Biden admin missed TWO opportunities to stop Kabul bombing that cost 13 US troops their lives, book claims

A new book out Tuesday shakes the Biden administration’s narrative with damning information about what happened during the catastrophic Afghanistan withdrawal, laying the blame on the president and military commanders who missed two chances to prevent the deadly suicide bombing.

The book, “Kabul: The Untold Story of Biden’s Fiasco and the American Warriors Who Fought to the End,” contends that in the days before 13 US troops were killed in the suicide blast at Kabul airport in 2021, commanders were aware of the threat and twice did not act on opportunities to take out the terrorist network behind the bombing.

The Taliban reportedly refused to raid a hotel that was a known staging post for ISIS-K, who was responsible for the mass murder, according to the Daily Mail. Around the time that happened, superior officers dismissed a plan for a drone strike because of the potential “negative response” by the Taliban to it.

The horrific conclusion of those two missed opportunities adds up to blood on President Biden’s hands and will surely add fuel to the white-hot rage of Gold Star families that lost loved ones that day.

(Video Credit: Fox News)

In total, 183 people died in the attack including the bomber.

The book by authors Jerry Dunleavy and James Hasson, and published by Center Street, was released on Tuesday, the two-year anniversary of the Taliban takeover. It lays out the tragic timeline of events as incompetence by military leaders and the Biden administration played out, ending in unnecessary deaths two years ago.

It chronicles the botched departure from Afghanistan that collapsed in utter confusion and death as the Taliban was allowed to seize control of Kabul in a matter of weeks.

On that fateful day, thousands of people panicked and descended on the airport for a way out of the country before the terrorists started slaughtering and enslaving the country’s inhabitants. The brutality those who were left behind had to face was hard to comprehend or stomach.

The US military struck a deal with the Taliban, relying on them to keep the airport safe. Foolish doesn’t begin to describe that flavor of madness.

It ended predictably with a suicide bomber detonating himself on August 26 at the airport’s Abbey Gate. That’s where US Marines were stationed to help the crush of people trying to get out.

“Our findings — tucked away in the Pentagon’s own documents and in the own words of military officers personally involved in the Afghanistan evacuation — provide more damning evidence about the dangerous stupidity of relying upon terrorists like the Taliban to provide security at Kabul airport,” author and investigator Jerry Dunleavy stated.

Dunleavy is helping to lead the Afghanistan withdrawal investigation for the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Co-author James Hasson is a former Army officer who served in Afghanistan. The two men put together the book from interviews and information that at times was sitting there in plain sight, according to the Daily Mail.

One of those pieces of information was an official Central Command report that looked into the bombing. It was published earlier this year after a Freedom of Information request was filed.

An unnamed officer described a meeting of ambassadors and military attachés in Kabul, “I shared intelligence about the pending attack, so everyone was aware and knew it was happening. The intelligence community didn’t know the gate, but assessed it would be Abbey Gate due to the number of people there.”

Dunleavy and Hasson said the threat was so high, that Marines were ordered onto one knee all night to reduce their exposure to an explosion. A day later medical units were told to be on alert for a mass casualty event. Despite that, military command proceeded with one of the deadliest decisions ever.

Another officer described daily coordination with the Taliban on security, as well as nightly intelligence meetings between US units.

“Units at HKIA (Hamid Karzai International Airport) used Chat Surfer to disseminate information on threats,” the officer commented. “Intelligence officers knew that ISIS-K was staging in a hotel 2-3 kilometers west of HKIA, and D2 asked the Taliban to conduct an assault on the hotel, but they never did.”

D2 was outed as General Chris Donahue, the commander of the US Army 82nd Airborne Division in other documents. He was the last service member to depart Afghanistan.

That hotel was near where the US launched a botched drone strike following the suicide attack. It wound up killing 10 civilians including seven children.

The book reveals the sworn statement of an officer who had “target engagement authority” to conduct strikes defending American forces.

Nine days before the deadly attack, intelligence indicated that ISIS-K planned to attack international forces and the Taliban in order to disrupt the “establishment of stability and governance,” according to the book.

“As a result of the threat reporting, we conducted a targeting effort focused on ISIS K threats leading into Kabul,” the officer noted.

The strike unit was “authorized to look at ISIS-K targets” but was forced to submit a detailed proposal for permission to engage the enemy. The proposal was rejected. Rear Adm. Peter Vasly, commander of US Forces-Afghanistan Forward and Donahue had “both determined conducting a strike was infeasible due to the negative response.”

“Combined with the courageous testimony from Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, these findings show the Abbey Gate attack was not inevitable — and likely was preventable if our leaders had done more to protect the brave troops under their command. The Gold Star families deserve the truth from the Biden administration,” Dunleavy wrote.

Even more damning was testimony earlier this year from Vargas-Andrews who detailed how he was positioned in a sniper tower on the day of the suicide bombing.

Unbelievably, he testified that he identified a person in the crowd that matched the description of a suspected suicide bomber just hours before the attack. He stated that his superiors failed to act on his warning.

Hasson pointed out that three different officers noted that the military and the intelligence community were tracking ISIS-K members likely linked to the Abbey Gate bombing. They were nearly certain that an attack was imminent, but nothing was done about it.

“Leaders in DC made one unforced error after another throughout the withdrawal, and each mistake compounded the risk to the men and women on the ground. Ultimately, it led to US commanders tailoring decisions to the desires of Taliban leaders who had them surrounded, and to the loss of thirteen brave Americans,” the book asserts.

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