White House 'more worried Taliban cabinet is full of men than full of terrorists': Tom Cotton
The new, moderate Taliban described by Blinken includes emir Hibatullah Akhundzada, who 'blessed his son to be a suicide bomber', senator notes
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Senate Armed Services Committee member Tom Cotton said Thursday it is clear the Biden administration is more concerned with the fact the Taliban's new Afghan political leadership is entirely male rather than being almost exclusively composed of terrorists.
The Arkansas Republican told "The Story" the development is however not surprising given the behavior of the current White House.
"We shouldn’t be surprised even though Joe Biden and Tony Blinken have been saying for weeks this is the ‘new and improved’ and ‘moderate and inclusive’ Taliban," he said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"[I]t’s the same gang of terrorist savages that we saw 25 years ago," the lawmaker added. "The Biden administration seems to be more worried that the cabinet in Afghanistan is full of men rather than it’s full of terrorists."
He noted Blinken said during a trip this week to Ramstein -- the United States military's base in Germany – he was dismayed the ruthless militant group did not inaugurate an "inclusive" political cabinet.
Blinken had said many of the new Afghan political leaders have "challenging track records" – as most notably Interior Minister Sirajuddin Haqqani – the leader of a major terror cell – has a $10 million bounty on his head from the FBI.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The international community has made clear its expectation that the Afghan people deserve an inclusive government," he said.
Mohammed Hasan Akhund, an adviser to the late Taliban leader Mullah Omar, was named prime minister, while Omar's son, Mohammad Yaqoob will be the Minister of Defense. Omar was the Taliban leader in 2001 who had harbored Al Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden – and died in a Karachi, Pakistan, hospital in 2013.
On "The Story", Cotton remarked that one of the more illustrative examples of the lack of moderation in the Taliban government is that the "Commander of the Faithful" will be Hibatullah Akhundzada:
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"The ‘supreme leader’, the ‘Emir’ of the Taliban is so ‘moderate’ that he blessed his own son going off to kill himself to as a suicide bomber years ago," Cotton said, as in 2017 Abdur Rahman Akhundzada killed himself in an explosives-laden vehicle attack on an Afghan military base in Gereshk.
"The minister of interior … probably in charge of some of those beatings of some of the protesters that you’ve seen in days, was designated a terrorist by none other than Barack Obama," Cotton later added. "All of the Guantanamo detainees that Barack Obama returned in return for an American traitor (Bowe Berghdahl) have found their way back to Afghanistan and are all in senior positions of responsibility in this Taliban government."
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"So no, I would say it’s a little more than a ‘challenging history’ -- contrary to what the secretary of state said."