American broadcaster CNN aired an interview with a “senior” Daesh commander from a Kabul hotel two weeks before the Kabul airport bombing while the US-backed government was still in power in Afghanistan.
Shockingly, the Daesh commander told CNN reporter Clarissa Ward that the group was “laying low and waiting for its moment to strike,” but the broadcaster apparently did not share this vital information with US authorities or maybe it did and they simply ignored it.
Daesh struck the Kabul airport on Thursday, killing at least 180 people, mostly Afghan civilians and about a dozen US troops. The terrorist group claimed the responsibility for the attack.
The interview left observers and social media users wondering how the American media outlet gained access to the terrorist leader and protected his identity when the city was still under the control of the US-supported government, virtually under the control of US forces.
People questioned CNN’s motive behind the interview and its connection to the terrorist group, called Daesh-K, which was not known to anyone before Thursday’s deadly bombing.
The CNN reporter called the commander’s interview “eerily prophetic,” but social media users suggested that the statement was not a prophecy but a plot because the terrorist was speaking of what his group was about to carry out.
Some social media users said that CNN aided and abetted the Kabul attack by having advance knowledge of the possible bombing and apparently doing nothing to help prevent it. They also wonder that how CNN did not lead American authorities to the terrorist commander.
Co- conspirator.
— Erastus X (@StymieSays) August 28, 2021
One commentator called CNN’s explanation of the interview “quite fishy.”
“‘Let’s fly to this place and meet with this terror group K that most people haven’t heard of and understand their intentions,’ said nobody ever. Very fishy,” he tweeted. Another said, “CIA tweets CIA interview with CIA.”
Meeting w/ this group before anything happened in Afghanistan seems quite fishy!! 🤔 "Idea, let's fly to this place & meet w/ this terror group 'K' that most people haven't heard of & understand their intentions" said nobody ever. Very Fishy!!
— Jonathan Gaffney (@Gaaaffney) August 28, 2021
Some commentators slammed CNN for airing the interview of a terrorist commander. “Who are they trying to protect, our people or the terrorist?” one observer asked. “These interviews seem odd to me as I think about the families of our fallen men and women.”
CIA tweets CIA interview with CIA.
— 山ellsII (@realPalmTree5G) August 28, 2021
Meanwhile, the US military this week destroyed the final CIA base in Kabul, where the agency claimed it used to train Afghan forces in counterterrorism. But the real nature of the CIA’s activities in that sprawling outpost is shrouded in mystery.
The New York Times reported on Friday that the CIA outpost, called Eagle Base, outside the Kabul airport was destroyed on Thursday, as it is preparing to leave Afghanistan after implementing a policy of death and destruction in the country for twenty years.