Al-Qaida remains active in Afghanistan

The claim: “What interest do we have in Afghanistan at this point with al-Qaida gone? We went to Afghanistan for the express purpose of getting rid of al-Qaida in Afghanistan, as well as getting Osama bin Laden. And we did.” — President Joe Biden.

Biden is wrong to say that al-Qaida is gone entirely; officials in his administration have said the terrorist group remains active.

PolitiFact rating:

False. On the same day that Biden made his statement, a Pentagon spokesperson said al-Qaida is present in Afghanistan, but that it wasn’t as powerful as it was 20 years ago. Recent reports from the federal government and the U.N., as well as comments from government officials in recent months, indicate that al-Qaida is still present in Afghanistan. Its future capabilities remain unclear.

Discussion

A United Nations report in June stated that a signif

icant part of the leadership of al-Qaida resides in the Afghanistan and Pakistan border region. Al-Qaida is present in at least 15 Afghan provinces and “is reported to number in the range of several dozen to 500 persons,” the report stated. While al-Qaida maintains contact with the Taliban, it is laying low, and its longer term strategy is “strategic patience for a period of time before it would seek to plan attacks against international targets again,” the report stated.

The Inspector General to Congress compiled information from various federal agencies about operations in Afghanistan and released the information in a report this summer. The Defense Intelligence Agency told the inspector general that the Taliban “maintains a relationship with al-Qaida, providing safe haven for the terrorist group while publicly denying its presence in Afghanistan.” Under a February 2020 agreement between the Taliban and the United States, the Taliban was supposed to prevent al-Qaida from using Afghanistan to threaten the U.S. Therefore, the Taliban is likely downplaying its relationship with the group.

Tricia Bacon, an associate professor who directs the Policy Anti-Terrorism Hub at American University, said while al-Qaida has been seriously degraded, it has also received a morale boost from the Taliban’s victory.

The group in Afghanistan “is seriously weakened, but it has proven to be a resilient organization, capable of surviving despite immense counterterrorism pressure and of recovering from setbacks,” Bacon said.

Following the recent statements by Biden and administration officials, a Taliban spokesperson said in an interview with Saudi Arabia’s al-Hadath TV that al-Qaida is “not present in Afghanistan in the first place,” according to the Washington Post. But the spokesperson said there may be “family ties’’ between members of the two organizations.

Bacon said the Taliban is being disingenuous and the statement does not “accurately reflect the situation on the ground.”

Laura Dugan, a professor of human security at Ohio State University, said Biden is correct in that the U.S. drove al-Qaida out of Afghanistan years ago and greatly diminished its centralized power.

“This was especially true after Osama bin Laden was killed. However, what is also true is that al-Qaida and the Taliban are closely aligned, and with the Taliban back in charge of Afghanistan, al-Qaida can move around more freely, which means that they can more easily plan large-scale attacks,” Dugan said.