Page 79 - Intelligence Failure News Today

Administration. you noted the disconnect between president biden saying al qaeda is gone in afghanistan to the news that were getting further a few weeks ago him saying that the fall of the afghan government was not inevitable to yesterday saying that chaos was inevitable in a u.s. withdrawal. what is the disconnect here? is it an intelligence failure or a messaging issue? >> both. i mean, i think first we have the intelligence failure obviously and now we have a messaging issue. in other words,...

Not an intelligence failure, the political people not to listen to the growing -- the intelligence was out there. there were many warnings so we need to be clear american men and women who made the us safer because they went into afghanistan and got rid of the immediate threat the united states was facing. they did their job honorably, kept us safe, they won, did everything right. the political people at the end messed this up. i want to be clear to their men and women they should be proud of ke...

Consequences for us all for years to come. joanna-— consequences for us all for years to come, joanna. yeah, absolutely, and i think that — come, joanna. yeah, absolutely, and i think that a — come, joanna. yeah, absolutely, and | think that a lot — come, joanna. yeah, absolutely, and i think that a lot of _ come, joanna. yeah, absolutely, and i think that a lot of people _ come, joanna. yeah, absolutely, and i think that a lot of people are - i think that a lot of people are nervous —...

The end of his dreams. >> goodness. if that is not an indictment of the future of that country, a 17-year-old choosing that over life in effect. well, this morning cnn is learning u.s. diplomats warned last month that urgent action was needed in afghanistan. the diplomats said in a classified cable they believe the country could rapidly deteriorate and they feared a catastrophe when u.s. troops pulled out at the end of august. joining me now to discuss this, douglas london, a retired senior c....

Job is done. >> david ignatius, i want to draw you out on the column that ran yesterday in the "post" and you talked about how the implicit take away is that this is not a intelligence failure, but political and policy failure and you talked to the degree to which president bidens own views are playing heavily into this, and this is the part that i will read. bidens personal view is part of the reason for this. and he was peeved when his own personal objective was rejected by president obama and...

You are right about ron klain, our chief of staff at the white house, he has got a huge role. they have been largely silent both susan rice and the chief of staff. we should hear from them because we know that they do have a very large role. >> will: really quickly, we only have a minute left here rick? what about kamala harris? she says she is the last one in the room when decisions are made. she was promised she promised the american public that would be the case during the campaign. specifica...

Government didnt think they saw storm clouds coming and didnt think they were going to be equipped to handle them. >> well, craig, this goes really to the heart of president bidens statement that it was extremely unlikely that there would be chaos before this all unfolded this way. the administration basically saying this was an intelligence failure. they didnt anticipate the speed. but this cable would seem to suggest there were diplomats on the ground warning and secretary of state blinken say...

I want -- i want to play some, and then get your response. here it is. >> yep. >> was the intelligence wrong? or did you downplay it? >> there was no consensus. you go back and you look at the intelligence reports. they said it was more likely to be sometime by the end of the year. >> his top generals are say ing the same thing. um, that this was an intelligence failure. what do you think about that after hearing about these warnings? >> ive had it. i have had it with the critiques of intelligen...

In washington, you need to say what if the predictions were wrong? any leader in that position, any leader has to say if our predictions are wrong and the worst case happens, what do we do? and i think in congressional hearings coming up thats going to be the question, not whether we did it perfect but why we didnt anticipate that it would go ugly early. i dont get it, don. >> were hearing from the president is largely from this interview on abc. i want to play some of it and get your response. ...

They surprised to see it now? one >> first, i dont think anyone inside the intelligence committee think that this is an intelligence failure. for the last year and a half, intelligence community has been warning that the taliban would takeover afghanistan if the coalition left. in fact, in early april of this year, the intelligence committee released its annual worldwide threat assessment, this was days before president biden made his announcement, announcing the withdrawal, and in that assessme...