BBC: Afghanistan: How can the West stop terror bases?
"The UK will fight Islamic State by all means available," says Dominic Raab. The foreign secretary added that the UK would "draw on all elements of national power" to pursue the group's leaders.
So what does that mean in practice? What exactly are the tools at Britain's disposal? Or is this, as some critics would maintain, just an empty boast?
First off, let's review what's been lost.
The Taliban takeover of nearly the whole of Afghanistan means that the West - and specifically the CIA, MI6 and other intelligence agencies - no longer has a trusted, in-country security service or Afghan special forces to work with.
For the nearly 20 years that NATO and other multinational forces have been in Afghanistan, the intelligence provided by the country's National Directorate of Security has been vital in disclosing the covert activities of al-Qaeda, ISIS-K (the Afghan affiliate of Islamic State group) and other jihadist militant groups.
Afghan, US, British and other special forces were then able to swoop in, often by helicopter in the dead of night, and close down those bases before they could successfully launch any international attacks.
Hence the claim that for 20 years there has not been a single transnational attack launched from Afghanistan while Western forces were there.
Read more ....
WNU Editor: President Biden talks about "over the horizon" capabilities, and in today's White House briefing Jen Psaki said the U.S. will be able to stop any terror attack or terror plots even though they are no longer in Afghanistan. But as the above BBC analysis clearly points out. U.S. and U.K. counter-terrorism capabilities have been significantly degraded with the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, and it will take years to establish new intelligence networks.
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