Secretary of State Mike Pompeo marked the anniversary of 9/11 on Friday by emphasizing America’s success in the battle to defeat al Qaeda, and by vowing the nation will never forget the nearly 3,000 people who were killed in the attacks carried out by the terror group 19 years ago.
“Today, we join with people across the globe in remembering the victims of 9/11,” Mr. Pompeo said in a statement remembering those who perished when al Qaeda operatives slammed hijacked airplanes into the Pentagon, the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and a Pennsylvania field.
“Those who were lost will never be forgotten. We continue to pray for guidance, wisdom, and protection for the men and women in uniform who fight each day to guard the world against terrorism, and we pray for the families whose loved ones were lost nineteen years ago,” the secretary of state said.
Friday’s anniversary comes at a moment of debate and concern over the future of extremist jihadi and terrorist movements around the world, and of the true status of al Qaeda nearly nine years after the group’s founder was killed during a U.S. Special Forces raid on his compound in Pakistan.
Some analysts criticize the Trump administration for overstating the terror group’s demise, asserting that while Washington has focused on battling the more recent threat posed by the Islamic State, bin Laden’s original terror group has continued to maintain a viable foothold on the global jihadist landscape.
“It is true that al Qaeda no longer boasts the same ability to plot and execute the kinds of spectacular transnational terrorist attacks that it carried out in the years leading up to 9/11. But the Trump administration’s claim that al Qaeda is in terminal decline overlooks the group’s stubborn resilience,” analysts Asfandyar Mir and Colin P. Clarke wrote in an article published this week by Foreign Affairs.
Mr. Mir, a fellow with Stanford University’s Center for International Security, and Mr. Clarke, a fellow at the Soufan Center and an associate of the RAND Corporation, argued that the Trump administration should be particularly careful in its pursuit of peace in Afghanistan through negotiations with the Taliban, which provided safe haven for al Qaeda during the lead up to 9/11.
“The United States must trade its rose-tinted glasses for a sober assessment of al Qaeda’s trajectory — and of the organization’s enduring ties to the Taliban,” they wrote.
“The current administration has politicized assessments of groups like al Qaeda to overstate its own gains in counterterrorism and deflect questions about the withdrawal process in Afghanistan,” they wrote, concluding that Washington “needs to be more transparent about the challenge posed by al Qaeda and similar groups” and “more realistic about the political trajectory of the Taliban.”
U.S. officials expressed hope Thursday for success in long-awaited peace talks between the U.S.-backed Afghan government and Taliban militants, after it was announced that the talks will begin Saturday in Doha, Qatar, with Mr. Pompeo traveling there to observe the opening.
Under an initial February deal, the Taliban vowed to no longer harbor any outside terrorist groups, such as al Qaeda and the Islamic State, and to begin direct peace talks with the Afghan government in exchange for a Trump administration commitment to draw down the 13,000 American troops in Afghanistan that were there at the beginning of 2020.
In his statement Friday, Mr. Pompeo asserted that “we have made great strides to defeat al-Qa’ida and other terrorist groups that seek to do us harm, and our efforts to protect our homeland continue today.”
“The men and women of the U.S. Department of State are proud to stand side-by-side with partners from all over the world in this effort, and we will not waver in our resolve to hold terrorists accountable as we pursue peace, security, and justice,” the secretary of state said.
• Guy Taylor can be reached at gtaylor@washingtontimes.com.
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