launch a war against it due to the Islamic Republic’s strong defense against the global hegemon.  


Press TV’s website can also be accessed at the following alternate addresses:

www.presstv.co.uk

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Press TV News Roku