Gen. Milley Warns Senators: Terror Groups Will Come Back Faster in Afghanistan

Gen. Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told Senators in a briefing on Sunday that terrorist groups are likely to return to Afghanistan sooner than anticipated, following the chaotic U.S. pullout and the collapse of the Afghan regime.

The Times of Israel, reported:

America’s top general said Sunday that the United States could now face a rise in terrorist threats from a Taliban-run Afghanistan. That warning comes as intelligence agencies charged with anticipating those threats face new questions after the US-backed Afghan military collapsed with shocking speed.

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Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told senators on a briefing call Sunday that US officials are expected to alter their earlier assessments about the pace of terrorist groups reconstituting in Afghanistan, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.

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Based on the evolving situation, officials now believe terror groups like al-Qaeda and others may be able to grow much faster than expected, according to the person, who had direct knowledge of the briefing but was not authorized to discuss the details of the call publicly and spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity.

The Biden administration officials on the call with senators – among them were Milley, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin — said US intelligence agencies are working on forming a new timeline based on the evolving threats, the person familiar with the matter said.

Milley told reporters at a briefing in July — less than four weeks ago — that “Afghan Security Forces have the capacity to sufficiently fight and defend their country.”

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.